was incredibly sad to see the end of so many nationalised industries, but what was the alternative. They were badly run, by people who didn’t care. Unions had too much power and they were bringing the country and these industries to their knees.

I’m all for looking after the less well off in our society, but not at the expense of bringing the down the country as a result.

Hands up everyone who thinks the countrys doing better as the result of the de-unionisation, privatisation or in fact due to tory policies generally.

PS: ….and where are all the apologists for Thatcher/Cameron who were so much in evidence pre the last election?

Beijing last October and could not believe how bad the pollution was

You’re not kidding, although a lot has to do with the prevailing winds, and sometimes for pollution you can read sand/dust storm.

This is a photo I took in a market showing how parts of central Shanghai used to look with Pudong

Thats the Dongtai Road antiques market just off Xintiandi (Smart shopping area): Its there for tourists. In the pre boom era a good deal of this area was a rat infested crap hole. I well remember sitting in a busy up market restaurant near here, hearing a scuffling noise in the suspended ceiling and looking up only to see a rat the size of a cat running about in the ceiling void. No one else batted an eyelid. Its loads better now!

A good one for you is Tangshan, near Beijing 7.5 million souls and i nthe Guiness book of records but no one here has ever heard of it.

Any chance at all, ever, that someone might just listen to the teachers as to what they might think about education?? I can’t remember a single education minister who has been that revolutionary.

1. how many have terrible pollution?
2. “they breed and live like rats” “it’s most western people’s idea of hell”.
3. In order to build some of these cities they’ve simply bulldozed entire towns and villages
4. In Shanghai they’ve (often forcibly) moved people from the poor, central areas to new accommodation on the outskirts and to help developed their cities.

I’ve been working and travelling in China since the late 1980’s. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever in my mind that the average guy in the street in Mainland China is way better off now than he was when I first went there. Also that there is an unbelievable bias in reporting here.
If you were to have this conversation with most Chinese living in cities they would be in full agreement regarding pollution, but would at some point would start asking about the industrial revolution in the UK and how come it was OK for us to rape the worlds resources but not them.

…and of course theres never been any sort of compulsary purchase orders in the UK and never will be again…

OH was let go on the spot with 10mins

If this is correct, and it was over 12 months, then it is automatically an unfair dismissal. If that were the case and you had taken it somewhere within 3 months its pretty much certain she would have won hands down.

As part of employee benefits, all medicines/surgery for family pets was at cost price.

Anything in writing to that effect, or any evidence to support it? If so there is no question of them being able to then turn round and charge over the odds. (NB: Employees are entitled in law to receive full written terms and conditions of employment within 2 months of employment commencing, so if not, then whoops thats another one against the practice manager).

is cheating the practice out of money and if my OH doesn’t pay in full by Friday, then her old employers will take her to court

Read up on the Harrassment Act and then go and see a brief. Normally the first half hour consultation is free. Pre-prepare, take along all records and documents that you can and preferably a statement from the current employer as to what is happening at work. Alternatively, take a look at county court online. Thats where they’ll take her if they do go to court. From experience, if theres a valid dispute between the parties, the beak will normally just say go away and sort it out between yourselves. So as long as your OH behaves reasonably its unlikely, from what you say, that she’ll get done.

EDIT: PS you’ll do well to get into CAB, they’ve had all their funding cut and nowadays will only deal with the most serious of cases.

Years ago I went to one of those “make yourself a better salesman” presentations. The speaker made a pretty convincing argument that if you have enough of something and you try hard enough you can sell it to someone, somewhere…..guess this proves him right.

They do. What’s the cost of damage to the environment from burning fossil fuels?

Err well clearly they don’t, (£67.5 billion and counting for example) and as we have already established no one wants a reactor or a dump next door, which is one of those costs. On top of which, you are making my point for me. I totally concur with you regarding the point re burning fossil fuels. So if say for example the clean up cost was included in the price of a gallon of petrol, or a cubic metre of gas, or a bucket of coal, or a watt of electricity do you reckon we might just be a bit more frugal with out use of it? As opposed to doing precisely what we are doing with the nuclear issue, which is storing the problem for future generations, and blandly carrying on towards the precipice on the presumption that it’ll all work out in the end.

