I HATE this programme, but I want to WATCH it, so that I can TELL everyone how much I HATE it.
GRRRAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!

Does this make ‘The Apprentice’ the new ‘Top Gear’?

Would you, in that case, voluntarily use a smartphone app / pedometer / tracker if it’s cumulative readings could demonstrate your commitment to “look after yourself” and as such entitle you to a “fast track” Private heath care style tier version of the Public health care system?

Not sure about lifestyle-related prioritsation, but there certainly needs to be something done about the spiralling health issues caused by ‘bad’ lifestyle choices.

These days everyone knows what’s good/bad for their health. There is masses of advice and support available.

But how do you get people to actually care enough to do something about it?

Or is the the only answer to get all ‘big-brother’/’nanny-state’ and almost force people to change their lifestyle?

Does anyone have evidence of these online things making a difference ?

That’s not the point.

The govt runs the petitions website thingy so that we all believe they’re listening to us, when actually all they probably do is have a giggle reading through them on a friday afternoon with a few brandy’s.

That’s what I’d do anyway. Many of the petitions are hilariously stupid.

I thought everyone knew that filming your commute with a headcam whilst yelling out offending registration numbers, then posting it all on YouTube & starting forum threads linking to it, was the absolute guaranteed method for making all drivers in the world see the error of their ways and immediately go to the nearest Church and confess to a priest?

Because as we all know, motorists spend all their evenings watching YouTube films to help them learn from mistakes and become the ultimate cycle-friendly driver.

To the OP – good work

To Zulu – excellent work, I’d like to think I’d do the same just for a giggle but would probably bottle out

The best thing I have learnt since having kids is not to pay too much attention to parenting advice/opinions/guidance from anyone other than my own mum & dad …

It’s only mean when you turn the light off when keeping kids under the stairs

Mine get a choice – light, or heat

Nah, not for me either.

I’m not one of those people who’s permanently attached to their phone.

I quite like not being aware of every single phone call, e-mail, text message etc that I receive.

Sometimes it’s nice to be able to put my phone on silent or just switch it off.

I don’t want some vibrating doo-dah on my body going off all the time.

Mulit-tasking is a brilliant way of getting several jobs done badly rather than one job done properly.

At least, that’s what I say when a woman starts whanging on about how females are better at multi-tasking than men.

203/185 for me. Just because I wanted to.

I’ve filed it in the same bin as Loch Ness Monster, Yeti, Bigfoot and Aliens

does mrs toast’s “In England, Wales, and Scotland, the Public Order Act 1986 prohibits, by its Part 3, expressions of racial hatred, which is defined as hatred against a group of persons by reason of the group’s colour, race, nationality (including citizenship) or ethnic or national origins.” not cover it Joao?

Yes, great isn’t it … so if a lawyer or judge ever asks me my race do I say ‘caucasian’ or ‘English’ … or ‘Scottish’, considering my national origins (somewhere on my Dad’s side) … how far back do we go?

This Public Order thingymajig also defines it as applying to “groups”, therefore is there another Order for specific individuals?

Does a married couple consititute a group? I suppose technically 2 is a group …

Either way, German is still not a ‘race’.

filming buildings in London

Isn’t this what pretty much every tourist does in London?

the Met recently settled with her solicitor Beth Handley, from Hickman and Rose, agreeing to pay the student a considerable sum

“give her some money and hopefully she’ll go away and stop making us all look really really stupid”

I can’t envisage a scenario where jumping 5 feet onto anything, even water, could be hazard-free

Neither could she I expect, but seeing as the climbing centre have insurance then why not try and make a few quid out of it …

Cynical? Moi? 😉

Being Geordie, Scouse or Brummie isn’t being part of a “race”, yet it’s been illegal to discriminate against someone based on a regional stereotype for some years now and the same rule applies here

Exactly.

But for some reason the ‘racist’ term gets thrown about incorrectly all the time ..

experts may actually know what they’re talking about….

They might “know what they’re talking about”, but that doesn’t mean that what they’re talking about is actually correct.

I’ve heard people talk very ‘expertly’ about Creationism, but apparently other ‘experts’ say that’s not real. or some such.

it is commonly accepted that such nasty discrimination on grounds of nationality is racial abuse

Fair enough, if some people are too daft to be able to distinguish between ‘naitonality’ and ‘race’ then so be it.

Next time I’m filling in any official paperwork, under the ‘ethnic origin’ box I shall tick ‘other’ & put English.

The difference is that it is reasonable to expect that jumping onto a soft safety mat will be safe

Will be safer, but certainly not explicitly safe.

Someone I know broke an ankle tripping off a kerb. It wasn’t anything near 5-foot high, and they didn’t jump off it. They’ve also never been given specific ‘stepping off a kerb’ training, so generally get by using something called ‘common sense’. Neither did they go blubbing to anyone for compensation.

Accidents can still happen.

But if someone’s got insurance, suddenly there’s the chance of making a few quid.

Is it just me, or are a number of matters that some years ago would be considered trivial now being made an issue of?

Due to the interwebs – & the news media now trying to fill 24 hours a day rather than just 30 minutes in the evening – ‘minor’ stories are making headlines when previously they’d have just been dealt with locally without all the hoo-hah.

EDIT : ‘German’ isn’t a race, therefore it’s not racist abuse … regardless off anyone’s nationality, the guys behaviour was abusive & constituted harassment, the Nazi salutes being particularly offensive

In cases like this I really wish someone would just say it like it is – “you’re supposed to be an intelligent adult, what on earth made you think jumping off a 5-foot climbing wall was a sensible idea? … sorry, but it’s your own fault you big twit”

I understand the need to be accountable/liable for the safety of the public, but there needs to be some kind of exemption clause for stupid people.

