barclaycon

Re: I think things have changed forever. I don't we'll be going back to just a handfull of supermarket groups dominating. There has just been a business report on the TV about how Aldi and Lidl have 'stormed into the market', but I think that analysis is flawed. The behaviour of Tesco's in particular forced people to go to the German discounters. They were here already. As soon as the big supermarkets put the prices up ridiculously and started selling shoddy, low quality goods - they forced people to go elsewhere. Tesco have only got themselves to blame. Lying cheating bastards. All pe

Joe Baker had a house on Bramcote Lane. I used to see him sometimes on my way to catch the E8 into town. As regards Cloughie, I love the fact that they've put that clip of him shaking his fist into the Match Of The Day title sequence now. Can anyone remember who it was that he was aiming at ? As I remember, Peter Taylor joins in with the fist shaking and threats as well.

The short answer is yes, they were wonderful. For all the troubles that there may have been in the world, times were good. I was there. I remember with absolute clarity. The music scene was great, bills were low, most people were employed. It was a time when the shackles had been thrown off from the austerity of the post war years. There is a really good book by Ian MacDonald called 'Revolution In The Head' which is actually about Beatles songs, but also has a lot of social comment about those years. In it he describes the mood in the 60's as one of 'sunny optimism'. Things were happenin

Re. Ashley's quote: I didn't know whether it was a true fact or not. It was certainly always believable because of the sheer number of great looking women that were always around in Notts. One area I guess, where Nottingham isn't crap !

As regards accents. It can be a very subtle thing. There are many diverse accents in the Midlands. I live in London and most people assume that just because I don't have a 'local' accent then I must be from 'oop North'. Probably Yorkshire. But then, most Londoners think that the M1 is cobbled past Watford. I've never been a fan of the Brummie accent. One of the funniest things I ever heard was someone reading philosophy and trying to sound earnest in a broad Birmingham accent - just didn't work. Robie Coltrane used to do a stand-up routine where he did a Glosgow accent tinged with Indian

There must be something in the water in Notts. Don't girls outnumber boys by 4 to 1 ? Anyway, it's noticeable when you've been away from Nottingham for a while. When you come back the women really are lovely to look at.

Mmm. Not really. The most popular station (Radio 2) is mostly old stuff - 80's hits in the main. And that, in itself, is the same as playing repeats. I used to love the radio and grew up listening to quality music in the 60's and 70's, but now I don't bother. It's so playlisted and lacking in originality. Radio stations just want people who can talk incessantly between the stuff that they have already pre-programmed in on hard disk. That's why they particularly like stand-up comedians and people like Lauren Laverne who know very little about music. If anything, I listen to speech radio thes

Television is getting progressively worse. One of the main reasons is the proliferation of channels and the enormous increase in advertising. It seems fairly obvious that more and more channels means a dilution in quality, and smaller budgets and the need to ramp up advertising means less content. We're being educated into thinking that in order to get 'decent' programmes, we have to pay more. 'Believe in better' ? It means - believe in paying for Sky. (Or Netflix, or Virgin or Amazon). Not that their programmes are that much better. It's mainly sport, films and TV series that were initi

Great collection of classic guitars. There's a couple of rare guitars that I'd like to own. One is an unusual guitar that I once saw in Jack Brentnall's called a Micro frets. The other one is the guitar Ian Hunter used to play in Mott the Hoople. I believe it's called a Thomas Maltese Surfer. Amazing really that guitars like Strats and Les Paul's are still being made after all this time. I guess it shows that they were great designs.

Excellent pictures.

Re. TCH has a house just up the road from my brother In Breaston. You can very often see him on Long Eaton station on weekday mornings travelling to London. No doubt to do some more 'paid lobbying'.

Re. Camp coffee indeed !

Meadowhall has been incredibly busy lately. Anyone travelling up the M1 towards Sheffield will be aware of the traffic chaos caused by cars queuing to get in there. I really hope more towns retain their markets and open access. We've had far too many places destroyed by shopping centres and traffic schemes. I agree about re-modelling Broadmarsh, but I doubt whether Notts Council would have the imagination or the wherewithal.

Ha. Camp Coffee. It was like syrup! Contained lots of chicory and sugar. Strange picture on the front of a highlander having a cuppa with a sikh.

