predictive text on the iPod

Conclusive proof of the absence of free will right there – even your MP3 player knows what you're going to do! ;)

work all day, then straight to gig in another town for soundcheck, not home until after polls close. If I want to vote I'll have to take half a day off.

Proxy vote, in that case, or is it too late?

very nice eBay bargin. =:)

fotorat – I don't get it. What are you trying to guard against?

The person that's supplying you with internet access cutting you off, so you want a contract that would oblige them to continue providing you with access?

Or you want to reassure the person that's giving you access that you're not going to download dodgy stuff on their connection and get them into trouble?

Ton has it's a NE word.

Romany word, actually. You'll probably have the STW anti-gypsy mob around to set fire to your PC for having typed it now.

Really? I admit to being an art cretin but with the exception of the Chupa Chups wrapper, his stuff all seems to be a bit samey. Ooh, look at me, it's a butterfly with an ashtray for an arse…

Can you explain to me the "religious motivation " of WWI and WWII?

Yeah – also the religious motivations of the Falklands, Vietnam, Korean Wars; Soviet occupation of Afghanistan…

3 and 4. Not 1. 2 was OK in parts.

Why would it effect my childs education?

Depends what it's being spent on. I dunno what that is and apparently neither do you, but you've already decided you won't pay it.

Yours are probably hardcore S&M enthusiasts though and have identified you and your Mrs as the best fits for the gimp suits they've been waiting to use for a while.

Maybe they've seen all the old inner tubes lying around and got the wrong idea?

There aren't any veery rich people on this forum yet some of you are moaning about the rates,

How do you know? Are 10k bikes the preserve of the poor?

With the exception of the Grand Canyon (and even then right by the visitor centre) and Bryce Whatsitcalled, I was never in a park that was remotely busy (although I should have said state and national park, i spose, not just national). it must vary from place to place.

on reflection, the mozzie thing would be more of a worry.

Obscure darkside reference: you should make a pilgrimage to Bloomington, Indiana: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Away (you shouldn't)

It's totally unreliable. I know people who earn average wages but live in houses well above the national price average.

Really? Totally unreliable? You're more likely to find richer people living in smaller houses in cheaper neighbourhoods? I think not.

Copper who hit woman gets off.

arbitrary figure based on your house and your postcode to be a good basis for taxation.

Well, it's not perfect, but as generalisations go, "rich people tend to live in more expensive houses in nicer places and can afford a large chunk of the tax burder" isn't an unreliable one.

But you're right, of course: instead of the expensive council tax system, the correct approach would be an additional amount to be added (or conceivably deducted, if the council were running a surplus) to everyone's income tax.

BillyWhizz – imagine the poll tax was a flat 500 quid a year. How is it fair that Granny Geraldine on 8,000 a year pays 6.25% of her income in tax to the local council for local services but Lawyer Larry on 60,000 per year gets everything the same for just 0.83% of his income?

You might have half an argument for a flat proportional tax, but arguing for a switch from a progressive tax to a regressive one is just barking.

Would you rather people didn't strive to obtain nicer things through personal sacrifice?

Eh? Which is it – personal sacrifice or obtaining nicer things?

So…you don't know whether she's any good or deserves the job, but you do know that she only got the job because she's a woman older than 25? OK…

I think you're better just to not do too much, and enjoy the bits you do do. How about 4/5 days in some nice National Park (camping is dirt cheap or there are hotels) doing the outdoorsy thing, maybe in northern Wisconsin or the Michigan UP (see here for example – although NB scary reference to "industrial strength" repellent: http://www.forestcamping.com/dow/eastern/hiacmp.htm#bay%20furnace ), 3/4 nights in Chicago (very nice big city, lots of culture) and then 3/4 nights somewhere else? Your flights to WI will probably be through another city anyway right (or it might just make better sense to drive up from Chicago, depending on what part of the state you're going into), so maybe wherever that city is would be a natural choice.

How about NYC (Everything) – Philly (Liberty Bell) – PA (Historic) via Piitsburgh – up to Indiana Shore (beach) – along to Chicago (Everything) – back across Michigan – via Detroit (Ford Museum/Motown – into Canada – Toronto – Niagra Falls and back to NYC.

Doable in 2 weeks
Yuv gotta be firkin kidding! Pittsburgh is OK (esp if you catch a baseball game at the riverside stadium) but you wouldn't recommend a special trip there, and I'm a huge fan of Detroit for personal reasons but it's a long and unsatisfying drive if all you're going to see is Greektown and a car museum. And of all the beaches in the US you chose the Indiana Shore? 8O 8O 8O And 10 destinations in 14 days?

The correct answer is Pfeffernusse.

Rather partial to a Twix – now is this a biscuit or a chocolate bar?

