Ken Tone

Very moving photos. Thanks. If anyone wants to read about the war from a Russian perspective, try the recently published translation of Vassily Grossman's novel "Life and Fate", written in the 50's, which follows various members of a family around the time of the siege of Stalingrad. How they ever won any battle with the political interference they had in military matters is remarkable. It's a hefty book -- makes War and Peace look like a novella -- but worth ploughing through.

Me too. So listen to The Today Programme on Radio 4 instead. I'd pay the licence fee just for Radio 4 and 4 Extra. (Please note English spelling of' licence' as a noun, Adriansfc. These things matter to us Radio 4 listeners!)

But if the Channel froze over we'd be able to walk to France. I imagine somewhere in the depths of your mind you are half-remembering the famous newspaper headline, supposedly from The Times in the 1920's --- "Storms in Channel. Continent cut off."

Jesus. How old are you? It's been sung for decades, even in the 60's and 70's whensinging as such first really got going at matches, by just about every team on a promotion run. IMO we should make the most of it whilst we can!

If there was 'normal' fog I'd agree with you Minty, but the reports talk of a really sudden bank of fog/smoke. If the atmospheric conditions are such as to be 'ripe' for fog, a little smoke can have a really dramatic effect, as the particles give the water vapour something to form around. A lot of smoke from a big firework display could have a really dramatic effect. That's not to say I'd blame the rugby club as such, assuming they went through usual procedures. I presume to run a big display for the public you need some sort of licence or permission from your local council, or maybe the police in this case because near a highway? There is certainly HSE guidance available that implies that. So unless they went ahead recklesly, someone assessed the risk as low. He or she must be ****ting bricks at this moment.

Has Adkins actually said that? I've only seen him in this game, and kept an eye on hm because of the reported Saints interest. I thought he looked pretty good in a poor team, so could well look a lot better in a good team. What is more he is quite a big lad, so could be an understudy/competitor/eventual-replacement for Lambert. Coventry are skint (one of their fans told me they needed 23,000 gates to break even!) and run by a set of financial pillocks, so they might well have a forced fire sale in January if they are still in the bottom 3. As to whether a 22 (23?) year old, established, striker would be prepared to come to a club where he's most likely spend most of his time on the bench, that's a different question. Mind you, given he is a Southampton lad and ex-season ticket holder, and his family apparently still watch Saints,and if his contract promised premier league wages if/when we go up, then maybe he would be tempted.

I think smoke machines as such don't use dry ice. They're different from dry ice machines. Smoke from a machine will rise and fill the whole room. Dry ice will 'float' just above the floor. Am not an expert but I'd have thought any smoke machine would be a potential problem for asthma. Dry ice however, in theory, ought to be ok, since it is only carbon dioxide, BUT many asthmatics find attacks can be brought on by sudden changes in the temperature of the air they are breathing, and of course dry ice is cold ... which is why it doesn't rise. So frankly I'd tread pretty carefully, and make sure parents are aware in advance. Your school overall health & safety bod will presumably respond to your risk assessment ...make sure you cover your back!

I think Pilsmer's 47 posts in not much less than 5 years takes some beating. That's equivalent to approximately 3 days of Dune's input!

Not Saints and not even football, sorry, but, many years ago watching Lancashire play cricket, chatting to elderly lady in the next seat.....turned out she had been given a ticket by Lancs fast bowler because she'd been his landlady, to come and see him play, first game she'd ever been to. "Oh dear, he's not playing very well is he? The batters don't seem to be able to hit what he bowls." And later on we had to explain that, no it wasn't a 4 for the side boundaries and a 6 for the end ones.

The Winchester one is usually good. Quite a big event mind. Park early! http://www.visitwinchester.co.uk/site/whats-on/winchester-round-table-bonfire-and-fireworks-p774781

Well speaking as one of Dune's "bleeding heart lefties" I too think this was a despicable act, assuming of course all is as the Mail reports! At 16, a youngsters is definitely old enough to know this is very wrong and has probably done this deliberately to shock and annoy. It doesn't matter what sort of background etc he comes from, he has to be punished, not least to show others that society will not tolerate such behaviour. The actions of this particular pillock do not however indicate that Britain is a broken society and that all youngsters are little ****s.... just this one!.

Simple: Holloway -- clown Leeds -- gits Therefore hate Leeds more. HTH

Would be a strange choice for Coppell. He's walked away from better jobs than that. I suppose at least he wouldn't have to move house. But he's not one for underhand dealing and he is too intelligent to be taken in for long by prevarication. Mind you, he is a bit confused according to Wikipedia------ on 11 August 2010 after only four months in charge, Coppell resigned as Bristol City manager, saying that he would retire from football management altogether citing a lack of passion for the job. However, on 9 September 2011 he admitted that he was interested to become the next manager of Iceland.