Re. Yes, I know what you mean Mary. I remember Alfreton Rd. in the 70's when it was a bustling community - with shops AND industry. It looked a bit run down - but it wasn't a slum like it is now. Similar situation to Arkwright St. I guess. In need of rejuvenation for decades till eventually it just got pulled down and replaced with ........ what? Nothing really. Totally unimaginative city planning.

Re. I'm not that familiar with Newark. York is lovely and definitely to be recommended. Derby I dislike a lot and apart from one small area is not somewhere I would like to emulate. The Eagle Centre is as bad as Broadmarsh and the new Westfield Centre is based on the same 'shopping centre' model that we've been on about. (Even though it does appear to be fairly busy). Last time I went to Leicester the market seemed a bit difficult to access - being right in the centre, but then again I've never liked the city that much. The point I was trying to make about places in Italy, France, Holla

Re #20. That's interesting catfan. That's more the kind of thing that would attract people in i.e. if the place had more of a 'mall' mentality and people could open up small shops that didn't have enough enormous rents and rates attached to them. A friend of mine has a market stall in Bury St Edmunds and every time I go there I always enjoy going round the market where you can buy some great local food, buy presents for people. Even birthday cards etc. Much lower prices than high street shops and it's a pleasurable experience just looking - and a cup of coffee and a cake doesn't cost £5.

It's a dump. It has been for a long time. What a dreadful way to introduce people to the city - walking from the bus station and train station through Broadmarsh. The planners need to re-think the whole thing. Try and make that thoroughfare a pleasant experience. I think the standard 'shopping centre' model is out of date, and if they spend the millions that they've proposed then they need to be a bit more imaginative than just tarting it up.

Saw the Faces once at the Sherwood Rooms with Rod Stewart. Great gig. Ian was very much in demand as a keyboard player even when the Faces finished. Very sad. You're right about all our heroes coming to the end of their alotted time.

Oh dear. Another one. R.I.P.

The whole point about voting for politicians is that they are supposed to do all the things that we don't have time to do. They are put in positions of power and paid handsomely to administer things - therefore they should always be accountable to us. They're not royalty. They don't have a God-given right to a 5 star lifestyle. It seems that more and more, governments are trying to absolve themselves of responsibility whilst at the same time soaking up more of our money. And the EU wants total and unquestioning obedience to decisions made by un-named, un-accountable Eurocrats. You just don

That article on Herman van Rompuy just shows what a complete gravy train the whole thing is. When these useless politico's get jobs like that in the EU they must think that they have won the lottery. It's incredible how the EU squanders our money on these pathetic, under-achieving, also-rans who were useless in their own domestic political systems. Same with Barroso and Romano Prodi - extremely average non-achievers who managed to land highly paid, 'low-workload' jobs in the EU with gold plated pensions at the end and lots of benefits. Look at some of the tossers that we sent there, like P

I absolutely agree. We had an education system that was the envy of the world, and grammar schools meant that any kid - regardless of their class status, background or family wealth, could achieve the highest status in any field. It used to be a badge of honour for people to say 'I have achieved through my own hard work rather than my family having paid for it'. It's extremely offensive now to see people who benefitted from this system dismantling it and leaving us with the mediocre rubbish education system that we currently have. In terms of politics, it means that we have a government ful

True. The good ones are generally those people who had a career before entering politics. In the past, the kind of people who use to become MP's were company directors, captains of industry, ex-army colonels - the type of people who knew how things worked and could make things happen because they knew how to. They were in politics to give something back and because they firmly believed in philanthropy. Now we have people who are incapable of long-term planning and do everything according to cost - irrespective of social value. Unfortunately, it's people like Stephen Dorrell who are put in

Pigs in a trough. They've never had a real job and they've never had to graft to make ends meet. They are in politics simply to line their pockets Dorrell is a complete tosser. In the 80's he sanctioned the closure of many hospitals at a time when many more were needed ! The local MP here (Hendon) a dyed-in-the-wool Tory called Sir John Gorst lost his seat because of the closure of Edgware hospital. Dorrells plan was to close local units and instead have 'super hospitals' - in our case Barnet. The theory being that these huge centres would be more cost efficient. Hang the fact that peopl