THE BRITISH THREAD II

My boys were all over the Dutch tonight.

That free £100 bet of Steve's is looking like good business.

Amazing EK2008, Croatia unbeaten out, Portugal unbeaten out and now the Dutch unbedaten and outed by a superior Russian team. Disappointing from my point of view as I believed the Dutch had a good chance of taking it out. May the best team win.

Yeah Mac--but you missed it really. With £100 on you would have been in another world. Let's see. You would have been on at 14-1 and Russia will now be about 4-1. So you could sell your bet. Or watch the next match sticking to your guns. You would have a £200 profit right now. On the other hand----well. Who knows?

What would you do?

When Willie Carson was asked to sum up Royal Ascot he just took his top hat off and said "astounding".

And it was too.

Oh crap.... that was meant to say lonGer!

Oh well - hope the longest day was a good one!

There's a catch of course. you have ot open an account. And they match it bet for bet max £25 per bet until they "give you" total of £100.

I dont know what the odds are on Russia now, but much tighter than 14/1 after last night!

Germany 28/17
Spain 7/2
Russia 4
Italy 5
Turkey 13

There you are Steve.

I should think the winner tonight will go to 5 to 4. Maybe evens.

If spain or italy go to evens

then russia germany turkey odds have to lengthen. imho.

otherwise by my calculation the bookies, with a balanced book make 40% profit.

they'd like that but then there is (apparently) a free market, which wont let them.

I would think the winners of tonights game will go to more like 7/4

but hell what do i know?

Anyway mrs Steve is going to the palace tomorrow. No not the theatre, Kensington Palace. Yes that one. And I will have the honour of driving her to the railway station.

More later.

That sounds interesting, Steve. I'm looking forward to hearing the details.


Lee Dixon's eyebrows- does he shave them? Next time he is on the box, doing his football punditry, take a good look at his fizzog. His eyebrows look really funny, like he's only got half of them left.

Eyebrows can get worn out under certain circumstances Mac.

Steve--I thought 7 to 4 at first but Turkey should be a pushover, They have a number of suspensions and injuries.

In which case the winner is in the final. And at evens would be second favourite.

I made an error.

I thought last night's winner was playing Turkey in the semi.

ok the details

mrs S as Head of History is regularly invited to the Prince of Wales's Summer School.

It has several formats at various locations.

Couple of years ago it was two days at a posh hotel in Norfolk with some names that even I had heard of i.e. Simon Schama and that mad Irish poet fella. Nail or Brendon. Plus real vip treatment and more booze and cocktails than some younger delegates could handle.

This year was more down market, a series of informal presentations and a buffet lunch at Kensington palace. She said she didnt nick anything, refrained from knocking on the Duke of Gloucester's door (or was it Kent?) but got a free biro (black). Oh well a day off from expounding on Palmerston's foreign policy to thickos. She enjoyed it.

Security was tight. She wanted my i.d before she'd get in the car for the station.

thats ok S your secret is safe here.

So our Saxon cousins are marginal favourites? But 6/4 thats no price. My heart may be with Germany but my money...well thats more important

Hobnobbing with the quality, nice one Mrs S.
But come the Revolution, you will have to be shot of course. Nothing personal.

Germany seem to have had the kinder half of the draw. It'd be nice if the Russians got there to face them in the final.

With a strict referee of course, to stop Ballack's nonsense. :wink:

I found a News of the World in the pub last night so I carried it home and gave it a look over.

If I was Minister for Education I would go around with a bag over my head.

At least the Daily Mirror is witty.

I'm not sure how I would attempt to describe the News of the World's editor's attitude to his or her readers.

Rod Stewart looked a bit silly I thought.

An Israeli doctor said, 'Medicine in my country is so advanced, we
can take a kidney out of one person, put it in another,
and have him looking for work in six weeks.'

A German doctor said, 'That's nothing! In Germany, we
can take a lung out of one person, put it in another, and have him
looking for work in four weeks.'

A Russian doctor said, 'In my country medicine is so
advanced, we can take half a heart from one person, put it in another,
and have them both looking for work in two weeks.'

The English doctor, not to be outdone, said 'Hah!. We
can take an arsehole out of Scotland, put him in 10 Downing Street
and have half the country looking for work within twenty-four hours

Didnt know you were planning a revolution. Sounds like fun. Can anyone join in?

Which brings me nicely onto the Russians. They'll have to firm up the centre, move Vladimir Illych from left wing and get some discipline back. Leaving it all to the workers and peasants is no way to win a football tournament.

That Stalin bloke were good. What ever happened to him? Someone told me he owned the post office in Prestbury...or am I getting him mixed up?

Contempt doesnt quite hit it. There must be a measure of relief that people soak it up every week and never seem to twig whats going on. Feeding the masses a diet of soft porn and gossip is an important task. It stops them thinking. Who are we at war with at the moment?

Soft porn and gossip. And some sport. Dynamite combination.

That's not soft porn Mac.

It's vicarage 'tea-parties on the lawn' smut at best.