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    Match Thread Sunderland vs. Coventry City Match Thread - Saturday 23rd Nov

    Looking at the table after 18 games last season, we are slightly better off, by 2 points and are 9 points off the top rather than 10. We had won more games at this stage last season though. Next few fixtures are crucial you feel, could easily fall to mid-table with a bad run. Get to Jan in the...
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    Match Thread Sunderland vs. Coventry City Match Thread - Saturday 23rd Nov

    No away wins, no back to back wins, won by more than a single goal only once. Yet we're somehow hanging in there (although we will be out of the top 6 once the games in hand are played out). That's why these dropped points are so frustrating, if we could just stay in touch until Jan you feel we...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    Yep, good point, I won't be putting any money on the outcome. My gut says sizable Tory majority though, the polls don't look good for Labour it has to be said.
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    General Election 2019 thread

    My wife goes into a rage whenever she sees Gove on the TV! I think the key thing in the last statement, was the 'for Corbyn'. He just doesn't appeal. They'll be many people voting through gritted-teeth for the Tories I feel. Corbyn just has too many reasons for people not to vote for him...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    The great deceit at the heart of debate about public spending is that for the years following the 2010 election it would have been any different under Labour. Ahead of that election, Alistair Darling said "Labour's planned cuts in public spending will be "deeper and tougher" than Margaret...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    Because I take personal responsibility. The failure of the business was entirely my fault, made a bad investment. You move on. In the end, I just about managed to pay everyone off so didn't owe anybody, I managed to get new jobs for my two employees and can now sleep at night. And, what I...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    The public sector has been under massive strain, but there are clear signs that we are emerging from a period of economic strife and that the corner has been turned. The key question in this I guess. Tax revenues are up, unemployment is at record lows, foreign investment is high, especially in...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    No, of course there was a public-sector pay freeze, that's documented fact. What there isn't yet in any indication that below inflation pay rises are planned during the next parliament, which is what you're suggesting with the comparison with military spending, where the budget has been...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    Oh come on, you're better than that. High school debating society stuff. They're proposing to increase expenditure faster than inflation across many departments, not just defence. Military spending as a proportion of GDP has fallen under this government from 2.5% to 2.1%, it's lowest in...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    Is that a serious comment, surely not? If so, that's incredibly condescending. Are you suggesting that people from ethnic minorities should all subscribe to the same world view and not think for themselves? If an Asian small business owner votes Conservative because, rightly or wrongly, they...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    Tony Benn was of his time, it is very crude to try to place him politically by modern standards and sensibilities. The world is a different place, the division between right and left is blurred and increasingly meaningless. The world has never been smaller. Money flows across borders...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    I don't need educating on anything. The arguments for and against private schools are older than you or I and are well understood. Of course they bestow an advantage on those who attend, who would argue that point? But, to abolish them would make no sense and would be motivated by ideology and...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    On the issue of tuition fees, you mention participation. Surely that is a laudable aim, and it is somewhat cynical to suggest this is largely about reducing youth unemployment, even if that is an inevitable (and not undesirable) consequence. Since tuition fees were introduced, participation...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    The thing is, this country needs a strong and able Labour Party, it just that in my view we don't have that right now. My rant above, and it was a bit of a rant, will inevitably lead some to conclude I am a blue flag waving activist, I'm really not, I was just trying to cut through some of the...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    I'd say the arguments I put were the definition of centrist, but it depends on your perspective I guess. Pointing out, and applauding, that the minimum wage is relatively high and has been increased above the rate of inflation several times in recent years is not right wing. Pointing out, and...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    And there it is. It didn't take long for the 'far right' mud-slinging to start. I think it says more about the shift in your position to be honest. My views haven't really changed since I voted for Blair in 1997.
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    General Election 2019 thread

    The bit about paying more tax came right at the end and was a bit of a throwaway comment, but it does suggest you actually you read it all :happy: Corbyn, McDonnell, Abbott, Thornberry - yes, notably less competent than their Tory equivalents in my view, but that's not to suggest I have posters...
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    General Election 2019 thread

    So many people trying to make a reasoned case for a Labour vote on here, it's very surprising and somewhat out of step with the national mood as I see it, which I suspect will deliver nothing short of a thumping Tory victory. Whatever misgivings people may have about another five years of...
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    Sunderland away

    Definitely. I would never usually swerve an away game like this because it's always the case that if you keep your head down you'll be fine, but I've decided not to take the lad to this one. I used up my 4 season tickets to get 8 tickets for mates up there for a weekend on the lash. It'll be...
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    Pathetic yesterday

    I can usually get from the car park next to the Roost to Ash Green in 35 mins, but yesterday was a nightmare. Roads normally clear were clogged up because of temporary lights on Garrison Lane, so it took longer than usual, but I guess other routes were fine.
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