yes, that’s true. normally, it’s not even “I take issue with that” or “I have an issue with that” but “there’s an issue around x”, as if it were an agreed objective fact.

“Business language seems to warrant formality, but actually it’s devoid of technical content and is marketing-led. “

This isn’t right – in fact, I have a problem with it. :P When I worked in “business” (consultancy of a specific type, not a real job like engineering, obviously) we did have actual stuff to do that wasn’t marketing. (In other words, we made the product and sold it, we weren’t just selling the electronic gold that a bunch of underappreciated geniuses in black t-shirts created). And I and most of my colleagues were happy to talk about problems, glitches, **** and other things that aren’t issues.

keep your trap shut. Write it down then eat the evidence. Then go on a godallmighty bender so you don’t even know your own name any more.

IME no matter how drunk you get, there are always enough functioning brain cells to use a phone and blurt a secret out. That’s why I prefer people not to tell me secrets any more…

i am told that blowing a whistle down the phone can be quite an effective deterrent against repeat offenders.

Why? it’s not like the same person is sitting there knowingly dialling your number. it’s all done by computer anyway.

Any priest with self respect should leave in protest. They are all complicit imo.

While I agree with you that the “good ones” have an obligation to stand up and speak out/name and shame the “bad ones”, I think it is a little more difficult for them than you make out. Priests believe that the Catholic Church is God’s representative structure on earth and that they are doing their life’s calling that has been put in their heart by God – that they were born to do this one thing and that it is the most important job in the world (at least that they could do). So I am a little sympathetic to those who would say “I will never leave the church” – even if they’re not right, there’s still Stockholm Syndrome to consider.

I just think it’s odd that the OP led with ‘Catholic Church’ as opposed to the main issue: child abuse. I’d find it odd leading with ‘Schools!’ if it was about abuse in the education system.

Right, but the point of the thread/investigation is not that Father X abused x number of children 20 years ago, it’s that the Church as an institution protected child abusers and allowed them to continue abusing. The story isn’t about the individual acts of abuse as much as about the institution covering it up – the same way that the Deepcut Inquiry wasn’t about individual suspicious deaths as much as the way the MoD appeared to have tried to sweep the issue under the carpet – the same way the US Army appears to be suppressing the “epidemic” of sexual abuse within its ranks.

Your comparison would only make sense if, say, the Inner London Education Authority purported to have its own internal justice system, regarded itself as being above the civil/criminal/state law, ignored numerous allegations against individual teachers, used social opporobium to disgrace (alleged) victims and, when the shit finally hit the fan, allowed paedophile teachers to retire or transfer their jobs to developing countries where the kids were even more vulnerable and there was even less chance paedophiles would face prosecution.

Some merino gear was my first thought too (good for hot, cold and when you don’t get to wash a lot, thin) etc. It’s pretty compact and easily shared with mates too, if it needs to be, unlike a 6 foot fluffy rabbit mascot. Don’t they have to carry all their own stuff, though? Might be worth asking him before you buy money on something that he might already be getting or would feel obligated to carry or something. I know it always put me in a difficult position when I went bike camping and some well-meaning family/friend would give me a portable anvil or something…

“I thought the Forester and the Outback had the same 200mm ground clearance. Entry and exit angles were the same pretty much as well ?”

No, ground clearance is definitely higher on the Forester and angles are sharper too. Don’t know by how much, but the Forester is considered the more offroad capable of the two. http://www.ozfoz.com may be helpful to the OP or offroadsubarus

“its easier and less objective than saying I have a problem.

At the risk of going from a failed ranter to a failed monomaniac – you’ve identified exactly what I think the problem with “issue” is. There’s a reluctance to get to the point and deal with the objective thing, and an enthusiasm for removing oneself from a sticky situation where it would require a bit of allocating responsibility.

And, of course, a shortage of smacks in the mouth.