Depends whether the apostrophe in mates should have been before or after the s.

Frighteningly, this seems almost plausible. I've just seen the future and it's horrible. I wouldn't be too suprised to see something like this at some grounds soon, as yet another way of ripping off fans to pay players' ridiculous wages. Fans could pay premium rates to send a message to appear on the big screen during a game. Hundreds could text Steeeve so it comes up on the screen every time De ridder gets the ball. In fact why stop there, why not pictures too? Dalek could send pictures of Hoddle, Dune of Thatcher, etc. Shudder.....and I thought drums would be the last straw.

IMO Guly was caught by the defender, but tried to stay up, and ran on a few paces, unbalanced, before falling. So the actual foul was maybe earlier than you realised.

Exactly ...plus the announcer said "minute's silence" just before the ref's first whistle, so most people did indeed think that was the start, even though the players were still running to get in position. The ref was stupid to blow that first time. It was unnecessary and caused the confusion.

I used to be quite rude to cold callers on the phone when I got a lot years ago, but the BT telephone preference service does at least keep the number down. Now when one does ring I just get rid of them politely and very quickly. No one likes working in a call centre ... it's a really lousy job .... but in the current jobs climate many have no choice, other than the dole, and at least they've chosen to work rather than live off the state. So to be rude to the poor sods, or to play them along with silly games, is unnecessarily cruel. Put yourself in their shoes. That said, someone who comes to a door that has a sign saying 'no cold callers' is just asking for trouble.

Well to be fair, lots of us, including me, were pretty damning of Wright-Phillips and Dyer. If you're referring to Barnard and Seaborne, personally I'm reserving judgment till I know more about what happened.

Quite. Trouble is, if they have enough talent there will always be some club willing to pay such players a fortune, regardless of how big a **** they are. Viz Barton, King etc. Unless they do smething serious enough to go to prison, they are effectively above the law. No fine really matters when players' wages are so high.

Exactly....as indeed Adkins has said himself. I confess to occasionally shouting for 'God's sake clear it' when we mess up passing in our own half and give the ball away, but the point of that style of play is to suck the opposition forward, to they leave space at the back, which either our passes eventually reach, or occasionally a ball over the top can exploit. I didn't think we played signficantly differently against Boro.... just a variation on the theme. I'm really tickled by how many posters on here are now saying how pleased they were when Adkins was appointed. I don't recall such public bucketloads of enthusiasm at the time. An awful lot of 20-20 hindsight! Personally I thought ..."Hmmm, not the big name (O'Neill etc) that was talked of, so obviously we didn't sack Pardew with such a person lined up as some speculated. Don't know much about Adkins, but well, let's see how he does." Pretty damn well seems to be the answer!

The possibilty of Scotland having its own time zone is the 'elephant in the room' issue. No politician dares suggest it. Uk government doesn't want to do anything that encourages talk of Scottish independence , and the SNP etc daren't push for it, as in reality if it happened, many Scots would simply have to change their work hours to fit with European/rest of UK time, regardless of what their clocks said. Scotland couldn't afford to be out of step with the rest of the UK. Scottish bankers, call centres, tourism sites, pretty much any firm that exports, etc., etc, would end up working at English office day times anyway .. and in turn many service industries, shops etc would too, to meet the needs of those workers. Personally I'd call the SNP's bluff and suggest it, but Cameron is presumably too scared. Given how unpopular the Tories already are in Scotland, it might just wipe them off the map completely.

It's a Dune thread ..started by a man who's posted over 13,000 times in a little over 2 years .. almost 500 times a month, ie 16 or 17 times a day, every day. Presumably sooner or later it will get round to slagging off ' loony lefties' and praising UKIP. Don't expect to take these threads too seriously. Think of it as being like Care in the Community.

As you say an interesitng article , but actually I think the second division (by whatever name) of the english league has been the 4th biggest in the world for attendances for quite some time. It annoys me that English TV and newspaper commentators etc give so much weight to, for example, the Italian league, when it is actually has fewer spectators. There may well be a high standard of football in Italy's Serie A, but who in England really cares about their results? Read many newspapers though and you're as likely to see reports about Italian teams as you are about the championship. Of course the reporters may just prefer a trip to Rome , to one to Cardiff I suppose! And as for Scottish teams, why is the SPL reported on before the championship, in England?

Fair point! You had gas boilers when you were a kid? Blimey. We'd only just done away with gas lighting when I was a kid! (and I'm only exaggerating a bit). More seriously there always were, and still are, tragedies with CO poisoning and Uncle Ken says everyone should have an alarm.