Toyed with, but it's very much in its infancy. Short of massive pressure for it, I can't see a route to low level production being devised for 20 years, never mind how long it'll take to be economically viable.
If we wanted to be SERIOUS about reducing our carbon footprint in this country, there are many frivolous things that could be banned altogether and make a HUGE difference. All league football for starters; then there are holidays abroad, we could ban people from taking any holiday abroad that can't be done by bicycle, or as a start we could at least stop short-break overseas trips like New York for the weekend, or 2-days in Barcelona (closing Norwich airport in the process). The most obvious thing to do is to start reducing the population of these islands, not increasing it. Every extra person adds to the problem, so maybe the environmentalist activists will take the lead here and limit their families, having either no children at all, or at most one. Unreasonable? So much easier and undemanding to take a cheap shot at Arsenal don't you think? And yes, dave. There seems to be more nastiness and idiocy around at the moment. But, in the ghastly lingo of the time, "I don't do anger", a negative emotion and bad for one's blood pressure; it's just that I like to use hyperbole as a rhetorical device to make a point.
Cor, that was quite the rant Robbie. Would you not agree that the flight Arsenal took from London to Norwich was unnecessary then?
as for arsenal, i suppose they can do what they want - didn't do them any favours! i think its daft and completely unnecessary when its a 2 hour drive but the world of football is barmy at the top and i expect nothing less of these primadonnas with more money than sense... and i'm not just talking about the players.
The Arsenal statement points out that they would normally travel by train (i.e the most eco friendly way of doing it), but that was apparently not possible for them on Saturday. They could have travelled up on Friday, but since virtually the entire Arsenal squad had been away on international duty until mid-week, or even in some cases Thursday, I can see why they preferred not to. What is "unnecessary?" Yes they could have got here some other way. But as I was pointing out, there are many things "unnecessary" in that sense which could be foregone and which would make far more of a difference.
i think the best way to sum it up is this: arsenal are a bunch of pansies. that covers it all i think - the manner of their journey, the performance on the pitch, and their fans during and after the game
quiet as a mouse during the game. also, issues after the game. i was struck by one of their fans and so was a friend, completely unprovoked. they ran off like the big girls blouses their team were.
There was no problem, as far as I'm aware, with the trains. If there was a problem with London Liverpool to Norwich they could have always done London Liverpool/Kings Cross to Norwich via Cambridge. I took the Cambridge to Norwich train no problem!
I heard quite a lot of vocal support from the Arsenal fans, but they were certainly out-done by the home support, and by the end were indeed subdued. If you were assaulted, that's a disgrace. But I think your antipathy to the club as such, their manager, and their team is unjustified. Arsenal are one of the most sensibly run clubs in the country; like us they aim to be self-sustaining financially; Wenger has played a huge part in transforming the quality of football here, and his teams are generally a delight to watch; he believes in spotting and nurturing young talent, and has the guts to play his youngsters in the first team and cup competitions; their performance on Saturday was poor, but no worse than ours on several occasions in recent times (do I need to list them?), yet I doubt if you'd describe our squad as pansies. As you've said many times before superman, you "hate" Arsenal, Wenger and Arsenal fans. OK, that's how it is.
A friend works for Greater Anglia and told me last week. "Don't think about using the trains this weekend". Maybe Wenger got the same advice.
The trains last weekend were far better than they were the previous weekend! There was an hours delay where I had to change trains then told to go back to the original train. They then told me to change trains again as it was too full. So I had to go to Cambridge via Stowmarket (I was panicking about missing the stop and having to wait around in Ipswich for an hour!) It wasn't fun! But last weekend's trains were far better!
Maybe the disruption didn't materialise but that was the information coming out of the company this time last week.
I hope we aren't going to return to those days again. There are theories that football violence intensifies during troubled economic times. I went to football when you were mad to wear your colours at away games but believed those days were over and could proudly wear them and be respected for it. Maybe its because I have my grandchildren with me that we go unnoticed. Trouble is, I have zero tolerance when it comes to that and react badly which only exacerbates the problem in the end.
i'm afraid you are blinkered robbie by your love for all things arsenal. its true i'm not a fan of the club, not a fan at all - i don't hate them - i don't even hate ipswich, arsenal wouldn't even rate in my top ten (if i had one) of teams i like to lose every week, but their fans on the night were as poor as any i can remember. they turned up on mass, not predicting a victory, but expecting one. when things didn't go their way they got grumpy, sang nothing, failed to get bahind their team, left after 70 minutes and then fought with their fists. they are supposed to be a big club, yet they don't behave like one. man utd fans don't turn up expecting to win. no teams do except arsenal. in 2004 when they played at carrow road they were the finest club team i'd ever seen. today they are lucky to be considered a top four club. i admire the fact that they try to live within their means, i really do - that should be applauded - but its a total myth that they don't pay big wages or spend big money - their manager is the 2nd highest earning manager in the world, based on things he achieved 7 years ago. they spent £45m this summer on transfers. it is pretty rare these days for arsenal to be 'a delight' to watch and many times over the years the've been glorified by pundits because they play exceptionally well five or six times a season - they do not do it week in week out, hence why they aren't actually a very good side who challenge for major honours. in fact, i would much rather watch chelsea, man utd, man city or even spurs ahead of the gooners. they are far more entertaining to watch and have much more entertaining players. much of wengers greatness was built on george graham's defence. take out the only season without that defence when they won the title, the year they went unbeaten, which fair enough was brilliant and there's not actually that much of wenger's doing which marks him out to be a truly great manager. people talk about him creating great players - fine, but most of those players were blatantly exceptional youngsters when he brought them to the club. their youth team played norwich not so long ago without a single englishman in the squad. he does as much damage to the english game as anyone.
redruth, sadly it was not an isolated incident as others reported things but certainly from my point of view, outside the ground i was chatting to my friend, i made eye contact with this guy, i turned around at this point as he looked like he wanted a fight. next thing i know i'm being punched in the back of the head and so is my mate. the fact he ran off into the crowd purely goes to show he was a total coward. it was reported and nothing has come of it but it was all because they had lost. had arsenal won the game, do you really think these people would have done that? doubtful... sadly, this is not the first time arsenal fans have behaved like this, having been to a game around 2008 where they were beaten by fulham. they simply cannot take losing, especially to a 'small' club.
I don't "love" all things Arsenal superman. I admire what I feel is worthy of admiration -- which certainly doesn't include all their fans. Credit where credit is due, that's all. Their Champions League record is surely worth acknowledgement -- 15 years unbroken qualification and progress through the group stages in the vast majority if not all cases -- and outweighs anything Spurs or Man City have yet achieved.
you told me you're an arsenal and norwich fan. if you don't love them then there's something wrong with you! i don't know - is 15 years in the champions league a great achievement? it might be if they'd won it a couple of times, but they've only reached the final once. when you add up how much they've spent on players over the years i'd say its the very least they should have done. i'd also suggest they should have won much more than they have under wenger. of course they've achieved that more than citeh and spurs - those two are only just finding their feet at the top of the english game! what a strange comparison.
