Not exactly the calm after the storm today as the cloud of volcanic ash continues to threaten northern Europe and the airports remain closed; meanwhile, political correspondents are ejaculating left, right and centre over Nick Clegg's performance in the Prime Ministerial Debate last night - they must have been watching a different channel because I only remember him being slightly more competent than he is during PMQs. The polls are all over the place and we have no idea if they represent voting intentions or just the punters's delight at seeing their preferred choice of leader being smiled at by Gordon the honey monster.
A staggering 250 people joined the Lib Dems after the show
But what about Dave's "Big Society"? Not a mention! No sooner than it's been announced - gone! And Gordy didn't get in a dig about inheritance tax. Throughout the show, ITV had a live 'worm' poll on its website tracking real time likes and dislikes of the three leaders. At no time did Dave get above 18%, while the other two were battling it out for the lead, wavering between 40 and 42% alternately. Yet a poll for the Sun newspaper, carried out after the TV debate, pushed Labour into third place on 28%, with the Lib Dems on 30% and the Conservatives 33%. They must have been gutted however when the BBC applied these results to their "swing-o-meter" as it gave: Labour 276 seats; Conservatives 245 seats; Lib Dems 100 seats; and Others 29 seats at a general election.
You'll never walk alone, much
On any other Friday, the news of a football club the size (both financially and famously) of Liverpool being put up for sale would have filled the newsrooms with puns and pundits the whole day long, sending the markets into a frenzy lasting over the whole weekend, opening nervously on Monday morning to assess the havoc wreaked. However, on this occasion, I didn't even hear about it until 4.00 in the afternoon upon checking my mobile as I stopped for a fag before embarking on the weekend shop in Waitrose (I still don't get £130 for four dinners).
Gillett and Hicks have appointed the British Airways chairman, Martin Broughton, to oversee the process and become the new independent chairman with immediate effect [just aswell he wasn't doing anything - Ed]. Hicks and Gillett are understood to have agreed a six-month extension to their re-financing deal with their existing bankers, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Wachovia. There have also been reports of a three-year, £300m re-financing package with Barclays, denied by Anfield officials and sources close to the Americans. The Americans have consistently made it clear they value Liverpool in the £500m bracket and recently allowed a deadline to pass from the Rhône Group on their offer to purchase a 40% stake for £110m. Despite interest from several parties since managing director Christian Purslow launched his search for new investors last year, the Rhône Group are the only party to have made an official bid so far.
You can run but you can't hide
All this means that Gillett and Hicks don't have to pay back £100m by July, so Gerrard and Torres stay - for now. However, Agger may well have to attend the planetpmc summer bootcamp in order to re-acquaint himself with some good old-fashioned discipline [do what?! - Ed].
