dazh – Member

And WTF is a ‘back stabber’?

People with brains and the ability to use them

You know what now convinces me even more I should vote for him?

The lefty, hand wringing, tree embracing, back stabber loving, STW big hitters telling me not to. :lol:

Solar Farms er don’t work at night, the period of peak demand, there are two tides daily, you could prefabricate compartmental structures that you sink in areas of not exactly natural beauty, or create harbours where none exist and generate power from the movement of the water from one compartment to the other and of course from the natural ingress and outflow. You don’t need to dam the entire severne estuary. Or sea bottom propellors like wind machines in areas of great tidal flow, there are plenty of them and they work day in day out.

Common sense and some half decent marine engineers is all that’s required and some investment of course and oh guess what, the technology could be exported to other parts of the world.

Like Cleggy, JY, you need to read all of that report in which they insist in order to remain they want to see EU reform.

As to the Motor Industry, you may not have been old enough to spot the distinct lack of British Made cars on French roads or the obstacles placed in the way of British manufacturers wishing to market to Europe, it was one of the reason we voted to join the Common Market, unfortunately we didn’t reckon with the refusal on the part of the others to uphold the rules. VW BMW were not always the Goliaths they are today and the French subsidised Car Industry made very sure it was not profitable to compete with them despite the numerous attempts various governments made to devalue our currency.

‘They’ should be promoting Thorium Nuclear fission, but oh no, there is no weapons grade by product.

Thorium is more widely available than uranium. Wiki

And tide of course, all that natural energy going to waste, day in day out millions of tons of water rising and falling naturally. Not exactly rocket science working out how to harness it.

binners – Member
The fact that normal people (or should that be ‘hard working families’ ) are even contemplating voting for a numpty like Farage, in any numbers, represents the most damning indictment yet of the state of mainstream politics in this country. Could there be a more graphic illustration of how totally unrepresentative, and disengaged from most peoples lives our main political parties now are.

If you were an MP in Westminster then you should be hanging your head in shame that you played your part in allowing things to get to the stage where people are looking to UKIP as a serious recipient of their vote. Could there be a more telling sign of your abject failure?

As it is, I’m sure that none of them (with the odd notable exception) really give a flying ****! Apart from some concern about being jettisoned from the gravy train! They’ll just carry on doing what the whips tell them, representing the interests of their corporate paymasters, and keep filling in those expenses claims

This.

I started life politically on the far left, was a branch secretary of the NUJ, then the absurdity of some of the left attitudes of the day, demarcation etc moved me to the centre and I ended up SDP, never totally wishy washy liberal. However this issue is the Euro debate, and unless you’ve traded with the bastards and realise that the nationalistic tendencies and anti competitive measures are still in place and the cost to our jobs and businesses over the years that has taken place due to European centralisation has meant the end of our car Industry, our manufacturing, fishing, and many other small businesses. I don’t suppose many of you even realise for example there is a law in Germany that if two suppliers of a product are vying for business and one is German the other not, then you are duty bound to use the German supplier? Don’t even get me started on the French.

Try and set up an ebay account in Germany, even if you had one whilst living there, return here and you won’t be able to use it.

Small anecdotal things I realise, but over the years they do grind you down if you’re trying to sell to them.

I’m not naive, but I have no faith in the young career politico **** that are so wet behind the ears or from a world so different to the one I exist in, Farage for all his faults has worked, if there were someone a little less ‘iffy’ then he or she would get the vote, but compared to the rest, you can’t seriously expect anyone to support Milliband, who else is there?

kimbers – Member
Putin standing up to the EU

So what should he have done, despite all their agreements back in 91 about not expanding Nato, here they are rolled right up to his doorstep.

And us, are you really happy to be a little province run by Brussells? Just because we have this charade at Westminster and our jolly Monarchy, doesn’t mean we have much say in the way things go these days. Is it OK to lose our entire fishing Industry, have huge swathes of land on set aside paid to keep a few wealthy landowners happy, not to mention the expense of our Energy costs to subsidise the Wind Industry, which some of the political elite have huge family investment in, then don’t even get me started on the legal profession half of whom are in Parliament or influenced it under the last lot, with their human rights industry and gleeful application of all those nice new European laws that have to be enforced or contested, either way they win.

Funny place this, everyone else it’s OK to be Independent (Scotland Wales, Ireland) yet the bizarre thought that we should be left to run our own affairs as if we’ve never been much good at it… when in point of fact actually we have and actually we could do even better, provided we resisted getting involved in world conflict and minded our own business.

