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Reply | Southampton V Stoke City The Carabao Cup Verdict
at 17:49 31 Oct 2024
If they do then they're not being realistic. We will not win any cup this year and our only chance of winning one in future rests on being a PL club. For a championship club to win one now would require a major fluke. |
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Reply | Still no start for Onuacho
at 17:40 31 Oct 2024
The strike force that Martin has to choose from reflects his priorities and the way he wants to play just as much as Tall Paul reflected on Nathan Jones' choices. If he had demanded a centre forward instead of Diaz, Archer, Fraser, Cornet etc then that's what he would have got. So he deserves the criticism. |
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Reply | The Budget
at 14:17 31 Oct 2024
It is you who that is ignoring the facts, not me. The US is a much more successful economy with much higher living standards than Europe, so they are the model we should be getting in step with. But as for Europe, as I said, European governments are waking up to the fact that they have too much government spending. See here for an example this month from France:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/politics/article/2024/10/02/french-government-promises
Note that 66% of the €60 billion a year deficit cuts will come from spending cuts rather than tax increases. In reality, this is just the start of what's needs to be done as the government well knows.
So no, I don't think that every other European government is wrong. They know what needs to be done but they have difficulty getting it agreed with their voters who only ever look at the short term (same as here) and vote them out of they say they need to cut spending.
Meanwhile in the UK, Labour said before the election that their main priority was economic growth. But the fact that higher taxes lead to lower growth is a well established fact. This for example is a summary of 26 different studies looking at the issue:
https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/what-evidence-taxes-and-growth/
The overwhelming conclusion is that higher taxes mean lower growth, when as Labour have said, it is growth that we need.
Those are the facts. |
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Reply | The Budget
at 10:02 31 Oct 2024
If you think the tax and spend policies common in the EU are some kind of model to be admired then you are badly misguided. Even the likes of France and Italy are now recognising that they have over stepped the limits of what is sustainable. Economic growth has fallen further and further in the EU as the size of the state has grown and grown.
Meanwhile in the UK, our tax as a share of GDP is at the highest recorded levels since WW II (when there was a valid reason for high taxes) and not surprisingly, long run economic growth is at the lowest.
This is from last year when Labour pointed to the problem and said it represented 13 years of economic failure under the Tories. Labour were right, but they have now made the problem even worse!
https://www.itv.com/news/2023-12-11/uks-tax-burden-highest-on-record-despite-rec
Rachel Reeves was right to keep saying that the only solution is economic growth, but record tax burdens will keep economic growth low. |
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Reply | The Budget
at 01:05 31 Oct 2024
Well firstly, the point was that throwing money at more ambulances doesn't solve the problem - and the current system is hugely inefficient by keeping people in hospital. So, sorting out the system means you need LESS money in total, even if the social care is provided by the government.
But secondly, it shouldn't be all about government funded social care anyway. People are supposed to look after their own care. In the old days it was handled within the family. I remember that within my family when I was a kid. Mum cared for her mother and we kids had to share a room. Why should the tax payer pick up the tab because people don't want to do that anymore? The government should only be there for very basic care when all else has failed, and that should be limited to care that could be delivered inexpensively (your basic care home might be in Scotland).
But as far as government care workers are concerned, it's wrong to say that numbers are reduced. They're actually at record levels:
https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2024/02/16/adult-social-worker-numbers-hit-recor |
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Reply | The Budget
at 00:07 31 Oct 2024
Ambulances are one example of how the system isn't working. Spending more money on ambulances wouldn't help because there are plenty of ambulances.
There are plenty of ambulances but often there is a shortage of available ambulances. Why? It's because they are stacked up outside hospitals unable to discharge their patient to the hospital. And why can't they discharge their patient? It's because there are no spare beds in the hospital. And why are there no spare beds? It's because up to 1 in 3 beds are occupied by people who don't need to be in hospital
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/nov/13/hospital-beds-england-occupied-p
It costs a lot of money to have someone in a hospital bed. It costs a lot less to have them in bed in a care home, or to provide care for them in their own home. Yet our system means all these people are kept in the most expensive beds. Not only that, but as the article says, keeping them in hospital is actually bad for their health so they end up needing more treatment! It's just one example of the huge inefficiencies involved.
Throwing money at problems is superficially attractive but doesn't actually solve the problems. Sorting out the inefficiencies will solve the problems.