*cough* coal *cough*
*cough* Russian gas *cough*
*cough* fracking *cough*

*cough* the public need to understand the real costs *cough*
*cough* use less energy *cough*
*cough* have a real debate including the issue of population *cough*

it was a government place run by pseudo civil servants.

……and your point is reader? Personally I couldn’t give a flying fleck if it were run by a green eyed snot gobbling puss ball, what does however bother me is a bill for £67.5 billion, and the fact that its still a seething mess even then.

Going forward they have plans

Well thats reassuring I presume it means that they had none previously, or is it just that the original plans were crap, in which case wheres the value in the statement “they have plans”.
Incidentally while on that subject what is the nda if not another bunch of pseudo civil servants??

PS: This really says all you need to know on the subject of nuclear power

The simple fact is that waste and decommissioning costs have not been reflected truthfully in the costings for energy generated in this way. Mainly because no one actually knew, or now knows what will actually be involved. This is why they are built remotely, and why you cannot get a straight answer from the industry on such subjects.

Personal view is that we, (as a nation) should not commit to things that we (the electorate) don’t have the full story on. That is not to say don’t do it, just don’t do it without being aware of the consequences.

Go Go Google Translate!

Damn …. you guys just won’t let a girl have any secrets!

Berm Bandit you should declare a vested interest given you’re French.

Merde! …….. Busted! ….. désolé pour la réponse lente. Je me bats avec les rebelles à Tombouctou, et la connexion internet est un peu lent.
Mais oui, je suis le légionnaire gay de la ville St Geramine vieux à votre service ”

he could equally just donate 50million of his 175million

Lets just doe the sums shall we? 3 million is 1.71% of a £175 million fortune

To equate to that

On a £20,000 salary you need to donate £342 per annum]
…..£25,000 ……………………. £427.5 …….
…..£30,000 ……………………. £513 ………

and so….. now thats just salary, not your personal net worth, so when all possessions and what have you are thrown in thats more like a fair comparision. however, I would guess that there are few if any of the moaners on here donate even the above to charity.

…….oh an by the way, my good cause is gnarlier than your good cause, and my charitable example is much more charitable etc etec…. Jeez some people!! 😥

The transformation from petulant kid to world class sporting icon is nothing short of miraculous.

I well remember the vitriol that was heaped on the guy after that game against Argentina, and also the shit storm around the Rebecca “Loose” business.

He’s handled it all with great dignity and intelligence,(and even if it wasn’t him, he had the wit to get the right people around him to do it for him).

As far as I’m concerned he epitomises what a priviliged sport star should aspire to be, and is a role model for both his peers and for kids worldwide.

Regarding the jibes about his PR and self interest in his actions. Would he be in the position to do what he does without it I wonder? Remember there are plenty of people out there with PR etc, who still then behave like twunts, and do nothing at all with it.

Good on him, and so how about we just celebrate that rare commodity, a good British bloke?

Total transmission losses in the UK grid are estimate at around 7.7% making it 92.3% efficient. I challenge you to find a form of electrical generation that is that efficient

WTF?

What I said was is that distribution is wasteful and thanks for confirming it, but no need as I already knew it…..that why I said it. The point being why build them so far way from the point of demand in that case? Trust me, any business, and I mean absolutely anyone who could improve their profitability by 7.7% by simple relocating to a point nearer the demand would do it without a second thought unless of course there was a bloody good reason not to.

