A load of nonsense.

What makes me chuckle about this subject are the religious people who will always warn of the 'dangers' of mediums, spiritualism, fortune telling etc., when it is just a different form of exactly the same thing. Both are un-provable comfort blankets that require a suspension of disbelief, suggestibility and blind faith in what the person conducting the service says.

The idea that the English all hate the Scots….is only promulgated by the media in order to give them something to write and talk about.

Yes.

and vice-versa

No.

I reckon if Cameron went for some ski-chic googles and maybe a shemagh he could carry this off:

Strip out everyone outside my household and the Lib Dems won unanimously.

Unless we could persuade a south american dictatorship to invade an unknown protectorate of ours so we could have an early election on the back of a jingo-istic feegood factor……

I reckon Saint Helena could be a good venue, although the Isles of Scilly would be more convenient.

Sorry to disappoint you, but the typical English person probably thinks about Scotland about once a year, when they consider going there for a weekend in the great city of Edinburgh or a trip to the Highlands.

I am fairly indifferent to "The Scots" as a group, although I like going to Scotland and have met good people I've liked and bad people I haven't who happened to be from Scotland (same as everywhere really).

The only 'hatred' I have experienced was Glaswegian work colleagues spouting hatred about the English (when they'd forgotten that they were working in England with English people) and also about people from Edinburgh -because they were "almost English"….

There are parallels with English people harping on about beating the Germans at football when the Germans are more interested in beating the Dutch.

The Lib-Dems were victims of the ludicrous first-past-the-post system, again. Principles are all very well, but it is a FACT that if you live in a constituency with an intransigent, herd mentality (ie. MOST constituencies), a vote for anyone other than the incumbent party is a wasted vote.

Our system appears to be rooted in the days when the (few, male, influential) voters in a village elected a local chap (Tory or Whig) to go and vote on their behalf down in 'that London' and news would occasionally filter back to the town.

In recent decades the traditional working class voted for Labour and 'posh' people for the Tories. New-Labour kept the old voters (because the word "Labour" was still on the ballot?) , but also sucked-in many of the Thatcher fans.

Nowadays we can email the Prime Minister, conduct an internet campaign, get onto TV news etc. I don't really value my local MP as the city council are responsible for much of the 'local' issues, not a bloke who sits in Westminster towing the party line.

Most Tory (and Labour) supporters haven't realised that the country is broke and that whoever gets into power will have to make cuts/put up taxes, even if the parties won't acknowledge it publicly.

Ha anybody noticed what is happening in Greece this week?

Tax the very high earners and don't raise the inheritance tax threshold -it doesn't affect that many people and the wealthy are far more able to spare the cash than the less well-off.

Dark eyes.. he was a touch swarthy to be honest. Quite rugged although not heavily built.. clearly used to the outdoors.. he was fit, quite handy on the bike, capable sort of chap.. Probably early-mid 30s but could pass for younger.

sure you weren't dreaming about me?

've been ski-ing, and I'm proletariat council estate scum

Were you carrying the hamper for them?

Ok, so it was Darwen much earlier.
This is more recent:

You have a pair of hand-made driving shoes, non?

binners – Member

You should take a drive around some Areas of East Lancashire. Darwen for example

Darwen Earlier:

mastiles_fanylion – Member

Serves you right for living on an estate.

I've never found a problem on my estate. Granted, I don't allow the staff to erect flags on the tied cottages.

Yes:

mt – Member

Off to Old Trafford at the weekend, I do hope we win the Premiership.

Watch for the roadworks on the M25.

The fuel bills are costing us a fortune these days and with the shocking interest rates on my inheritance, it could well become a struggle soon.

So much for renewables. I'm going to donate the solar panels and wind turbines to the local organic lesbian co-operative and just rely on the Aga -It's tried and tested and they do just heat water so much better, don't they?

We're going to have to start using the Prius more often. It just never seems worth warming it up for a visit to the Unicorn when the Bentley is just there.

-It's a good job that we winter in the Cayman is all I can say.

lunge – Member

Surely being unable to decide which £2k push bike to buy is a rather middle class thing to do!

Would a £2K bike cope with a trail centre though? I would never risk riding a budget bike at Llandegla.

A former employer of mine failed to make an appearance at an important meeting because the electric gates to his not-insubstantial Cheshire village home had jammed shut.

Oh, how we laughed.

BigDummy – Member

I'm sorry, but I think those 40's SAS chaps have probably been using conditioner on their beards.

That may be so, but would you have asked them?

You can be a heroin addict and have ripped abs – just means low bodyfat. Getting them isn't exactly rocket science and not really a broad enough subject to be detailed in depth every single month.

Train hard + don't eat too much.

Please send your money to….

It depends what people think 'manliness' is.

Do you reckon these chaps

did much of this:

?

BigDummy – Member

Is it a gay thing, or just an insidious attempt to destroy male self confidence with negative body image and to sell products to fill the yawning void in our self-esteem thereby created? Women have had to oput up with magazines pulling exactly the same stunt for decades…

It must be part of a push to flog 'beauty products' to men.

Although this kind of thing has been going on for a while, I think it is being taken up fairly slowly because the majority of men are not interested.

Personally, I like to feel fit -not being fat is a side-effect. I could not be ars*d to pump iron in order to look 'buff'.

Using cosmetics & having a spray tan seems like a waste of time and money in
order to look ridiculous.

Shaving my body seems pointless as I have no intention of achieving silky smooth legs or chest

Anecdotally, the Trafford Centre originally had lots of shops selling clothing for men and for women. With an couple of years the number stocking clothes for men appeared to have fallen significantly.

johnners – Member

How does an earthly, non-son-of-god bloke become so revered?