That's actually a question of great interest to the taxman, as VAT is payable on biscuits but not cakes. McVities spent a lot of time and money proving that Jaffa Cakes were actually cakes for this reason: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/hollycruise/entry/jaffa_cakes_and/

even at 5am there is a flow of cabs. even though they have a big inspection at 7 with a regt. march at 8. some people are dence

Probably a good test of stamina and endurance though. I imagine if you could survive and pass an inspection and march immediately after a night out on the pi55, you could endure just about anything. (I'd never make it).

[ being able to pass exams] makes you able to tackle intellectually demanding tasks…

Well, that's a bit of a tenuous relationship between exam taking and intellectual ability in the first place, but even if the above were true… how much of a police officer's job involves intellectually demanding tasks? By "intellectually demanding", I mean lots of abstract reasoning and consideration of fine principles. I'm not saying that cops are thick, I am just suggesting (and ready to be correct by those who know better) that in the vast majority of cases, the practical application of usually relatively-well established legal principles using common sense and humanity is going to be much more important than intellectual demands for the average cop. I mean this in the same way that paralegals and most high street lawyers are mostly dealing with very routine legal transactions, most nurses and GPs are dealing with mostly the same diseases with mostly the same outcomes etc etc.

I'm not disagreeing with you that generally education is A Good Thing and that usually more education = smarter person but just suggesting that for the rank and file, having a degree or A Level law might not be much of a guide. Cops in New South Wales, IIRC, all do a part-time Police Studies degree at Macquarie Uni but let's just say there's no radical noticeable improvement over English ones. (And, also, I am sure that we have all met incredibly thick, naive and unperceptive people in mainstream life who have somehow managed to get degrees).

I've never had a visit from JWs, ever. I don't see how hard it can be to say "I'm not interested, sorry, and it's probably better if you don't call again".

Just answer the door naked with a pentacle drawn on your chest (preferably in blood)

So change from normal behaviour needed then?

Oh and another thing why cant the schools and facilities we pay for be used every day instead of being closed every weekend, and for long holidays,that would help subsidise the kids activities outside of school.

yeah and another thing if kids are only in school seven hours a day and get all these holidays then why can't they work after school to offset some of their fees all of the school buildings are empty and they have a kithen in there so why can't they make muffins during home economics and sell them along with coffee on the weekends also the teachers could work as superviross. you don't get anything for free they should learn early!!!

Victoria because she lead the nation during a dramatic period of growth and as a result I believe (happy to be put right on this one) that is one of the key reasons why English is the primary language round most of the globe.

Sorry, but this is an even less likely suggestion than Churchill, who was odious but at least influential.

The Constitutional Monarchy was firmly established by the time she took the throne and there were no moments of "leadership" whatsoever. She was an isolated lonely old lady who managed to live through one of the most interesting periods in history (and be related to half of the protagonists) without ever writing or saying anything of the slightest interest or insight, a tradition continued by the incumbent.

killing someone who is innocent is a cost /beneift analysis

The government takes decisions that involve innocent people dying on a cost/benefit analysis all the time: NHS money on diabetes or cancer? Safety measures on cars or cheaper cars? Walls along railway platforms or cheaper tickets? Civilian deaths in invasion or civilian deaths under dictatorship? This is nothing new.

It's not enough to say "the death penalty is unacceptable because innocent people will die" – every human activity involves a risk. You have to go further and say "…and it doesn't achieve enough to justify that". In this case, the death penalty doesn't achieve anything so it shouldn't be a tough decision, if it's being made on rational grounds…

Racist alert,Racist alert, can't say that, cant discuss it, cant even think it. How retarded.

If you are in a group that contributes to a fund why should the fund be open to everyone? An element of care can be allowed for visitors but if whatever is in the fund is divided by twice as many people theres half as much each.

It's more of a "bollocks unrealistic answer alert", actually. The NHS already has residency and contribution requirements before it's free at point of service, so would any long-term care programme. You keep banging on about foreigners as if they cause all the problems but even if you passed a law that said "no-one who hadn't lived and worked here for the last 30 years is allowed access", it still wouldn't solve the problem, because the problem is endogenous. Immigrants come young and help reduce the worker/dependent ratio, low birthrate and average age problems, not aggrevate it.

You know what else is a good Microsoft freebie is SyncToy – very useful for backing up your precious, precious folders on your C: to an external HD, for example.

Berlin is great in summer – very cool pop-up bars etc. Nice vibes. It's not a sensory overwhelming like, I don't know, Rio might be, that's true. But it's a nice town – nice place to wok, nice place to live, nice place to have a nice little flat in a nice building. You know – nice.

Winter? I was less keen.

Kona bunny – the mistake is a bit final if yo have hung them – the folk I mentioned have all been released so got dome life better than none.

But that's just a cost and in a cost/benefit analysis it might be worth it – if there were any benefits whatsoever. But the mere existence of a cost or risk isn't itself a convincing argument.

Anteater: text nsfw, picture OK

I'm mystified as to why he's suddenly appeared in the limelight – I can only assume that the self-promoting egocentric charlatan, has elbowed himself there.

He's solved the Middle East's problems so he has a bit of time on his hands now.