Coming from a slightly different standpoint to the OP, our 5yo started at a CoE school back in September. Myself and HRH are both Christian, so we were not worried about how much religion was emphasised at the school.

As it turns out, so far the ‘religious’ stuff seems to be the songs in assembly and a harvest festival service at the nearby CoE church.

The school certainly doesn’t ‘bible bash’ the kids.

We know non-religious families with kids in higher years and they’re happy with the way the school’s run with respect to all the religious stuff, i.e. they don’t feel the school is forcing something onto their kids.

All of our son’s friends believe in Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy though, and I’ve heard at least one adamantly claiming that Superman is real (unless he was being deliberately obtuse).

So it seems parents are happy to teach & perpetuate massive lies about where their presents come from and what happens to their teeth, so a few songs about God/Jesus and doing the Christmas/Easter stories seems fair enough.

this is a desperate move to try to offset the negative impact that the games will have on the UK economy

Or, it’s an attempt to optimise the potential to generate income etc … or does that depend on whether you’re one of the Olympic Games ‘haters’?

For what it’s worth, my wife thinks the UK working population are pretty lazy with the 9-5 mentality still prevalent. She’s from Brazil where shops seem to be open all hours, and I’ve even seen shops re-open if they spot potential customers outside.

I’d pay more attention to ad’s if they were produced by independent parties who could give an impartial opinion of a product, rather than manufacturers whanging on about how their latest offering is the best thing since sliced bread and your life will never be the same again if you own it – “oh really. well you would say that wouldn’t you. seeing as you’ve just spend millions in design, research, production & promotion.”

TV ad’s are the equivalent of unsolicited mail/phone-calls.

I disagree, she set the mold for current politicians, forcing through ideology despite the evidence of results. I for one would be much happier with more thoughtful considered politicians.

I don’t mind thoughtful/considered.

But the resent lot seem to give more thought and consideration to which policies/decisions will be most popular, rather which are the best ones to make for the country.

made her decisions and stuck to them

Poll Tax

Ok, I was generalising … she wasn’t nick-amed the Iron Lady for nothing though

Like her or not, the one thing about Maggie Thatcher’s time as PM is that she made her decisions and stuck to them, rather than all the fannying about we see from the current crop of drippy politicians who appear to be more interested in being ‘popular’ than anything else.

some bloke on Radio 4 just said that “Not everyone is privileged position not to have to drive.”

Did he actually explain what he meant by this, or was he just talking about people rich enough to employ a chauffeur?

I find doing something physically intensive, like a gym workout or a bike ride, do wonders when I’m stressed.

Other people seem to benefit from calmer stuff like yoga or the quiet sitting-still meditation stuff.

As with most things in life I expect it’s horses for courses. Some people respond best to being still. I don’t.

Facebook and Twitter are just mediums and you get out of them what you choose to get out of them

You can’t say that! Wash your mouth out!

We’re all supposed to be convinced that MyFace and Twatter are an important intrinsic part of modern society, not just a toy for 9-year-olds to pretend they have several hundred actual friends.

Without knowing how much exercise you do and how frequently, it could be fatigue – are you giving yourself days off and what-not to allow your body to rest/recover?

Perhaps take 3 or 4 days ‘off’ from the gym then see how you feel going back to it.

Webber has a headcam this weekend that’s giving an interesting perspective

Did he drive around shouting out the identity of any offending drivers who nearly crashed into him, and then post the video on Youtube?, in the style of those militant attention-whore cycle commuters

Don’t know how many friends I have on fb. A lot of them seem to be friends of my wife who I’ve never met 😕

I only actively use FaceBook to make fun of my sisters when they post comments and what-not. Keeps me vaguely amused anyway.

One thing I have noticed over the last few years is that people seem to be updating or adding to their facebook profile less and less frequently.

Are people getting bored with it?

Are we really that sad a society that we consider ourselves backward if we can’t access retail therapy 24/7?

Yes.

You should see the state some people get into when CRC’s website can’t be accessed for a few minutes.

Man alive, I wouldn’t fancy the ride push up Rhyd Ddu … 🙂

We’ll need a new flag.

Something that accurately represents England in the 21st Century.

Perhaps a collage featuring an obese child eating a McDonalds’, a pregnant teen smoking a fag, binge drinker having a fight with a policeman, some youths setting fire to a high street and running off with a TV … all the things that England does well …

It has to be a ‘delivery’ of postmen

No, an ‘attempted delivery’

Or, in homage to a previous thread, a ‘monopoly’ of postmen

I suppose if it’s the one time of year you venture out of your bedroom and into the real world you may as well make it worth your while and turn it into an ‘event’

I am confused. Please explain what there is to be jealous of?

mains water

You can choose to be cut off if you wish. Buying all that bottled water would get expensive though 😕

council tax

I knew there was something obvious I’d overlooked 🙂

if I never watched BBC channels on the TV, why should I pay for a licence?

For me, this is the main problem with the way TV licencing is currently applied.

Would it not be better to let your customers choose what they wanted to pay for rather than forcing them to pay for something they might not want?

I can’t think of anything else in life that’s charged for by default regardless of whether you want to use the ‘service’? (although I’ve probably overlooked something obvious 🙂 )

I don’t know if this is fact or just my cynicism, but I suspect insurance companies deliberately give new customers a ‘good’ deal which is then increased on renewal in the knowledge that there will be a lot of people who can’t be bothered shopping around or challenging it.