THE BRITISH THREAD II

The tabloids views is quite interesting - now there's some speculation that the Mumbai terrorists could have been trained by an elite special forces soldier from America or Russia.

Agencies report (as well as CNN, Spiegel and others) that they were trained by Lashkar-e-Toiba, a terrorist group fighting for the independence of Kashmir.

Any comments re the 0:1?

The derby game would have been much better had City won it....as they did twice last season.

City were so comprehensively outplayed that the ref decided to reduce their opponent's strength.

I've seen the recording of that game now- highlights only- and neither team played particularly well.
I think City were understandably tired after their midweek game at Schalke.

United's tactic against Wright-Phillips seemed to be to trip him up every time they got the chance.

Giggs is a twit. And Ronaldo is an arse.

They're all twits and arses Mac. That's what makes it interesting. To play at that level they have been outstanding in their locales since being 5. Imagine what that does to their heads. Nothing but praise and admiration.

I remember being in a queue for ice-cream when I was a kid and Tom Finney walked straight to the front of it and nobody said a word.

and the result was?

I agree with Spendy...something I've just repeated to my self in a state of mild shock...that Ronaldo was only trying to even the game up a bit by getting the second yellow and leaving the pitch. I cut short my cycle ride yesterday to watch Robihno. Actually getting piss wet through on the A11 was more entertaining.

Come on Steve. Watching Dunne go dizzy was good fun.

If he's played here on the continent, his applauding after the first yellow card would have had a second immediately as consequence.

So "the most successful club in the history of English football" will be on top tonight ...

Unfortunately that's what Ronaldo does. I thought the ref was going to send him off for his sarcastic applause It seems the best player in the world (?) just isnt a very nice person.

But he plays some nice football...and he gets clogged a lot too.

(Earlier this year, when it looked as if Ronaldo was certainly on his way to Real Madrid a story came out that wasnt published earlier. In February MUFC showed a film about the Munich air crash (Feb 1958) for the benefit of club staff and players who might not know much about it....players like Ronaldo. The Great Ego did not attend himself but went into the room during the film and tapped his watch at Wayne Rooney to get him away because they were due to go out somewhere. Journalists who were invited to the subsequent press conference thought it inappropriate to report at the time. But it illustrates his character better than anything).

Well, as a non-British Ronaldo doesn't understand the gentleness of English behavior.


Apropos, perhaps some food for thoughts in the City Journal: Oh, to be in England - The Quivering Upper Lip: The British character: from self-restraint to self-indulgence

Thats a depressing article Walter...because it rings true. What Dalrymple does not account for is why this change has happened. I blame Margaret Thatcher. She smashed the trades unions. She smashed whole industries. She embarked on a neo-liberal free market capitalist revolution courtesy of north sea oil revenues. "There is no such thing as society" she said. "Greed is good" she didnt say but could have. What we see now is the result of the almost complete atomisation of society...people are just individuals who seek self gratification as the principle goal in life.

Don't forget Media Steve. She didn't manage it on her own. She just put on Ignore anybody who contradicted her. Women are like that.

Aha! Bramhall, Gtr Manchester

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7752154.stm

Hey hippo and gangrene

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7761994.stm

Jean Charles de Menezes- the coroner says the jury may not consider a verdict of "unlawful killing".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coroner-rules-de-menezes-was-not-unlawfully-killed-by-police-1049062.html

After the long list of ladies doing "cock-up" policies which I have gallantly kept quiet about all this time here comes a lady Sergeant at Arms who seems to have caused a devil of a mess. Another pocket ****-fan.

Jacqui Smith was back to showing off her cleavage today. Granted, the camera angle in the Commons is rather high.

No Brits here? Walter is on holiday I think. Where Steve?

As we seem to be on our own Mac I thought I would ask you to comment on the capacity of even the stupidest of women to tell bare-faced porkies to the cameras and to people with professional skills in these matters and to act out the most absurd charades to add to their credibility: a high class demonstration of which skill is currently being screened round the clock.

Do you think the skill innate and that it is now honed close to perfection by soaps. One thing you see in every movie are actors so it is easy to see that learning to act is going to be absorbed unconsciously. And even the parts to play.

Look how well you carried off Snudge (or Corky) with that German railway attendent who was helping you on your journey. And I would love to see your "Disgusted of Torquay" letter about the cheesecake.

Whether Sharon's Mum is up to the level of our recent Prime Ministers I don't know, bearing in mind, as they do in diving competitions, the different degrees of difficulty and the amount of practice they have had.

What do you think?