Red-Robbo

I get most of my news on this via Agence France Presse (AFP). This latest report courtesy of Yahoo News. Further riots in Rome, Venice, and Turin by the 'Pitchforks'. The anti-EU, anti-austerity protests are now gathering support from right and left alike across Southern Europe. We face the bizarre prospect next year of a European Parliament full of members who don't believe in its very existence.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/clashes-break-italy-anti-austerity-151305929.html

True indeed. I think the Greek protests were covered but, as you say, the Italian demos get very little UK media coverage. (I read the Reuters copy in the Inde of all places!)

How can Ed Balls maintain any credibility after his eurozone enthusiasm?

But it's a populist news programme using a popular format. The fact that Suzanna Reid is still in that popularity and dancing contest is a testament to how popular Breakfast News is. Not saying for a second that i think its any good, but I imagine a decent chunk of the target audience for weekday mornings think it is, so by definition it's a good use of license fee money

That would be the argument used, I'm sure. Maybe the leaden sofa banter is what people want when they are shovelling in the corn flakes and their brains are very slowly beginning to defog in preparation for another day of wage slavery.

Me, I listen to the Today programme.

So they need two people to read the news to a bunch of kids. Unbelievable. Must be something to do with the concentration span of the target audience.

It's the male-female 'infotainment' formula as pioneered by and still universal on US news channels. ITV do the same in the morning, but it's a desperately dated idea.

ITV don't have a World Service, radio outlets or rolling news services.

I understand all that RR but would hope we show a bit more humility IF we end up losing to Watford in R3. To say they were' by far the better side' means 1 of 2 things. Either I know sweet FA about football or the Tamworth fans were wearing extremely rose tinted specs!

With the chances made after half time, we should have been coasting to a comfortable victory. Sammy should have scored early in the second half and Wagstaff missed an open goal from 18 yards. We SHOULD have been at least 3 up before we scored our 2nd.

True mate, but we'd be feeling quite buoyant if a PL side only beat us by one. We obviously had more talent, but they came out to give us a game and we had one.

No humility in defeat from Tamworth then.....

We were awful first half IMO. Midfield totally bypassed and the front 2 or 3 were dire. Seriously lacked any control of the ball or game. Second half when we ran at them much better and perhaps deserved more against a pretty poor team. I thought we've played much better at times this season and certainly played better teams.

Enjoyed the game. Bristol didn't look two leagues above us. Chances were there. Second half, I thought Tamworth were by far the better side. Final touch was lacking. If Tamworth play like that on Saturday against Boston, then a trophy run is on the cards.

With all due respect to Tamworth, we should have been out of sight after 60 minutes with the chances we missed.

I wouldn't slate them too much: they kept going, had chances and finishing let them down. And we are a pretty poor team. That may change, but it's been true all of 2013.

At the end of the day, we beat a team two levels below us by one goal. No wonder they feel proud of their boys. If they approach their conference games like that they'll stay up easily.

For me, I'm happy to cut them slack as I am happy to see the progression of JET to a more all-round player.

Just watched it on ITV 1+1. Scrappy first half, firmer second. Their goal NOT over the line.

Why was every Tamworth player called Jako though? Big fans of Brush Strokes?

wasnt that "spitting image???

It was. They showed Spitting Image in South Africa at the. time, but strangely that song was cut.

Free Nelson Mandela!

It's 7 days until his state funeral. Freeze Nelson Mandela!

FYI that's leftwing bollox, there is little evidence to support this it started on facebook.

Other than people who knew Osborbe at Oxford. The FCS - at the time led by BBC political editor Nick Robinson - DID produce Hang Mandela t-shirts (I've seen them) and Gideon's contemporaries said he had one.

He had an interesting time at "varsity"; living with a Colombian prostitute and being keen on the odd gramme of "Nigella".

Just imagine the Mail if a Milliband had led a similar youth?!

