My Little World10

BBC headline: Basement club West Brom fail to take advantage of a injury-hit West Ham side in a mediocre 0-0 draw at Upton Park

I've said it before and I'll say it again - mediocre is the word

Not this particular match, that happens, especially when West Ham have lost half their squad to injury and suspension - but this season in general

Sure, ramapnt 4-1 wins for Liverpool at Old Trafford and a 4-0 for Arsenal over Blackburn might be interesting - but this is glossing over the rest of the league

I have been keeping my eye on the relegation battle, in the hope that Boro or one of their perpetual mates finally go down - and noticed that from relegation to 7th (ie. the whole league outside the top 6) there is only 11 points between them

This seems large - and on closer inspection there are huge jumps in points up to the 'big 3' (sorry arsenal - this is just a current term, you are scrapping for 4th right now and well behind) - from West Ham in 7th at 40, to Everton at 48, then the other two at 52, then into the 60s for the big 3

Now obviously we still have nine games to go but I had assumed this closeness at the lower end would disappear as the league went on, and it still hasn't - Stoke sit within a hair's breadth of displacing 4 other teams above them, while Boro could also scramble out to 16th with one unlikely win like they had against the Reds - it's mad

I have been trying to find the table from last year at 29 games or similar, but it's proving difficult - basing a comparison on the final table isn't exactly scientific but it's the best I can do

last year in 7th were Blackburn at 58, closely followed by Portsmouth and City in the high 50s - now can you see any teams getting into the higher 50s? tbh when a match comes up between anyone in the lower 7/10 of the league I have no idea what will happen, unless Fulham or Stoke are at home - obviously 9 games = a potential 27, perfectly possible to get into 60+ - but frankly that's not happening to west ham, wigan or anyone else in there - it's going to be a slow climb to the 40s and 50s for these guys

That of course probably means there's still some fight in this relegation battle - could we see a legendary 40 point line? last year it was 36 and I think Stoke can push the others up to at least that

As for who is safe? I'm saying any of the bottom 9 are eligible to go down, yep - tottenham are now safe, and even West Brom may save themselves (but they won't)

logically I can't see Bolton dropping, and for Hull to go down would be a record (doesn't mean it can't happen tho) - they are in keeping with this league and should claw the points they need

as for the rest - I'm relying on Stoke and boro to keep the pressure on, and meanwhile I'm going to look for a game by game table to get some facts...

For one shining moment I had been given hope that Battlestar Galactica would finish as well as it began four years ago

alas, no - after last weeks excellent episode that began to tie several season's worth of bull into a credible storyline we headed back to mind-numbing bilge

Yep more characterisation in a show that has changed tack so many times I'm not sure if it's even the same actors anymore and I'm watching Voyager or something (ok, that's a little harsh)

But last week the annoying character Ellen Tigh was brought back, as the 'final' cylon - a story had develooped about the cylon past, and Ellen seemed a vastly improved character

This week she was reunited with her husband, and we're back to the immensely irritating, crazy, unhinged, irrational woman of old - just now she's a crazy cylon alcoholic instead of a crazy human alcoholic - we had been led to believe she was a different character now that she knew her origins, but no - she comes straight back as the character whose death a few years ago nearly led me to organise a street party

Why do this? I thought we were past the excessive arguing of the Tighs, and we're thrown right back to the start

For one whole week I thought Ellen had come back as a grand figure, to provide us with a direction as the show draws to a conclusion in the next month, but alas she is simply back to bicker and the whole overaching cylon-human arc was put on the backburner a mere four episodes from the end of the show

One glint of hope - I have noticed drastic changes between the different writers, so hopefully this is just the failure of Jane Esperson to understand that this isn't a soap opera

and will they ever find a use for Tory (the dark-skinned Cylon)? - she's a complete nobody and has this important role, and yet has developed no character for the audience to relate to, seems odd for one of the people who are currently leading the plot more than the traditional Odama/Roslin/Starbuck/Apollo to not be a proper character

Meanwhile I still love Lost - even tho many plebs claim they don't get it, the fun of the mystery is going but it's still very watchable and cohesive and of course, the mystery had to eventually be scraped off as we approached the tail end

moew than I can say for the higgledy-piggledy Heroes, which I need to check up on

Is it offensive to call someone Scottish?

apparently so if you're Jeremy Clarkson, as everything you say is offensive

So what's he done this time? - well he's in Oz right now doing Top Gear live and he called the dear leader Gordon Brown, a one-eyed scottish idiot

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7873624.stm

and that has outraged scottish (labour) MPs - why?

He is one-eyed, he is Scottish, and he is an idiot - perfectly truthful

The one-eyed thing I admit can be seen as a bit low, but frankly I stopped defending Brown about a year ago as the extent of his government's failure became too much, and he definitely is Scottish - what's so wrong with saying that? Clarkson is merely describing him, for some reason this is offensive to Scots

It's unlikely Clarkson would call him an Englishman even if he were one because you don't normally distinguish if they're the same as you, but if Brown were Brummie, scouse, welsh, geordie or manc he would've used those too - he didn't say anything bad about scots, merely that brown was one, he did mention something about frenchmen being killed, but that's fine

If I were describing Brown to a foreigner I would first and foremost refer to him as scottish, I would then probably throw in overweight, stubborn, arrogant, self-important and an all-round general git with a speech impediment

Clarkson has said nothing wrong here and these MPs are blatantly just jumping on the anti-Clarkson (who wields a lot of power in Britain) bandwagon, trying to whip up a storm and defend the dear leader (btw if you think my use of the dear leader is inflammatory even the BBC use it in TV shows) - maybe they're even trying to whip up nationalism against someone who is pretty firmly english

But the fact is Labour once again threaten our freedom as they try to complain about the man with the biggest voice in the country - he speaks the truth, this is what we all think about your bloody one-eyed scottish idiot - and you deny us even that! we can't have an election, we can't have a say, and now even the most watched man in the country gets slammed for telling us what we want to hear!

As I say, even BBC journalists like to call him the dear leader - looking through his lies and spin every week, but he continues on, as nothing short of a revolution will deter him, he has no integrity, an utter sham and Britain's worst PM, the head of a bunch of a corrupt, self-serving bunch of egotists who have no intention of serving the people, only themselves

This government are an evil, unwanted joke who lie to us and we are bloody fed up of it, so go on Clarkson - stick it to the dear leader