Oh yeah, we’ve already covered that

So we should stop using nuclear because we don’t understand all the risks, but yet we must make electricity from something. Or use a lot, and I mean a lot, less

Well yes actually, thats precisely what I mean. We are completely profligate with energy use currently. Why? Because we/our politicians are pawning the future of the planet so that we have access to cheap subsidised energy, (subsidised by ignoring future cost). i.e. we are not coming even close to paying the real price for it, and that is precisely the debate we should be having BEFORE we jump irrevocably into a cess pool of our own making. There are a good deal of unpalateable things that need addressing while we’re at it, unrestricted population being pretty near the top of the list.

Nothing happened!

Shunichi Yamashita one of the leading experts on the effects of radiation in Japan said when asked by Der Spigel; People want clear answers. Where is it safe? And where is it not?

Yamashita: We don’t have those answers. When people ask me: “Are doses below 100 millisievert 100 percent safe?” Then I have to answer as a scientist: “I don’t know.”

The fact is that the “nothing happened” statement is fatuous, it clearly did and to what extent it happened will potentially continue to unfold for generations.

The problem with this nuclear argument is that you cannot possibly make statements such as x or y is safe, or measurement a or b is a safe limit, much less that nothing happened. Professor Yamashita, when asked made a completely sound scientific answer, which is that we don’t know. The truth is much of the learning about human interaction with this recent technology is being done at the expense of the current generations. The big problem is that the risk attached to that are exponetionally greater than the risks associated with precisely the same process with earlier technologies.

So rather than pointing at nasty coal power stations and comparing nuclear risks with that, wouldn’t it be more sensible to acknowledge that it took many generations for the combined wit and wisdom of mankind to appreciate the risks inherant in coal, and that quite possibly it will be the same before we fully understand what we are playing with in nuclear technology???

The majority of people are unable to reconcile these two points

I’m not sure how this is at odds with this

The other unfortunate reality is that politicians don’t have the balls to actually confront the issue, which is a set of very straightforward choices. So instead they pretend its all cushty, and just go ahead and impose it whereever they can get away with it.

or anything else I’ve said in this thread. i.e. lets not piss about here, we’re going to build it where its needed, or we’re going to use less power. you can’t have it both ways, as the reality is if it goes tits up you can run but you cannot hide.

What the we’re going to sell off 25% and have 25% cuts that morphed into 100% sell off and then went back down to 25% sell off and cuts when everyone got excited about it? Don’t know what you mean….

Arse: I’ve just got it, what this says is that they are going to give/sell off the estate to the RSPB/Wildlife Trust/Ramblers etc who will hold in trust for the nation, while timber rights are sold to the highest bidder….

Because you build power plants where the land is cheap and people need the jobs

Oh I see, so how come they’re not building them all in sub-Saharan Africa then?

Simple – mitigating risk. No matter how small the risk of anything is happening, the risk of that affecting a lot of people becomes much smaller if you build it away from population centres

Absolutely right. the reason is two fold, one the obivous as stated and the other the also obvious, which is there are less people to vote against you when you impose it upon them.

Sadly, the truth is that the majority of people don’t want a nuclear facility of any description in their back yard. Therefore as a democracy we should not be building them. The other unfortunate reality is that politicians don’t have the balls to actually confront the issue, which is a set of very straightforward choices. So instead they pretend its all cushty, and just go ahead and impose it whereever they can get away with it.

Two words that whip up fear and misunderstanding like no other are “nuclear” and “radiation”

If you genuinely believe that, may I suggest you show up at an enquiry into a forth coming nuclear power station, and ask this simple question.

“Given that the most wasteful part of electricity generation and distribution is transit from point of generation to point of use, and given that the generating platform itself is safe, why is it necessary to build it so far away from where the power is needed?”

I did so at the Sizewell B enquiry and was shown the door. Can’t imagine why though.

An out of sight hole in the ground is one hell of a lot better than this:

Oh I see, didn’t realise the choice was only restricted to cancer or aids 😉

Not sure what you’re getting at there Graham.

Simple: Its not the location of the dump that matters, its the fact we are creating the waste in the first instance. So specifically with electricity generation, the incredibly laissez faire attitude that we have to the consumption of energy and the reckless creation of inherantly dangerous and unstable systems to feed the relentless demand for it is the problem.

