Rank Country International tourist arrivals
1 France 74.20 million………….. Republic
2 United States 54.88 million…… Republic
3 Spain 52.23 million …………… Constitutional Monarchy
4 China 50.88 million ……………Republic
5 Italy 43.24 million ……………..Republic
6 United Kingdom 28.20 million .. Constitutional Monarchy
7 Turkey 25.51 million …………..Republic
8 Germany 24.22 million …………Republic
9 Malaysia 23.65 million …………Federal Elective monarchy
10 Mexico 21.45 million………….Republic

I see how that monarchy thing really makes a difference for the toursim industry. Thank god for the Royals where would we be without em eh?

My big worry is that the facade of being “Royal” is based on being a member of a particular family. It was the case therefore that to maintain the perception of being “Royal” it was necessary to breed with other Royals. Clearly, due to the demise of other royal families around the world the “royals” are now having to dip their bread in our commoners gene soup to avoid the possibility of horse faced or elephant eared genetic mutations. 😯

Therefore by that token Will and Harry were only 50% royal, and Will and Kate’s offspring will only be 25% royal. So the question is when does the Royal wee stop being royal and become piss?

Personally I think the big error in all this is in Cameron thinking that quoting Michael winner could be anything other than a huge error of judgement unless preceded by “…. and this is how you can sound like a complete arse”….

not that I am aware of I was just trying to goad them into an argument on a slow day

LOL …… you are David Cameron and I claim my £5

– I mean, its not like the Tory party have ever given us a woman leader or Prime Minister,

……… Thatcher is woman ?? 😯

Seems to me the real point here is that under very moderate pressure the chinless one scored a massive own goal. Very poor IMHO

It seems a stupid thing to do so yes I accept it is conceivable you did this

Like I said a simple yes would have done 8)

saying that though you did have the brains to drop the wedding argument

I don’t beleive I did….. it is entirely possible however that I couldn’t be bothered to re-explain the glaringly obvious though.

Was neither a witty not a shitty reply Very disappointing

A simple “yes you are right” would have done….. 😯

You said:-

you want a poor pleb like me to give up holidays

But I said:-

someone made the point that given the state of the countries finances currently surely it would have been more patriotic ………. for everyone to give up a Bank holiday or two and work for nothing to help boost the economy, rather than have an extra one

So no, no I didn’t.

AND

You said:-

whilst those billionaiires scroungers get wed.

But my OP said:-

surely it would have been more patriotic for the royals to have their Wedding on a weekend,

Or in other words the exact opposite of what you are suggesting.

So that is, I would suggest, fairly conclusive as rebuttals go, so frankly theres as much chance of me enjoying the wedding as there is of you getting an apology.

PS: Totally irrelevant, but I did enjoy the report about the media village on Radio 5 this am, especially when they were discussing the number of big hitting anchormen which were there from the key US networks.

Reporter to studio: Whats the collective noun for Anchors?
Studio to reporter: A Bunch ?? 🙄

In brief the evidence is that locking people up for long periods of time has little or no beneficial effect on their criminality. (not sure of current recidivism rate, but last time I did check it was well over 90%). Therefore do something else which is more effect.

There you go sorted! Even Ken Clarke has figured that one out so it must be blindingly obvious 😯

you want a poor pleb like me to give up holidays and stuff to help out GDP whilst those billionaiires scroungers get wed.

Not bothered to read the OP again then JY? MMMMM let me think about that for a minute

Speaking as director of an SME, my business died a death about Wednesday last week after a fairly obvious decline for about a week to ten days before that and has yet to recover. Up until now we’d been holding our own pretty well in a very difficult market place, but this shennanigans has absolutely killed it. In financial terms I’ll be going substantially into my overdraft for the first time in 10 years to pay the wages. Currently turnover for the month is about 45% down on the same time last year, whereas overall up until now we have maintained about a 5% growth year on year for the last 18 months or so. Probably exacerbated by the excellent holiday weather to be fair.

Example of what? The state isn’t involved. Some fella has had a badge made for his daughter. Nothing has been banned, nobody has been taxed. Fine by me

Apart from the fact that you are watching someone quite literally making up an element of our constitution… remember? we are a constitutional monarchy.

Like this sort of bollocks for example!

Unbelievably, this drivel forms part of our “constitution”…..well it does when it suits.

over absolute cornerstones of British Democracy. The arrogance of Blair was that he seemed to think the very fundamentals of British (and eventually international) justice were his own personal plaything, to do with as he wished

…. and that beloved is why we need to have a written constitution as opposed to a fairy story with numerous different interpretations to suit whoever happens to be sitting in the big chair at the time. Mind you, you try getting the big chair person to tie themselves down, whoever they are, but most especially the present encumbents.

which ones the majority agree with and which ones the majority find offensive

….and when there isn’t a majority in any direction?