We are hugely over taxed and this budget has made it worse. High taxation means low growth. Low growth means a smaller economy and a smaller economy means less tax can be raised to pay for public services. The only solution is to grow the economy - WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT RACHEL REEVES SAID BEFORE THE BUDGET - yet she has chosen to massively raise taxes and so lower growth. Unbelievable. |
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Reply | The Budget
at 20:47 30 Oct 2024
"It's obvious that more money is needed for the services." Totally wrong.
What is obvious is that we need higher productivity in public services. While the private sector and the rest of the world has improved productivity, the UK's public services have had more and more money thrown at them for no gain in output. The problem is not the money that they have been given. The problem is the extremely inefficient performance. See these figures from the ONS:
That is the reason why the services they deliver are so bad.
Meanwhile, the tax take is now at the highest levels ever!! This simply can't be continued. It is killing the country. |
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Reply | Southampton V Stoke City The Carabao Cup Preview
at 16:16 29 Oct 2024
"We'll play the strongest 11 available"
I really hope he's talking BS because doing that would be moronic. But if it's a lie, what is the point of that? It just encourages Stoke to put out their strongest side. A better lie would be to say that we'll put out the youth team.
So, I don't think it's a lie. I think RM really is stupid enough to do this. |
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Reply | Back in January
at 18:24 28 Oct 2024
Going somewhere that's been left behind by civilisation? It might be Portsmouth. |
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Thread | Pep praises Saints for "defending with the ball"
at 14:10 28 Oct 2024
I see that on Saturday's MOTD, Pep was complimentary about Saints, in particular the way we "defended with the ball". What he means is that we recycled possession instead of risking losing it by attacking. This denied City possession and meant that there were periods when City couldn't score because they didn't have the ball.
Wake up Pep lad. Perhaps, like your team, you're a bit tired after your Champions League week, but if this was an effective strategy then we wouldn't be bottom of the table with the worst goal difference. It might work for City, but we're more likely to turn the ball over in the defensive third resulting in an easy goal for the opposition. We managed to avoid that on Saturday (just) but it will happen again.
Meanwhile "defending with the ball" means that we are not attacking. What Pep describes as "defending with the ball" is mostly, when Saints do it, just pointless possession, where we bore the fans shitless and do nothing to threaten the opposition.
I'm from the old skool that thinks when you have the ball you should try to use it to score a goal instead of defending with it. That means moving the ball forward quickly before the opposition form a defensive block which is difficult to break down. Once again our best chances in this match came when we moved the ball quickly up the pitch instead of defending with it. Once again we will probably fail to learn from that.
Pep's compliments actually just sum up the chasm between City and Saints. They show how a tactic can make perfect sense for a team of world class players but be an exercise in stupidity for mediocre players like our lot. The fact that we didn't get absolutely walloped on Saturday doesn't change that. |
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Reply | That was the worst possible result for us today
at 11:12 27 Oct 2024
Pep is bullshitting. Do you hear him say how well Arsenal or Liverpool played when they beat Man City? No. He heaps praise on us because we didn't lay a finger on them and pay him the compliment of trying to copy the way he coaches.
We will never get anywhere in the PL with RM because we don't have the players to play that way and never will. It may be good for RM's future career with a big club but it's useless for us. The "point" of bringing in a new manager is to move away from that style of play. Only Pep and RM are that extreme in that style, so any new manager will help by moving us away from that style that is a dead end for us.
Yes it's the board's fault for being clueless enough to give him a 3 year contract, but the sooner they recognise their mistake and take the hit, the better it will be for the club. |
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Reply | That was the worst possible result for us today
at 08:53 27 Oct 2024
1. We can't sack the owners. They will be here for a long time yet.
2. We did not play "very well" yesterday. We defended decently with 10 men behind the ball. We have forgotten that is the minimum that should be expected. We had 2 shots on target. I know that's a lot by RM's standards but by any reasonable measure it is not playing very well.
3. RM will be sacked at some stage, when better than now? Why delay? No manager can do worse than 1 point from 9 games, so what have we got to lose? [Post edited 27 Oct 8:54]
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Reply | Southampton At Manchester City The Preview
at 15:50 25 Oct 2024
It's not all about who has the most money. Man Utd spent more money on players than Man City and they finished 8th.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/man-city-wa
Aston Villa's wage bill is only a little over half of Man Utd's and they finished 4 places higher. Money makes a massive difference, but it's not everything. If you spend money wisely and have a good manager, that can overcome the money gap.
Sadly for Saints, spending money wisely and having a good manager are 2 of the things that we are worst at. |
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