(I don’t really care about this issue as much as I am making out).

plenty of people need hydroponics for their err carrots in scotland

Right, a problem is something that needs to be fixed! It doesn’t mean anyone is going to die necessarily but not having eggs when you need eggs is more on the bad side than the good.

having an issue with something is less judgemental

But 90% of the time when people say “issue” they are in fact being judgmental (or STUPID!!!) but they’re trying to hide behind a bogus smarmy neutralisation of the statement and pretending it’s an objective statement. Bastards.

Ploppy pants rant, must try harder. 0/10

Oh. Not even a couple of marks for essential pettiness and irrationality?

http://www.campervanlife.com/gallery/v/conversions/pampycamper/

in common with Tony Blair, he’s a communicator.

No, he just makes the same sounds and vocal intonations as a communicator.

But really, you know, his, you know, really, speciality was not talking in soundbites when, you know, the hand of history is on our shoulder.
<does annoying grasping thumb in midair gesture>

TBF, tax in the US varies from very low (states with no income tax) to just as high/higher as the UK (NE states).

“they earn £57,485 + expenses +office costs etc + other jobs”

And, of course, all the ego boosting you can handle, and plenty of post-Parliamentary book writing, consultancy, directorships opportunities. That’s when you can really rake it in…

But thanks at least for not hiding behind weasel words that could mean anything to anyone.

We have considerably more moral obligation to them. Putting Lithuanians and Poles to whom we owe no extra favours to, before Indians and Nigerians, stinks of racism imo.

The EU is not a moral project.

;(

I’ve see much worst stuff written and said by the BNP.

I was thinking that too. If the worst that gets said was “oh, I say, I don’t think that gallantry medal was terribly deserved, it’s PC gorn mad, I tell you, frightful people those types”, we’d have nothing to worry about.

I supposrt it fully. What is not good is letting anyone come and live here without knowing if they can contribute, whether they qualify to live here.

Be more specific.

Surely Comic Sans is all you need for anything?

“My LBS has got a 4 week waiting list for repairs, and what angers me is that most of that will be people who simply can’t be bothered to learn how to set up their gears correctly.”

If the shop’s that busy, they can hire more staff. I bet they aren’t complaining about a legion of “lazy” bike owners throwing 40 quid a shot at brakes/gears adjustment.

x-trail diesel just came out in Oz, so not many second hand models around.

steady supply of used subarus through government auctions – email me for details…

Another for Tayyab’s (if that’s the one with the weird glassed-in private dining room).

in a judgement last April, Mr Justice Collins ruled more widely that the MoD had an obligation to avoid or minimise risks to the lives of its troops, wherever they were serving – even while on patrol or in battle.

Otherwise, he said it risked breaching the “right to life” enshrined in the ECHR.
This is the important bit of the report. The question is over whether the military owes a duty of care to its soldiers and, if so, under what law and where in the world. The judge and the later finding said that the answers were yes the army does owe a duty of care, it owes it because the ECHR imposes it, and the ECHR applies to UK military even when they’re in Iraq.

“Duty of care” and “the right to life” aren’t absolute – they should really be “[a reasonable] duty of care [under the circumstances]” and “the right to life [unless there’s a bloody good reason]”. No-one guarantees that a soldier won’t be killed (any more than a firefighter or a trawlerman won’t be killed), just that they’ll do whatever is appropriate to protect them. And “appropriate” doesn’t mean “not allow them to do anything dangerous”.

The soldier’s family has won the right to say that a duty of care existed – now they have to prove that the MoD failed to act reasonably under the circumstances (presumably in providing the soldier with some bit of kit or water or something) i.e. that “didn’t get around to it” or “we messed it up” isn’t one of the “bloody good reasons”. And that’s not an easy job.

Good on you.

“At least we can point and shout “crook” without having the offending digit/hand/arm or worse lopped off for doing so. “

True – but not enough arms to point at them all though!