The only role of government is to reflect the wishes of the people.

Blimey thats going to make for some properly complicated laws….Loud Sado masochism is alright at No 47 Acacia Avenue between 4 & 6 pm weekdays when Mrs Smith next door is out, but not on Fridays when Mr Patel on the other side gets home early from his night shift. However, Mr Patel must not cook up his famous Fish sizzler dish when No 47 are doing their thing as the smell of it effects the libido of those engaged in S & M at 47. Conversely Mrs Smith mustn’t boil her bloomers on the range during Ramadan, as the ensuing …… and so on and so on.

Go get it sorted immeidate pronto stylee. The effects can be irreversible if left.

It may well be as simple as not having facilties for kids, i.e. family rooms/cots/smaller beds etc etc and wanting to hire their rooms out to adults at a premium. Seems fair enough to me. Not quite in the same league as please fill out this form listing all areas of your life about which I might hold a predjudice.

In answer to the OP, I’m hoping for a revolution, and fervently hoping they can **** it up before I have to sit through yet another interminable Royal event……..PLEASE???

Just a question but why do people mainly go to thetford to ride the brandon park side and black route, the red has amazing singletrack that doesn’t normally get sandy or muddy

there fixed that for you 8)

How many people have died in car accidents in the same period?

Cars seem safe enough to most people.

…….. and your point is? Presumably that we should ignore any saftey concerns and neither be honest about them or seek to mitigate them. The simple fact is that the nuclear industry has lied about safety since its earliest days, and continues to do so. Fukishima is a classic case in point where consistently the Japanese public have been told not to worry and that its under control, when clearly and self evidently it isn’t.
My point is that I can’t be in favour of this form of energy generation while that situation persists. I know its dangerous, so some twunt telling me not to worry and its unbelievably unlikely that an accident might happen is not going to brighten up my day. There is a point above about how bad does the earthquake have to be and so forth. Sizewell is built on the fastest eroding coastline in Europe, averaging a metre per annum into the briney blue. If you know anything at all about the history and geography of the region you will also know how foolhardy building there is. Don’t for one moment think that Fukishima couldn’t happen here just because we don’t have earthquakes of any magnitude. It’ll happen because people have used blinkered and flawed thinking. Thats what leads to accidents.

Thats why its important to have open and honest debate.

Hurrah! so we’ve crossed the rubicon and agreed that they are dangerous then?

So the very small dangers associated with nuclear power

no sorry you’ve got that back to front they are very large dangers with a low frequency, although that too is a moot point and is dependant on how you measure them, and over what period of time. That is entirely my point the debate is neither open nor truthful.

Try going to an enquiry for the building of a nuclear power station and asking why its being built so far away from the population centre that needs the power. Be insistent on a proper answer and you’ll get escorted out. The simple reason is they are **** dangerous and its not politically acceptable to stick them in or close to a city.

TJ how long do you think the effects of catastrophic climate change would last then?

Seems to me that the nuclear bods like to have it both ways. Apparently Fukishima is old technology, so therefore this disaster doesn’t count, because new stations wouldn’t fail like that, yet on the other hand its prefectly reasonable to then drone on about global warming due to the consumption of fossil fuels over the past 300 years or so. Guys you can’t have it both ways, either old stuff counts or it doesn’t.

If a substance causes damage then it’s effectively a posion, arguing otherwise is splitting hairs. The effects of our profligate use of fossil fuels are worse than the current record of nuclear incidents imo. And whilst people are up in arms about nuclear no-one seems to give much of a crap about CO2.

Utter crap. Did you not notice the absence of pea souper type smog and the fact that air quality in the Western world was improved consistently year on year for the last 50 years or so? The problem is that when they started out with industrial consumption of fossil fuels they were unaware of the issues, so they carried on without concern. Once we were aware we have acted to change, and the nuclear industry is in fact evidence of that change. In respect of nuclear energy we are already aware of the issues, and furthermore the scale of them when something goes wrong is of an entirely different order to that which happens with any other single station source of energy failing. So reverting back to the double standards point, if the argument is that we should simply accept the dangers associated with nuclear energy, then it is surely disingenuous to suggest that there is any problem with the continuing use of fossil fuels. Alternatively if you believe as I do that it is criminal to pretend that everything in the garden is rosy when self evidently it isn’t, we should be having an open discussion about the reality of generating energy in this way, and the reality is that in return for Jam today we are taking a very substantial risk with our futures, Fukishima is just the latest evidence of that fact.

ditto what jonb said

besides how much to launch two fast jets and escort a flight in I wonder? Bet that wasn’t cheap.