So port of call one = use less

Unfortunately, an out of sight hole in the ground thats not in most peoples back yard is a more politically acceptable solution than the reality and/or a sensible long term strategy.

Falls under the same heading as “recycling” IMHO, i.e. totally missing the point…… its not how you recycle that counts, its consumption of finite resources in an unnecessary and wasteful way thats the problem. This issue is much the same in that its a pitiful after thought to an expensive and wasteful process that starts with massive consumption and the waste of resources, and ends with lets chuck the outcome into landfill and ignore it as an issue.

Interesting documentary on BBC 7 tonight on this subject. Containing many contradictions, including the one about Harry not being treated differently, but unusually having a special flying arrangement to overcome the shortcomings he apparently doesn’t have, and special security, which if course is precisely like everyone else.

Not to mention the very documentary that is simply being made to emphasise this non existent sameness.

Very sad IMHO

General comment: Not STW specific

Personally, whilst fully respecting mods right to do as they see fit, I’ve always found the inconsistency applied to online morality to be hilarious. As far as I’m concerned personal abuse and blatant breaches of the law of the land apart I reckon everything should be fair game.

Amen to that

Sad but true Dave… all I wanted to do when I left school was join the Army, actually originally tried for REME, but everytime I went to the recruiting office they suggested I try one step up until it became apply to Sandhurst young man, at which point I was the proverbial fish out of water and all ambitions in that direction were successfully nailed as a result. Often wondered what might have been. No doubt things have moved along since, but in those days background and upbringing were definitely key factors over all other considerations.

PS: and before you start Yes it was post Boer War!

like your comment about Harry not being in harm’s way

Again read what I wrote …. that is precisely what I didn’t say.

It is also a fact that they will not risk him falling into the hands of the Taliban, in fact to allow that would be reckless and foolish and would clearly undermine our actions in that country …………….. In my view the big problem is that to sustain the Royal myth, these folk have to be seen to be special. The more they try to be like Joe Average, the more myth collapses. so in my cynical mind the fact they are pushing the ginger kid out towards harms way is probably a lot ot do with the fact that he looks like his Dad, as opposed to his “Dad”, and therefore an unfortunate accident at work would not necessarily be too big a problem.

The BBC said he got a D in Geography and a B in the “suspect” Art A-Level.

Fair one Atlaz. As explained its not the grade that is at issue though, and could I add that actually have no problem with the guy at all, its the institution of the Royal Family that boils my proverbial wee.

going to have to disagree (despite the fact he may have cheated, “computer says” he’s got that pass… etc),

Hi Dave,

Bit of selective quoting there. what I actually said was,

Not when ones an E which you very obviously and publically cheated to get.

Now then, when I went for selection for Sandhurst (didn’t know that now did yer? ….and yes I failed dismally 🙁 ) you wouldn’t get anywhere near the place if there was a sniff of any such scandal, and thats the point. I suspect the same would be true now, unless of course you have HRH in front of your name.

That apart, another thing that went through my mind, on the subject was what precisely are we doing about the scourge of heroin while we’re there? Fantastic opportunity to truly disprupt that evil trade you’d think wouldn’t you?

Absolutely no disrespect to those amongst us who wear stripes and pips on our DPM jim jams, but in the murky world of what the flick is going on in Afghan you can see my point can’t you?

We are only here because they are

To be honest this is like shooting fish in a barrel, but hey.

Airtragic: You do appreciate that for Taliban you can also read Mujahedin, i.e. them very same fellows who we funded to do to the Russians precisely what the Taliban are now doing to us, once more with a total disregard for the actual impact on the folk on the ground. Not only that, the Taliban is nothing to do with why we went there. We went there in cahoots with Gee Dubya in search of Al Quaeda, and in particular one O.B. Laden esq late of Saudia Arabia, who in fact was having a very nice time living as a guest of our allies next door. Incidentally, thats also the same Saudia Arabia which appears to be funding both the Taliban and Al Quaeda.

