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If only he could achieve promotion eh?

You just did.

Fair point @Van wink, although it is important to take account of @Jools intent (and that of the the so called "article"). Clearly both wanted to rubbish the policy and the technique they used was to take one element of the financial calculations and attempt to extrapolate this to give the impression that Labour's figures don't add up and furthermore they are financially incompetant. In the case of the article @Badger has rather debunked a rather weak piece of Tory propaganda from Tory journalist Iain Martin. As for Jools, if you are correct and he indended to refer to the pension liability that means BT has pension ASSETS OF £57 BILLION. Of course the deficit would be taken into account with regards to the nationalisation and would negatively, quite correctly, impact the compensation for the shareholders. In addition it would be possible to take the pensions off the books as part of the process and make them free standing. It is instructive to examine the actual problem here. BT have a 90% market share of the fibre market. The companies roll out has failed and at 8% lags behind the countries competitors and even countries like Madagascar. This is while in the free market and under Tory control. BT have also been fined for uncompetitive practices, using its wholesale arm to favour its retail arm to the detriment of competing ISPs. The companies share price has tanked and it has been compensating its shareholders with dividends of 15% while paying its CEO a seven figure salary. This is what I mean by your lack of imagination. This problem has been placed in the too difficult to solve category by the Tories. The breakup of BT has been shelved and they have no idea how to address the problems. In fact they don't have the imagination to even see it as a problem. Labour do, they have put up the costings and time limited it. If there is a criticism it is the question whether fibre is the correct technology rather than wireless not whether the funding is there or whether this addresses the identified problem. In both cases the answer is yes.

This year in Finland the presents will not be bought by Joulupukki (Santa) but Teemupukki. He should bring us some too.

Our Academy 1 status is a feather in our cap. There are only 24 clubs at present who can claim this status, with many "bigger" clubs not included eg. Leeds, Wednesday and Forest and also there are some clubs currently in the Premier League who have been unable to achieve this status, notably Sheff. U., Palace and Burnley. Quote: "Category One status is extremely hard to achieve and takes real commitment from the club. Any football academies that have this status is a show of the quality of the coaching, equipment, facilities and strategic development that you can expect to find.Category One football academies also invest a lot to maintain their status. There are also some clubs that choose not to publicise their status in order to avoid being over approached by players and parents." (Football Scout site.) Notably, and amusingly ITFC have tried and failed to gain this status on (I believe) more than one occasion. I, personally would rather our club currently have this acclaim than the "bulging" trophy cabinet (woodworm and all) that the binners boast about on a daily basis. Advantages, which include extra funding and the ability to "poach" further afield, surely are that this status has allowed us to attract the likes of Madisson, Godfrey, Aarons and Lewis in the first place. Interestingly on performance data @ 2017/18 City's academy came 20th. in the table. (trainingground.guru.) This presumably was calculated on a points basis based upon the success rate of youngsters produced and the level they reached in the professional game. The likes of Leeds, Palace and even Crewe were higher than us at the time, but this is unlikely to be the case for much longer considering the vast improvement in facilities instigated by the bond issue. In sum, any City supporter questioning the viability of our EPPP status is being stupid in the extreme. Our aim must now be to emulate the following top five successful Academy 1 Clubs (c. 2018) :- 1. SOUTHAMPTON. Over the past few years the Southampton academy has become a beacon of homegrown talent in England. ... 2. MANCHESTER UNITED. ... 3. LIVERPOOL. ... 4. EVERTON. ... 5. ASTON VILLA. If Southampton can come out top of that illustrious pile then so can we. Our yo-yo status is frustrating, our reputation as the paupers among the elite is even more so. The Academy One route is currently the only way our club can belie these labels. P.S. Interestingly, I now note that the OP's previously instigated topic on this forum is entitled "A club without ambition." Talk about shooting one's self in the foot.