**** me!

😥

Bit dangerous though….you know how gullible all those Daily Wail readers are don’t you??

However if you actually look at the list – I have only had a brief glance – very few decommissioning completed at huge costs. None in the UK

Most of the reactors on that list are not in fact decommissioned, and those that are have in effect been taken away and buried in a hole, rather than made safe per se. Its also noticable that its costing hugely more and taking longer than anticipated. So yet more dosh going into the nuclear program by default.

To me its a bit like that first motor we all once had. Cheap as chips and then you have to stump up a huge bill for a bit thats failed, so before you know it you’ve invested loads into it that you never intended to. Then you get into the “rather than cut my losses I’ll keep it so I get my investment back” school of thought that inevitably leads to more mopney going into it until before you know it you can’t afford to do the smart thing and off it in favou of something more sensible.

. Badly flawed in that there is no allowance made for the missing people – Ie those who don’t get head injuries

I love those posts by TJ where the inability to prove a negative, i.e. how many times something didn’t happen is used to right off any research that doesn’t agree with his point of view.

Vive le casque debate … where would we be without it

they were treated in a political and deceptive manner by the police which sends an ominous message about the right to protest.

…….claim the guys who used deceit to hijack a legitimate and lawful protest to make a political point which was …… ????

The real problem is that no one actually knows for certain what the outcomes are or for that matter the risks, this situation is still unravelling and is not even close to being over. For example there is good evidence to suggest that things such as genetic abnormalities due to radiation exposure might take several generations to manifest, however the reality is that no one actually knows until after it happens. wehn this plabnt and all subsequent plants were built we were assured they were safe. They self evidently are not.

Thereby hangs the tail.

There were however incidents which were not associated with the march that required a police presence. The police put the numbers involved in these incidents at about 500, of which over 200 were arrested.

I’m pretty sure thats what I said.

Bearing in mind that the police had at their disposal over 4,500 officers which up until that point had not been needed, to deal with 500 individuals, you can hardly talk about “an extremely stretched resource” ffs.

And since you are also obviously clueless, let me explain about the way policing works…..regardless of who is marshalling the march they have to have resources in place to deal with potentially volatile situations which is what they did. You then have two seperate hi jack protests, one violent and one less so….. which I’m pretty sure is what I said too. At the time they occurred the Police don’t have instant knowledge of scale, scope or outcome, or for that matter who is involved. Therefore they will take steps on the basis of the information to hand, whilst still maintaining sufficient resources to deal with the main march. Seems to me they handled it pretty well given that the obvious intent of the two hijacks was to do just that and provoke headlines.

I really don’t want to sound racist

Well shut up, go away and don’t then!

he did he said you were talking crap , he has a point.

As above read etc

There was more chance of a sudden outbreak of Jammie Dodgers.

Read the post you are responding to, try to comprehend it, then write your response before hitting send is generally sound advice in my experience.

I see no evidence that they failed to comply with the law or that it was not their intention to do so. There is however considerable evidence that the police prohibited them from leaving the shop.

And the Police know that how? Seems to me they had a legitimate street protest of some 1/4 of a million people to deal with alongside two hijack protests one of which was extremely violent, the other less so. So you’ve got an extremely stretched resource having to deal with serious riot conditions and you seem to expect them to treat everyone breaking the law on the day with a cup of tea and a nice chat over a biscuit to ascertain whether they are going to torch the place or not. Personally whenever this stuff goes off I thank the Lord we live where we do and have the policing we now have.

The rejuvenation of the industrial wasteland in and around Stratford has already happened to a great extent. If they achieve nothing else that will be a fantastic legacy.

Riding beyond their ability is my favourite. Generally I watch for a while sigh, then turn away before I have to whittle away further at my already denuded first aid supplies.

I very much doubt that you will find anyone who genuinely doesn’t understand and accept the need for a period of austerity and prudence. However, the issue is not about that, its about fairness. The Crisis was not created by the public sector, nor by those who are poorest in our society. I have no doubt they both would expect to take a fair share of the burden, but you are talking about a government that does things like deem it reasonable to bring in a tax avoiding lizard like Phillip Greene to pontificate to the rest of us about biting the bullet. Thats what gets up peoples backs and makes them demonstrate. Not the cuts per se.

Refering to the OP: What is morally wrong is anarchists hijacking every flaming protest nowadays which is effectively creating a situation whereby the right to protest for the ordinary man in the street is becoming severely eroded.