Really……what are the top rates of tax in France and Germany?

We’ve tried socialism red in tooth and claw in the 1970s. By all means stand on that economic plan, see how many votes you get south of Liverpool.

Listening to him on BBC R4 this morning, I’m not actually sure what has changed. On the one hand he says he won’t be able to say he will reverse any of the cuts, and then in the next breath says 20% cuts in the Police budget are too much, Labour would cut 12%.

TandemJeremy – Member
The man is an idiot. He is so scared of the tory press that he is adopting a stupid position to appease them.

Oh Jeremy, here we go again. Tory press, public deluded, can’t see the truth…..The public are in a totally different place on this, everyone understands that what goes out cant be more than what comes in.

History shows that a timid Labour/TU movement that is a pale imitation of the Tories will remain a weak opposition.

I have often heard Tony Blair and New Labour described exactly thus. That pale imitation won three General Elections at a canter and might have won a fourth.

Pop quiz. Who was the last Labour leader to win a general election who wasnt Tony Blair?

Oh yunki you need to get away from the internet. Go for a walk, it’s a lovely day.

Did Ed Balls go to Eton? George Orwell did too, good school.

Look at the comments below the line. The Labour left is going mental on twitter.

At least he’s doing it now. If we assume that by the time of the next election Scotland will have voted for Devo Max there are going to be less Scottish Labour MPs at Westminster, either through further boundary changes or because they get smoked by the SNP. Those that are there will be unable to vote on matters exclusively English so Labour are going to have to compete in the South. That means fiscal conservatism.

Oh happy day.

This why Academy and Free schools are so important. Let the head teacher hire and fire like any other walk of life.

The British army is full of people from outside the UK, lots of Fijians, Gurkhas etc. Can’t see the UK not taking on people from Scotland, if we need more soldiers. However with all the cutbacks in service personal in may not be a problem.

All true. And I can’t think of a single Scottish soldier I’ve known who would want to join an army that doesnt go anywhere or do anything.

Evil Tories…….robbed me of my chance to work down a coal mine.

I’ve got a secret to tell you.

Ready?

NO-ONE IN ENGLAND GIVES A TOSS ABOUT SCOTLAND

Just let us know when you’ve made your mind up will you?

Cheers

The economics can be spun any which way but I’m pretty sure that hitching your future to oil prices isn’t very clever.

As for Defence

If Scotland were independent it would present the English with a problem: where are they going to get their infantry from?

An independent Scotland under the SNP would basically be a pacifist country, much like Germany. Anyone think they are going to need a bunch of expensive fighter aircraft on the North Sea coast? Goodbye RAF Lossiemouth.

Faslane? They are going to want those jobs in Portsmouth, Plymouth or maybe Belfast right? Goodbye to the Gairloch, it was special…..and wet.

I’m not going to go as far as to say “Don’t let the door hit you….etc etc”, I mean who am I to judge, I left the place and never looked back. Me, I like England and the English. Especially in London.

According to the Spectator Scotland would be in a big financial hole if independent.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/7564283/can-scotland-make-it-on-its-own.thtml

So, an independent Scotland would in fact be a long way from surplus. In 2009-10 its deficit, even assuming that it kept 91 per cent of North Sea revenues, would have stood at 11 per cent of GDP — the same as the figure for the UK as a whole.
What’s more, even if Scotland did get Salmond’s desired slice of the North Sea — which would comprise around one-fifth of its GDP — it would then be slave to oil and gas production, as well as volatility in their prices. That’s all very well in good years like 2008-09, when North Sea revenues totalled £12.9 billion. But what happens if revenues drop to 1991-92 levels of just £0.6 billion? As Fraser’s said before, ‘Scotland would swap rule from London for rule by OPEC’.

As an emigrant Scot I can see both sides of the argument. Scotland needs to stand on its own two feet, stop being a collective benefits junkie and quit blaming Tory England for everything.

Thanks fellas, lot of good advice. Will play around with the seat height and position first, then go see a good bike shop and get measured.

make sure the angle is right. try tipping it back a fraction and make sure your saddle isn’t too high.

Back? Really?

sleeker

you have lost me, do you mean you want something very lightweight or something that looks the part when you are not sat on it?

Lighter, but seeing as I missed half the events I intended doing last season to infections, weight maybe has to take a back seat to comfort. Maybe I will just get another Bel Air and be done with it. I’m 6’3….whats 100g….

Why are you more concerned with how the saddle looks rather than if it’s comfy or not?

Its a good point

also worth washing a bit more (kit plus yourself) and perhaps an antibac chamois cream?