In short to think in simplistic Good guys/Bad guys terms is naieve to say the least. Rather like thinking the Ginger kid is fighting his way to the top despite it all, as opposed to because of it.

why we’re here, at the request of the afghan the puppet govt we installed, mainly focused on training afghan security forces so they can look after things without us we can get out of the mess we’ve been dropped in by the politicos

STFY

2 a levels will get you in to Sandhurst

Not when ones an E which you very obviously and publically cheated to get.

additional requirement for pilot training, except passing the aptitude tests

I think thats what I said. We’ve already established he didn’t pass the entry criteria for Sandhurst, and would not be in the army but for cheating.

Interviews given by service personnel don’t have to be authorised at any sort of level

Apologies, didn’t realise there was free access to Bastion. Whens the next shuttle flight wouldn’t mind having a butchers myself?

As per usual on these threads, the real deal is that his A levels would not get him into either Sandhurst or flight crew training. Being HRH did that. It is also a fact that they will not risk him falling into the hands of the Taliban, in fact to allow that would be reckless and foolish and would clearly undermine our actions in that country. So the reality is that its all about privilige and position and not at all about ability per se.
On top of that the reality is that any interview given by service personnel has to be authorised at the highest level. So despite the fact that he does come over as a personable fella, the reality is that his image is being manipulated and created whatever way you spin the plates.
In my view the big problem is that to sustain the Royal myth, these folk have to be seen to be special. The more they try to be like Joe Average, the more myth collapses. so in my cynical mind the fact they are pushing the ginger kid out towards harms way is probably a lot ot do with the fact that he looks like his Dad, as opposed to his “Dad”, and therefore an unfortunate accident at work would not necessarily be too big a problem.

Sad fact is that it is possible to have a perfectly reasonable conversation about this. Makes one a tad sad frankly

Oh yeah, and I didn’t mention colour either, or any other sterotyped group. I merely said that there is a fairly obvious cultural element to this that needs to be explored, acknowledged and understood. What I was refering to is a culture that perceives vulnerability to be an opportunity to be exploited.

I don’t want to degenerate into nit picking patriotpro, but Oh Contrare

binners – Member
I don’t think anyone’s been shying away from pointing out the obvious, have they? Including some high profile Muslims, including Baroness Warsi.
Personally I think its a fairly predictable outcome from a religion

johndoh – Member
I think its a fairly predictable outcome from a religion and culture that regards females as fundamentally inferior human beings.

I see what you are trying to say but I don’t agree – this sort of abuse goes on no matter the religion of the perpetrator(s) so to blame the religion is a bit lazy.

binners – Member
so to blame the religion is a bit lazy.
Its not really, though, is it? Lets ignore the specific examples of abusing children, and look at Islam more

Thus my post pointing out that I did not mention religion.

You can’t actually say this. As to even suggest it immediately gets you compared to Nick Griffin

Now then binners thats partly my point, I kind of feel thats its a bit Emperors New Clothes to ignore the apparent facts.

Actually, I never mentioned religion, and I very specifically chose not to. I don’t think you will find anything of any note in the Koran that actually suggests that treating womankind badly is a feature of that faith in any context whatsoever.

This thread demonstrates the tragedy of doping better than anything that can be said or done. Regardless of what steps are now taken and what is done or not done the stain is indelibly there for ever more.

Personally, I do believe that the GB end of the sport is way cleaner than has ever been the case before. However, it doesn’t really matter does it?

What’s a “high ticket item” when it’s at home?

Fair one: Sorry we sell bleeding expensive items to people who like to have objects within their home that are unique and unusual. Better?

This thread is useless without details…

I could write a book about it … its a daily and routine occurence. Unfortunately, about the moment I hit send I’d probably lose my job, and more than likely be facing litigation so sorry, no specific details.