I don't know, you'd have to ask Dawkins that one.

Why, is he a good friend of Pope Benedict?

Yuo need to do it efficiently

If the ludicrous level of UK news coverage of the last pope's death -and the, presumably, divine appointment of his replacement- is anything to go by, the pope's visit will be the NEWS EVENT OF THE YEAR, despite the fact that there are relatively few catholics (how many truly devout ones?) in this country. How does an earthly, non-son-of-god bloke become so revered?

jimmers – Member

Have thought of that but the garden is too close to a road. Can't use an air rifle unless it is a certain distance from a public highway IIRC.

Be discrete and don't shoot towards the road….

airrifle pellet through skull works.

So would a lump of wood.

missingfrontallobe – Member

So if I said I was muslim, would that make a difference?

Well, I am an equal opportunities non-believer, but isn't the Pope is a Catholic? Does a bear…?

Probably not, just the egos of the STW massive taking on "soft" targets, one of which is continuously Christianity.

It is something close to a lot of our hearts, having been brought with it for our whole lives before we decided that it was nonsense.

Someone earlier even said that the FCO couldn't/wouldn't name the idiot involved islam because "certain adherants of the Islamic faith are a violent threat".

It was me.

That's about the only sensible comment (no matter how racist it could be deemed) that has appeared in this thread.

Islam is a religion, not a race.

just **** me off that in this country it's impossible to say anything against a none christian beleief yet (particularly on STW and the popular press) it's really in vogue to rip the piss out of any christian beleif.

In the interests of balance: Just like Roman Catholicism, other Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism etc. are all man-made creations with a large overhead of baggage and dogma. They are all without any sort of evidence and it beats me why anybody spends their time following them.

We have an RC fundamentalist do we?

In't sectarianism great?

I am glad that we don't have the Roman Catholic church, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism or Shintoism etc. as the "established church" in the UK and wish we didn't have the C-of-E either.

Here's a hypothesis:
All of the religions are man-made explanations for the unknown at the time of the life of whichever particular 'prophet' they follow.

Can be sure that the little big tied FCO **** who wrote this shite would have been named & made to apologise publicly after being sacked if they'd done that

Unfortunately true -Possibly because a certain adherants of the Islamic faith are a violent threat, though. Surprisingly touchy for followers of an omnipotent deity.

Publicly embarrassing for the govt and for a country that still claims to be based upon christian values.

Last time I looked, we weren't a Roman catholic country and approved of contraception & abortion, we also reported crime and had an "established church" that allowed female and married priests.

FWIW, I don't believe that people should go out of their way to offend the pope or Roman Catholic church (constant references to child abuse are very unfair to the vast majority of priests), but nor do I think that people should go out of their way to 'respect' them either.

The Pope represents an organisation that is opposed to many of the civil liberties that our country allows.

All of the items that I heard about on that 'leaked memo' are legal, just not compatible with the Roman Catholic church's CURRENT (subject to change) rules.
ps. If the rules do change again, do all previously-but-now-not sinners get a reprieve from damnation?

An estimate in 2009 put the total number of Catholics in England and Wales at 4.5 million

Wouldn't it be cheaper to send all the Catholics on Jet2 for a visit to the Vatican?

Put it into context, that PA vacancy salary is higher than some BA waitresses cabin crew earn!!!

If it were in the private sector, then you can argue that it’s market driven, but it’s not (and that’s one of the big failings of the public sector IMO. There is no efficiency mechanism innate to the system)

I know, and know-of, a large number of people in not-for-profit and public sector jobs who earn more (some significantly so) than £50K a year -in the provinces, not in that London. In fact, the highest paid people I know work in the public sector…

The annual pay scale increment rises for everyone have just kept on coming over the years and various re-structuring exercises seem to create higher and higher paid managerial positions for professional meeting attendees who appear to be on a stratospheric promotion trajectory.

If anybody so much as looks at an employee the wrong way, offence is taken, 'grievances' are lodged and the unions kick up a fuss. There is no need to get out the braziers and donkey jackets though. Suspension on full-pay before reinstatement is now the way to deal with it -This is 2010, not 1976.

Do it.

My main reservation would be about working with the father in law, no wolf whistling in the van.

In my case, it would be the other way around, it would be my über-non-PC father-in-law doing all the wolf-whistling.

Autism: 14

ADHD: 51

So, not autistic, but quite ADHD.

Some truth in that.

So, how many of you have changed careers?

Unfortunately not, but I'd really like to. I want to be keen to go to work and motivated when I get there, not frequently looking at the clock and tolerating it for the reasonable pay.

The phrase 'velvet rut' is quite apt.

When you have spent over a decade of your life doing something that pays reasonably well and isn't dangerous or too stressful, but you really don't enjoy it and the thought of doing it for the next few decades is depressing, it is difficult to know where to 'change' to that isn't going to result in poor pay or conditions.

Buddhist Extremists Target Churches

So long as you are driving behind the many speeding Belgians you'll be fine.

I too have seen speeding Brits and concealed Gendarmes on the Calais road.

-No accidents though…..

According to the BBC photo:

I do it when I'm doing my daily wild-animal hunt.

In 'normal life' on civvy street there is little need to be a fast sprinter.

If you're a member of the emergency services, an infantryman or, maybe, a farmer you might occasionally need to sprint after somebody/thing.

I used to be a reasonably quick sprinter in my rugby days, but I'm slower now.