This, someone else mentioned

I cant be the only one that doesnt shower in the morning BEFORE a ride right? Might be an idea to have a dhobi before sitting on a road bike for 150km. Chamois cream I hadnt thought about…..

you need to be sitting on the sit bone not puttin any weight on your perineum.

Yeh I think seat position might be a factor but the saddle i have (regular Selle SLR I think) is hard as a rock.

Sufferfest

I love twitter…..I’ve hardly ever posted anything on it but is great for keeping up with things you are interested in. Follow sport? Just hook up to all the Fleet St sports journalists and go from there. Me I’m a bit of a politics junky so follow all the ConHome, Guido, LabourList and all the hacks…..its really very good, they all tweet their own blogposts and articles so you link straight to them in real time.

Forget all that stuff about celebrities tweeting what they had for breakfast, thats not what it is about at all. Make sure you follow @Humblebrag for idiotic celeb boasting, is hilarious.

We’re expecting the first four days to be brutal……average 2500m and 115km. Gets easier after that but by then you are knackerd.

Pyrenees are beautiful, and who doesn’t love the Spanish?

You guys are mental. It’s January in the Highlands FFS!

That’s just bollocks.

I’d go for UTTER BOLLOCKS.

rightplacerighttime – Member
I like Diane Abbott, she’s the antidote to Boris Johnson.

It was a slightly silly off-hand remark, but frankly not without a grain of truth – big deal.

The worst thing about it is that all the hoo-ha gives real racists a platform to spout off and try to justify their own clearly unjustifiable opinions.

Another one throwing the slurs at the Real Racists.

Mcboo – and was I right?

I dont think so. But thats not the point…..is it chum.

As for the accusation – find an example of me having

thrown “Racist” around on here

oh look

TandemJeremy – Member
If you cannot understand then its impossible for me to tell you

The whole tone and post is racist – thinly disguised

I’ve lost count of the times Jeremy has thrown “Racist” around on here, bangs on about the undercurrent of prejudice only he can detect.

And then along comes a brown person making derogatory generalisations on the basis of skin colour and “Oh no! Not racist!” The classic gymnastic dilemma of the Guardian reading moral-relativist.

For your information I have been involved in campaigning against racism and prejudice since the 70s

And TJ reaches stratospheric levels of sanctimony. What a champ.

D.Abbott “Apologises for any offence caused”

Which isnt an apology really, implication is we heard her wrong and came to the wrong conclusion.

TandemJeremy – Member
Well funny watching all the politically right posters on here shouting racism.

Come again? I guess I’m somewhere on the centre-right-liberal wing of humanity. That make me racially suspect? Hope my Caribean-Indian wife doesnt find out about this. The mind boggles.

I dont think Diane Abbott is actually any more racist than some old bore at the bar in a golf club whinging about immigration. But they fall into the same category, people of a certain age and generation who are stuck in their ways and who cant see that the country has moved on. Wouldnt have thought either of them would make credible candidates to sit in parliament but then I dont live in Hackney or Surrey.

”White people Jews love playing ‘divide & rule’ We should not play their game”

TJ see how ugly that sounds? Just for once fella, please.

That Jamis has bar end shifters……I ride on the hoods in town, why would they put the gear changing down there? Deal-breaker.

Having the same thoughts…..C2W from Evans so looking at something from Genesis (Croix de Fer) or BMC (Alpenchallenge) but just spotted this from Jamis….Aurora Elite

Chickenhawk I read (and loved) many moons ago. Matterhorn I have ready to read (a lot of folk recommend) but at 700+ pages I want to enjoy some shorter novels that arent about bombs and bullets…..I’ve read a lot of military history and novels.

Have actually made a NY resolution – only reading fiction in 2012

Honk for HONC

It might do you some good to read Roddy Doyle’s offerings..

I’m all ears.

Just downloading The Long Goodbye to the Kindle, thanks Stoats. Am hoping Chandler is something like Elmore Leonard, who is someone I need to read more of.

Agreed on Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath ought to be torrid read but its a beautiful book.

Lot of good suggestions here, thanks. Have read a lot of Ian Banks and Rankin, very good…..Rebus makes me homesick.

Best book I read this year was “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote……Mrs is reading “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, will pick that up when she’s done.

Anyone read the Jack Aubrey books?

Hah George Mac-Fraser, I’ve read practically every word he ever published. Read the Flashman novels back to back in 1992 instead of studying for my finals. Quartered Safe Out here is maybe the finest book on the infantry I’ve ever read……..then there’s the MacAuslin books.

Cormac McCarthy I had a go at All the Pretty Horses a few years ago………typically for me I got bogged down in it, was just a bit slow for me.

Tell me more about Brookmyre?