My dad’s friend had a job when he was an architecture student going around council flats doing some sort of survey. For some reason, an eccentric older guy somehow got the idea that he was some sort of health visitor, and the old guy wanted him to look in his ear because he was having trouble hearing. He tried to explain that he was just some student to the old guy but it was obvious he didn’t get any visitors and he was very insistent. So he pulled out his torch, had a peer in the old guy’s ear, grabbed a pair of tweezers…and pulled out the plastic stopper from a Bic pen covered in wax! He’d obviously been having a good scratch in his ear with the pen and the stopper had popped out…

Meanwhile, from that ultra-reliable online source of analysis, Popbitch:

“BNP photo woes get worse

The BNP could see themselves being sued for the use of one of the stock photos on their election campaign literature. The photo of the elderly couple has been traced back to an Italian Photographer – it is a photo of his parents. They have never been to the UK. The photographer has asked the stock photo company about their terms and conditions and they have stated that using the photos yet saying they are somebody else is against their terms and the BNP could find another writ heading their way. Hurray!
tamara_bumpdeeay 12:35, arf, barf, reply”

Mrs DezB: <thinks> OMG, how did I end up with this mountainbiking geek?
DezB: <thinks> hmm, Chris King headsets, Rohloff, all mountain, tandem, singlespeed…

“I reckon they prefer their party as a fairly exclusive clique and worry about ordinary British people joining it and diluting their unique ethos of bone-headedness.”

I think that’s probably right. Griffin fancies himself as the Tony Blair of the BNP – the presentable face that is going to rebrand the party, shake off the old problems and lead it to victory (or at least greater success). I think he actually understands the political game and would love it if the thicker members of the party would STFU and just try to keep the most dozy comments quiet for *just one second* so he could reap the political benefits of the current Labour/Tory meltdown.

But luckily for everyone else, the party is overwhelmingly filled with morons and vultures who can’t keep their trap shut and aren’t actually that interested in winning power as much as preserving a little island where it’s still OK to talk utter bollocks. (Well, utter racist bollocks. If they just wanted to talk inoffensive bollocks, they’d be completely welcome here!)

Meanwhile, this is kind of a non-story. Reading between the lines, it sounds like some knucklehead just went off on one on the BNP website. Thicko in Thick Comment Shocka!

I had to google what specula are. I wish I hadn’t bothered!

just claimed for rail fares

i pay for my own commute to work.
To be fair, MPs are supposed to have two “work sites”: Westminster and their home constituency office. I think it’s fair that he claims for travel from home to one of those offices (but not both simultaneously). I think that would be the practice in most private companies.

I also would say that I don’t mind if non-Home Counties MPs rent a 1-bedroom apt in Zone 1/2 at market rates. Again, most private companies that needed their employees at a remote location for an extended period would do the same thing. There are hundreds of serviced/executive apartment companies in London filled with businesspeople. But this whole “live with my parents, pay rent to my sister, dredge my moat” bullsh1t is just taking the pish.

“…quite apart from money spent by tourists who come here because we have a Monarchy. FWIW, several years ago I read somewhere that the cost to the German people for running a Federal system was at least twice what our Monarchy costs us.”

This makes no sense whatsoever.

1) People don’t visit the UK because it has a monarchy today. Some of them come to gawp at the old castles, absolutely true. But if the monarchy were abolished, they would still come. People still visit Versailles, the Kremlin, the Taj Mahal, Neuschwanstein Castle and whatever the castle in Prague is called even though their royal families have been shot/dissolved/expropriated/whatever.

In fact, if the monarchy were abolished, the tourists would be able to wander around more of the palaces because the dole scum would have been evicted.

2) The German Federal government has actual, operational/executive responsibility for external relations, federal law, enviromental regulation, standards etc for a population of 82 million people. The cost of the monarchy just has to manage the affairs of a small number of people in the household. If what you say is accurate, then the fact that they need half the German federal budget to do it is a searing indictment of their ineptitude and inefficiency.

In practice I think your figure just doesn’t make sense or is missing some vital information. Perhaps you can dig up the relevant info.