Depends how much they like her and she likes the job: if they use enough of the temp agency, they could say "well, **** you, if you want to charge us the full 20%, we'll never use you again, so make it 10%". Or she could say "I'll work at 90% of the salary for the first year so that the company effectively only pays 10%"…bit of a kick for her but maybe worth it for a good job that she likes?

2) what happens with miscarriages of justice? Stephen Downing Stefan Kisko, guildford four?

I don't actually think the second argument is very convincing: mistakes and miscarriages are made with any human system. To say that there would be mistakes with a death penalty system is just to say it would operate like anything else.

I'm against the death penalty on principle, which means always, for everyone from Hitler to Fred West, not "ooh, not usually most people, but maybe if they're really naughty and horrible people". It's pointless, barbaric, ineffective and moronic.

The experience of the death penalty in the US – which is the country which operates the death penalty that is most similar to the UK – is not a happy one: there are certain types of people that received it more than others (guess who) and the death penalty actually ends up costing more than life sentences: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/20/death.penalty/index.html

If everything is free there's no incentive to contribute, you may as well just as well wander the world looking for the best handouts and let the few mugs who pay taxes pick up the bill.

Foreigner-bashing again? "They come over here, take our healthcare…". Anyone would think you believe that if it weren't for the foreigners, everything would be peachy.

logos cost fifty quid. says right here: http://www.blueicewebdesign.co.uk/logo-design.html

pay any more and you're a mug.

;)

Who on this thread actually IS a lawyer?

Certainly not me. I'd be charging for it if I were. Besides, when did being qualified to discuss a topic become a requirement on STW? :lol:

PS can we also have a list of all the stuff the State does that we benefit from? and then a list of all the stuff the State does that does not benefit us? And then if we abolish everything in the second category, we can abolish some of the taxes.

Carpet tax
Personalla tax

lets stop spending our money on other countries problems

???

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/UKExpenditure.svg

Edit – bugger, apparently I can't link to that image the normal way for some reason. Anyway, the myth of a big pile of cash that we can stop giving to feckless foreigners and immigrants that will magically pay for all our long-term healthcare needs is exactly that.

And, err, you didn't buy the house to pay for healthcare, you bought the house to live in. Perhaps another way of saying "I don't want to pay out of my children's inheritance for my care in old age" is "my children shouldn't be expected to support me, I want to suck on the NHS's teet" i.e. typical dole mole language. Cheer up, though, you might get lucky and get hit by a bus – no expensive long-term care needed for you and your kids can keep the house! :lol:

argh – I was trying to be helpful and explain as I have just gone through this but I was making it more complicated and confusing.

Google three things:

using blog as template for website

using free website templates

using Kompozer to make own website

Mark – I'm not exactly sure I am looking in the right place for this one, as I was not sure where to start in English law, but the power I (thought I) am talking about is not specific to parking tickets or criminal law, but a generic common law power.

It looks like it's called "third party discovery" in English law. I think the (a?) guiding case is Norwich Pharmacal Company & Ors v Customs And Excise [1973] UKHL 6 linky on Bailii.

Discovery as a remedy in equity has a very long history. The chief occasion for its being ordered was to assist a party in an existing litigation. But this was extended at an early date to assist a person who contemplated litigation against the person from whom discovery was sought, if for various reasons it was just and necessary that he should have discovery at that stage. Such discovery might disclose the identity of others who might be joined as defendants with the person from whom discovery was sought. Indeed in some cases it would seem that the main object in seeking discovery was to find the identity of possible other defendants. It is not clear to me whether in all these cases the plaintiff had to undertake in some way to proceed against the person from whom he sought discovery if he found on discovery being ordered that it would suit him better to drop his complaint against that person and concentrate on his cause of action against those whose identity was disclosed by the discovery.

But that was '73, so maybe it's been codified or changed or something since then, so who knows? (Well, I am sure someone knows, but t'ain't me).

Spank: great that you got them to get lost – but with all due respect, most of what you said initially was either wrong or irrelevant to the OP's situation. The problem with legal advice on BBs (including what I am saying right here!) is that it gets garbled, misinterpreted, or misunderstood.

I can definitely believe that plenty of parking companies don't follow the law with consequences that are fatal to their claim and agree with you that the crucial factor is probably whether the parking companies can ever be bothered to go the whole distance. But this is very different from the whole "ohhh, it's all a scam, all illegal, none of it has any force" line that gets trotted out.

Also, "I have spoken to a few solicitors about this and none of them could think of a case that was won by a private parking company" is useful to some extent but not others. IIRC (and I am more than willing to be corrected by someone who knows) litigation indices in England and Wales are not a matter of public record, so one can't e.g. search how many suits company X filed last year and how many (if any) were won. And equally 90%+ of all litigation is settled out of court. And of course they probably can't be bothered going the whole way for the sake of 100 quid or whatever anyway – all of which means counting won or lost cases isn't a totally useful guide.

None of that is to say necessarily that the best thing to do is pay up…as numerous people's experiences here have shown.