Which after all appears to be the Farage message and during that programme increasingly I came to realise wasn’t much different to my own view on things, he just looks a complete idiot and has had some stupid press with some of the idiots who he surrounds himself with.

grum – Member
I might just vote UKIP out of sheer frustration and I bet there are lots like me.
But why?

For all the ‘wrong’ reasons and I do happen to believe having worked for thirty odd years dealing with ‘Europe’ Germany and France mainly, that we are better off out. It’s a much smaller planet now and we should be using all our previous connections rather than tying ourselves in with an expansionist pseudo imperialist bunch of Brussels Bureaucrats .

Farage was spot on about one thing, Putin is a much cleverer politician than any of our lot and was totally provoked.

I watched both, found myself ‘twittering’ derision at Clegg and BBC giving him so much more early air time, however, the sad fact is UKIP which really is only a single issue party will now become the third force in British Politics, they are going to absolutely annihilate everyone in the May elections for all sorts of negative reasons the other idiots haven’t dealt with.

Then consider what choice of leader we have, a back stabbing weasel, a Lying Philanderer, or a posh Tory Boy with affected Liberal credentials.

Two things will happen, either nobody votes, or they will protest and right now Farage is the best of a really bad bunch, he does at least call it as he sees it. A big mistake letting him get this much publicity by the other three, but as an ex libdem voter of some years standing I hate Clegg with such a vengeance I might just vote UKIP out of sheer frustration and I bet there are lots like me.

Help is at hand for toys19[/url]

I swear to God, the hand wringing that goes on here, he should be released into a room full of those here that ask for such a thing, and they be tasked to care for him. He’s a Poet now and I’m sure he’d hand out Poetic justice as a thank you.

nealglover – Member
Could I marry my mrs in a catholic church with her in the white dress all young girls yearn for, if we presented ourselves today as we were thirty years ago? I doubt it.
Yes you could.

By the sound of it, your first marriage wasn’t a Catholic Ceremony ?

If that’s the case, then you could always have married in a Catholic Church as your previous marriage would not have been recognised as “valid” in the eyes if the Catholic Church, so you had never been previously married.

(If it was a Catholic wedding first time round, then obviously that’s not relevant, and no, you couldn’t.)

Forgive me, my whole post was on the assumption that they were getting married in church these days, just goes to show how little attention Ive been paying to it all, they are not, so I have no beef, not actually sure what the fuss is all about, just a change in description from CP to Marriage, I gather there’s no other real benefits, but anyway that wasn’t what the post was about, it was would we go and frankly wild horses wouldn’t stop us, they do seem to throw better bashes than most. Lol at the stag night and chippendales, think i’d sit at the back… And for the record, it would be wrong on all levels even wanting to get married in the very church that would condemn you, that was also true for us, I wouldn’t turn Catholic for the sake of a Church wedding even if they now say I could, my experience of bringing the rest of my family up Catholic and watching them deprived of help when they needed it most, it’s a terrible organisation, not that the Cof E is much better although i still think they are a necessary evil until such times some other moral compass is in place for kids to start off with.

First World Problem and not too many folk came out of Belsen fat at that.

In fact let me qualify that, “It’s not the gay way” that should read it’s not the “Scene Gay way” there are hundreds of silent Gay majority as well, that just don’t want the fuss, that get on with their lives lead normal existences just like the everybody else, but they’re not Politicians looking for votes or publicity, in lots of ways this issue quietly in the leafy suburbs has been very detrimental to the harmony that had settled across the orientation divide, if the word divide even is the correct choice, it’s not.

GrahamS – Member
Derek: you realise gay people can’t marry in a Catholic Church either?

You act as if they are being granted more than you – rather than just asking for the same.
Yes of course I realise that, my point, why make the whole issue seem important to you? It’s the whole attention seeking thing, ‘oh we’re gay we’re a special case’ when in point of fact they’re not, lots of folk get discriminated against so they just get on with it, ignore the ****, move on, get on with your life, but that’s not the Gay way is it? They seek attention and bollox… Meanwhile the silent thousands brood..

It’s the trouble with pendulums, they swing from wrong to wrong.

footflaps – Member
However, I’d feel a bit bitter, my Mrs and I couldn’t marry in a church, she catholic, me divorcee, we accepted it and got on with life, as things worked out she lost her faith eventually.
Rather than bitter couldn’t you be proud that society has moved on from such prejudice and is now much more accepting of all?

Has it? It might have done for the gays, but has anything changed for straight folk? Could I marry my mrs in a catholic church with her in the white dress all young girls yearn for, if we presented ourselves today as we were thirty years ago? I doubt it.

I wouldn’t say no, I’d go and probably have a bit of a riot, if any of the gay parties I’ve been to over the years are anything to go by.