I wonder if George Osborne still wears his Hang Mandela t-shirt which he got when he was in the Federation of Conservative Students?

My POV on NM is he was one of the few people who enters politics for the right reason. Prevented a civil war, it has to be said.

He probably can. Truly dreadful manager.

So we'd be .... 24th.

As I said, he could hardly do any worse.

Don't worry Cotterill is on his way.

Well he can hardly do much worse, can he? There's only one more place for us to fall.

23rd now. The O'Driscoll legacy.....

Pemberton out!

yes please.

Opportunity to try a different system but same timidity.

Oh great. We're without our best central defender now...

 I was just about to say how classless Clarke was... As a captain you should set the example not mouth off to a number 11.

Classless and Australian: The words go so effortlessly together don't they!

I hope that AV is not dead in the water but If part of the deal was supermarket money from the sale of the Gate to fund it that changes the project .

Good point. However I can only think of AG redevelopment as a stop gap. Long-term the club will need a more flexible and profit-bringing home.

I just hope it's in south Bristol. To get to somewhere like Portishead or Avonmouth would be a nightmare for someone living where I do.

I tend to agree.

There were mistakes made from the outset and those mistakes were heavily punished by nimbys.

There wasn't enough lobbying at government level to get this on the National agenda as its not just Bristol that has this problem. A decent MP would have helped - at least the MP for the Gas area took it to Parliament and is trying to highlight the issue as a national one.

I thought Dawn Primarollo brought the misuse of TVG legislation up in Parliament. In fact, I'm sure I've read she had.

I also read that the legislation was under scrutiny to have major changes made to it. Anyone au fait with this?

Maybe as long as Lansdown owns the land AV isn't off the agenda in the long run...

Sounds like once again, Sean was too late with his subs. How he can see us getting battered and not act I'll never know. Still at least he didn't wait until we were a goal down this time.

Again, I just cannot fathom SOD's logic. The two weakest players last Saturday were Shorey (never a midfielder!) and Cunningham. They get included but Burns who nearly scored and looked sharp in his brief cameo isn't even on the bench.Hmmmmmm....

I know it has been on the news in fairly blanket coverage these past few days but i just think a non-football chat forum should always have a place to remember those who suffer through natural tragedies. A place where people can express their feelings and perhaps share a common thing we all share; humanity coming together to remember those who are suffering and those who are far less fortunate than ourselves.

 

I am largely based in Cebu now and what I experienced today will stay with me for the rest of my life. While Cebu City, a metropolis of nearly 3 million was largely spared the might of Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda is the name here) those in the north of the island faired far worse. I experienced that today as i went north to assist in distributing medicine kits. I really cannot express in justifiable words here what i saw but it was utter devastation. But even northern Cebu, with countless lives lost was not so badly hit as Leyte and Samar provinces to the east where we have seen towns completely wiped out. Tagloban which is effectively the most easterly and last inhabited place in the Philippines and faces  the huge open ocean of the Pacific is more or less no more. A city of 300,000 people wiped from the face of the earth in a few short hours. People stood no chance. other provinces really hit hard were northern Negros and the periphery islands and northern most points of Palawan.

 

Many places are still cut off from any communication and airlift and it will take days more for the full expanse of the destruction and death toll to be known. I hope you all have the means and opportunity to donate what you can to the Red Cross and Oxfam or just to spare a thought or say a prayer. Forgive me for not flying home this Christmas to see City play. I think i will stay here now and spend some of that money and some of my valuable time where it is more needed.

Good effort, mate. Keep us updated.

My donation - via the DEC appeal - has been made.

Bobby Reid !! Sell sell sell!!! He has not yet had a season of first team football!!

You can already see that Bob has a natural instinct. I think he'll be a fabulous player in 2-3 years. Even now, he holds his place on merit. 

I doubt we'll get offers in Jan, so this discussion is hypothetical, but this lad could be central to City's squad in a few years.