It's all rather pointless really, the Suffolk Socialists won't use it to buy players, they'll probably just quaff some Champagne in the board room (served on a silver platter by Nepotism Tom) whilst laughing at and shredding the letters that rich foreign investors are sending in to the club begging to buy them out and take the club onto the next level. Whatevers left after they take their cut will be used to put a couple of floors on the hotel instead of increasing the ground capacity, Premier Inn will then put a viewing platform on the roof to allow VIP guests to have unrestricted access to the game. After they fufill their ambition of turning the club into a full time concert venue with League 1 football as a side show they'll sit on their hands with all the other happy clappers and marvel at being debt free. The clubs a jook. 😀

We will see whether it is a poor electoral strategy, like many other things that will depend in part on whether the press are going to provide a platform for debate or just cheap shots. As for the technology - it’s the digging up of the roads that is expensive, glass fibre is cheap,, 5G cell towers are not, but using them avoids a lot of digging in cities and suburbs. You still need to connect those towers via fibre though. In the countryside if there are telegraph poles just string fiber on those.... And not everyone needs a 1Gbit connection, in our house we have YouTubeTV, Netflix, shop online, and WhatsApp video chat with friends in Europe and run a business all on a 100Mbps rated service. That’s $150 per month and half of that is the raw internet connection. If the US had rates comparable to Asian countries it would be half that cost and 4 x faster (not that the absolute speed matters too much after 100Mbps IMO)

which, unsurprisingly, turned out to be another lie

With the first team: Aarons, Lewis, Godfrey, Cantwell, Famewo, Idah. On Loan: Barden, Bushiri, Richards, Coley, Gilmour, Jaiyesimi, Mourgos, Payne, Power, Bloomfield, Spyrou.

Jools puts the Tory into Story, that's for sure I would prefer it was history Daz

Looks like they are in the "top 26"

A Tory liar? Pfft... must be the only one.

Sounds like you know far more about the u23 squad than me - not seen them once this season. But like you say the checkatrade was a good competitive idea of where they're at. And as you say, if we can develop 20mill players then we are in a better position regardless of who the owners are

The U23s have been unlucky this year, also, it’s a very new team, a lot of new faces coming in. They won’t necessarily gel instantly. Next year, another year older, more development in strength, we could have a winner! They’ve shown what they can do in the chekatrade trophy. I love the idea of producing talent regular, I know I moan about the owners. But I would much rather us develop a £20mil player, than buy one!

Meanwhile, in Havana, Onel's cousin has recently painted his house and had his car re-sprayed:

No. Next!

Just started watching this - really insightful docu-series into a story I had no idea about (don't know how it ends yet!), although some of you may remember the story in the news as it would have been world headlines at that time - late 80s). Series is well produced and really interesting, albeit with some horrific footage from the concentration camps. Quiet, unassuming immigrant to the USA (from Ukraine) John Demjanjuk, arrested on suspicion of war crimes after being identified by Treblinka survivors and the KGB as "Ivan the terrible", a notorious SS guard who attacked concentration camp victims at the doors of the gas chamber with a sword, mutilating them and making their last moments even more horrific. I'm sure most are aware that some of my family were incarcerated in concentration camps or murdered by the nazis so I have a personal interest but certainly useful for anyone with any kind of interest of WW2 or that kind of thing. Worth a watch.

Just surreal feeling here in Finland. Been following national team actively since late 80s, watching most of the games during years. So often starting qualifiers with big dreams and dose of hope, going through times of despair. And finally the dreams came true. In Finland, this qualifying was often referred as the dream of generations. Today it felt so real when I was watching the match with my father and my children (only on tv though, as could not manage to get ticket).

Because we realise that its an illusion. Theres only so much you can squeeze out of taxation, its not a bottomless pit. Neither is borrowing money from the future. Eventually there is a reckoning.

You need an extra long guitar strap, leather jacket and stand with your feet about six feet apart to be totally in command the JJB way. Nowadays I need an extra long nap, incontinence pad and sensible shoes to be totally in command of KG way. But I still have a vivid imagination of course.