However, I’d feel a bit bitter, my Mrs and I couldn’t marry in a church, she catholic, me divorcee, we accepted it and got on with life, as things worked out she lost her faith eventually.

We also lived through the period when marriage meant less and less an at the end of the day who gave a damn wether you were married or not. So kind of fail to see why ‘they’ necessarily need the endorsement, given i assume that the civil partnership deal gives the same rights as we got at the registry office.

I see it as gay hubris, just wanting to rub the noses of the right or church goers in it, in much the same way as the lefties rubbed the right wings noses in the immigration and multicultural pc bullshit. Truth is, these days, other than the primitives, radical islamists etc, nobody gives a toss what your sexuality is, and personally i think it’s pathetic that we constantly find we have to define ourselves by it.

That Question Time last night, in Brighton ffs having that debate, why? Are they deliberately trying to inflame opinion against it? Cameron? It was just political opportunism, was it necessary? I don’t really think so, most of the gay folk I know just roll their eyes, and get on with life.

It’s just bollox, who really even cares?

My daughter was going to get me some but fail..

No too sure about these but they seemed cheap

I’m an ex libdem (was SDP in my day)and hate Clegg with a vengeance, the lib dems under him have been totally marginalised and it’s an attempt to hang his hat on the European debate, Clegg is after all a consummate Eurocrat.
I can’t say I’ve had a lot of time for the smoking beer swiller, but ever since he landed on his head in that plane accident he has come across a little more plausible, he certainly had the measure of Clegg in that debate.
Having traded with Europe for many years, I’m definitely with the better off out camp for far too many reasons than I care to list here, they can’t afford not to trade with us, so such an agreement even continuing under current duty free lines could be arranged which would suit both parties, but without the Eurocracy and with more freedom to organise deals direct with other markets we’d be far better off imv.
He also has a point about the Eu – Ukraine thing how long did everybody expect Putin was going to allow Europe and nato creep right up to his doorstep? Farage just didn’t put it too well and gave Cleggy a sound bite straw to cling to all day today – ****.

bullheart – Member
It would have been churlish to vacate the premises, so to speak. My wife would have been fairly difficult about it, had I done so….

Indeed, I hope the prognosis is for a long and happy marriage… :wink:

bullheart – Member
Kent, near T/Wells.

May i briefly interject to say how pleased I am to see you’re still about, last time I spent any deal of time here you had a battle on your hands. I didn’t realise you taught either. Either way, a pleasant surprise.

I guess my opinion, forged from a generation of teachers who had had other vocations forced upon them prior to entering the profession (being called up to fight Wars and the like) and who quite often had other jobs outside of schools during holiday periods so were better versed with what goes on outside of the education system. This opposed to by and large what we have now which are poorly experienced and not much better educated kids going into the system, coming out the other side to perpetuate that limitation upon others.

Respect has to be earned one way or another and school kids are very savvy, so are their parents and the number of dolly daydreams and ditzy dicks I’ve met at various Parents meeting over the years and the general lower standards that are even being attempted to A level that were more often O level standard in my time leave you cold. They are not worth the money, in a way both Teachers and Pupils have been failed by whichever Governmental system set the dumbing down process in place.

So if higher standards are to be attempted, how else should it be gone about other than through pay and performance? The difficulty not having experienced what life used to be like for my generation I can’t see how things can change, so there is forever going to be strife.

It’s a difficult one, but one thing is clear striking isn’t the answer, not if you want to be regarded as a ‘Profession’ rather than just another proletarian vocation.

BillMC – Member
I’m on strike today but being sick of all the managerialism and poor working conditions of recent years, I’m taking early retirement next week. 34 years in the classroom, a year teaching in Aus, 2 conference trips to Harvard, a teachers’ fellowship at Merton College, Oxford. I’ve taught some great kids in comprehensive schools who’ve gone on to interesting jobs (including Rushanara Ali MP and a few barristers and academics). It’s been good but demanding, now it’s dreadful, I’m out.

That’s a shame, I’m sure after a career as rich as that, you will be missed, tell me, in your opinion when did it all start going wrong? You date back to what 1980? Even then things were not that brilliant I’m sure, personally I can remember the esteem and position in society Teachers were held in back in the fifties and sixties, so my view tends to be clouded by that. Back then it was a Profession every bit as respected as Doctors, Lawyers, Bank Managers and the like. I know there is no point in rose tinted revisionism, but Teachers are an essential part of society and should be valued and respected, but that is no longer the case, so where and when did it all go so wrong?

ernie_lynch – Member

“Us in the private sector” ? I’m in the private sector and I don’t agree with you. Lots of ‘us in the private sector’ believe that teachers should receive decent pay, pensions, and conditions. And reject the argument that they should have less favourable pay, pensions, and conditions.