“I’ve been dreaming of a time when
The English are sick to death of Labour, And Tories
And spit upon the name Oliver Cromwell
And denounce this royal line that still salute him,
And will salute him forever.”

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Irish-Blood-English-Heart-lyrics-Morrissey/B5B77E8602D1BAED48256E9200102C4A (popup central)

It’s 22″ but I have the BenQ E2200HD and love it. The speakers are rubbish but it has HDMI, AVI and VGA inputs, and afaics it’s great. Gamers give it good marks.

I assume they make a 24″ model but 22″ is about 180 quid delivered according to here: http://planetprices.co.uk/c-46/p-1154061/Benq-E2200HD-Black/compare

Che – it’s late at night. Don’t you and your other logins ever sleep?

“Aye Fred, a woman breaks down all the political barriers, defeats the glass ceiling, brings an end to the cold war and the constant threat of Nuclear annihilation,”

That’s an impressive feat – I had no idea that sexism in the workplace ended in 1979 when Thatcher won the election. The Equal Opportunities Commission presumably hasn’t had much to do on women for nigh on 30 years now. I guess that works in the same way that there’s no more racism in the US now that Obama is President, right?

Also, like a fool I had imagined that the end of the Cold War was something to do with the collapse of the Soviet economy, nationalism in the Baltic and Caucasian republics and Central Europe, the failed Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, perestroika and the rise of environmental activist groups. I now realise that it was all down to Maggie – an especially impressive success when you consider that none of the UK/US intelligence agencies predicted the USSR’s collapse or the reunification of Germany…

“It’s too easy now – TOO MUCH COFFEE – i feel sick and am going to bed…..”

Heh – I’m remembering the episode of Black Books where Bernard gives Manny a coffeemaker and a boxed set of The Sweeney for his birthday. LOL

Well, that’s terribly interesting and has completely changed my memory of Tory sleaze (now replaced by Labour sleaze), apart, of course, from it saying a different thing to what you said, and still not having a citation…

1) I am assuming you want to go for tourism

2) Check everything I say yourself

3) Yes, one visa for whole country. If they still ask for destinations/towns to be visited, then include anywhere you might go. But IME you don’t get problems being in Perm if your visa app only said Moscow.

4) 3) doesn’t apply to freaky/remote regions like Chechnya, Yakutia, oil/gold towns, but if you’re going there, you’ll have a local advisor anyway.

5) you need two payments for a Russian visa: someone to invite you (which you will pay for if you’re not their guest) and a processing fee to the Russian government. This probably explains why you’re seeing two different fees.

6) Cheapest/quickest reliable place for invitations is http://www.visahouse.ru – all done online iirc

7) There are different fees for processing: multientry v single entry, 24 hour/instant processing v 3 week processing etc.

8) When you get to Russia, you are supposed to register your visa with the local cops. In practice, your hotel will take care of this for you.

Good luck…

STW members in pretending we have fit other halves shocker !

Yeah – my bird’s a real looker. It’s just, err, that I’m not allowed to post a photo online.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=canadian%20girlfriend

I wasn’t aware that Islington North was very much nearer to Westminster than Harrow East. And there the employment minister Tony McNulty parents’ have a home for which he has claimed £60,000 – even though he lives in Hammersmith which is only three miles from the House of Commons.

McNulty is a scumbag. If a huge chunk of his constituents can make it in/out/across London every day, so can he (for the part of the year when Parliament is in session).

But don’t feel too generous towards the “Inner” London MPs (including Corbyn) – they all get generous London weighting.

I am an irritated labour member, but that is as close as I get.

Jeebus – how bad would it have to get before you’d actually leave the party? What more could they possibly do to make you lose your trust/faith? I speak as a former member who would now semi-tactically vote against Labour in favour of the Lib Dems.

Must be Maggie…never took a pay rise from the day she entered no.10 to the day she left…and famously decorated no.10 out of her own pocket.

[CITATION NEEDED]