I was referring to those of us in the Private sector that are not normally engaged in the wringing of hands and embracing of trees.. :wink:

ernie_lynch – Member
Cameron et al appear to be doing a remarkably good job in creating that sort of mindset.
Do the Tories really want people to think like that ?

Well wether they do or not, lots of us in the private sector do, they (teachers) are more than adequately remunerated and they have the benefit of a pension system, which would be fair enough if the results of their efforts were employable without a serious amount of further education and training, er by the private sector which isn’t adequately remunerated nor pensioned. So, only anger here, first thing I even knew about a strike was dropping the daughter off to an empty school this morning. Personally, in this climate, I think they are on a hiding to nothing.

When you consider how old she was when she first kicked off, she was/is a genius, one of very few women who could have had me back then, before I was spoiled once ‘they’ the psycho’s who have plagued my life since had me away..

I had such a crush.. In my senility I’m still considering attending one of the concerts, probably won’t happen, matron unlikely to let me out..

I echo everyones sentiment here, the most principled politician of modern times, although he used to annoy me quite often, I have nothing but respect for the way he conducted his life, a shining example in an increasingly shallow and grubby world of made for TV metropolitan charlatans. A man of principle, very few of them left.

First thing to do is warm up, one way go for a short run first, next thing to do is work out what you’re after, then get a set of routines and rotate them, three sets each with a rest interval in between, start off with a few reps and build up each week increasing the number.

Lifting heavy weights build bulk, lots of repetitions builds stamina.

Northwind – Member
derekfish – Member
I wouldn’t be hypocritical enough to mourn the loss of the type of Trades Union Leader that inflicts misery on others for his own ends.

…and the ends of his members. Now tell me, where do you stand on the sort of business leader that inflicts misery on their employees? Or for that matter, on the sort of business leader that in conjunction with union leaders creates the conditions for a strike? It takes 2 to tango.

They are equally to blame, but let’s consider who the business leader represents here? As with the case of the Coal Board back in the Gormley days, it was the state, that is you and me, so what was the eventual outcome? The pitiful situation we have today, by Gormley creating the seventies ransom, Thatcher became empowered to wreak her havoc. Bob Crows confrontational style will only hasten the inevitable automation with little public sympathy for the job losses and inevitable safety and insecure feelings that an automated tube system will bring.

52 is no age for anyone to pass and I”m sorry for that and his family, personally I’m ambivalent as to his passing I wouldn’t be hypocritical enough to mourn the loss of the type of Trades Union Leader that inflicts misery on others for his own ends.

Having said that I fear more jobs will pass with him and the driverless trains are one step nearer.

I find an engine helps, at least on some of the popular roadie segments.. :wink:

Very good, totally different insight into something I thought I already knew about.

2nd part, BBC2, now.

Mr Woppit – Member
Wibble. Bibble wibble blaaah baaaaaaaaah.

Bibbly-wibbly. daaaaa-paaaaaaaaaaaa.

Pung!
Your karma is clearly a life of posting drivel on internet forums, which nobody even cares about..

Exactly that, it was a family spat which cost the lives of millions, yet we still endure a ‘Royal’ Family

hora – Member
Ah yes Moltke the younger

Here is Moltke shot for treason against Hitler:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmuth_James_Graf_von_Moltke

Well well now, that’s another good example of karma, father effectively kicks off events that will lead to the death of his son, a pity tens of millions also had to suffer over two world wars.

Yes, it’s enthralling.

Northwind – Member
derekfish – Member
and it’s as good a way as any to run your life

Oh yeah, sorry for the unclearness, I meant literal karma, as in the idea of moral causality as an external force… Rather than the general idea of, well, do unto others as you would have them do unto you, which is probably the best starting point for a philosophy.And I suppose, in some ways it’s better to do these things from choice than it is from fear of divine retribution.

Suppose another connected idea is that “if you want to help others, practice compassion- if you want to help yourself, practice compassion”- doing something cool for another person doesn’t have to literally lead to another person doing something cool for you, because it always leads to you having done something cool which should be its own reward.

Well I’m not so sure it doesn’t work that way, but this would be the last place to postulate upon such an idea given it’s Planet Atheist, but then I know Karma will sort them out anyway sooner or later, but just acting the Mrs Doasyouwouldbedoneby is good enough..

Typical, I’d just given up all thoughts of trail riding ever again and fitted slicks to hit the road…