Spongebob – noone has been pardoned, he's been let out on compassionate leave to go home to die. If you show compassion to someone who themselves did not show it, it is not weakness, it is strength.

I may be wrong about the exact nature of the legal situation but it seems like, being in Scotland the UK Home Office can't interfere with normal legal processes to suit political ends – if so then that's good.

On the other hand, it does all seem like a good way to get a little embarrasment now rather than what might come out in his appeal. The guy didn't do the bombing alone, it was most likely the work of Libyan security forces, and we're trying to cosy up to Libya these days.

Run to expensive gym you didn't join. Turn round, run home. Shower, get changed. Spend money you saved in pub.

My Ford Focus always used to have it's lights on when I was driving on the A57 Snake road whatever the weather. I'd prefer the muppet coming the other way to see me before he decides to overtake when he shouldn't. Perfectly sensible of motorbikists to turn their lights on for the same reason.

My new car is an Audi (ahem) and it turns the lights on when it sees fit, as I leave them set to auto.

Can I suggest you reserve your indignation for those people who drive around at dusk either without lights or only parking lights (sidelights) on, or people who put fog lights on in the rain?

Or are you just suffering a terminal case of brand envy? If so relax, soon all cars will have daylight running lights as it will be the law.

Motorway speed limits will only ever be reduced – not increased.

When Ireland went metric in 2005 the motorway limit went up from 70mph to 120kph (~75mph).

They also took the opportunity to reclassify many single carriageway roads as either 100kph or 80kph (so some reduced from 60mph to ~50mph).

Not only will every single slip road and junction need altered, every single sign, gantry and safety barrier will need replaced.
The lengths of a slip road is designed to allow safe braking from the time you leave the motorway to the junction at the end (although there are a few instances where this is not the case).

In that case, given that nearly everyone drives at 80mph already, I wonder how anyone manages.

Graham – our limit is ~110kph, usually in Europe it is 120 or 130 (~75 or ~80 in mph).

As to changing to kilometres, different subject but I'd be in favour. Problem is metric is viewed as some EU conspiracy here especially by right wing newspapers owned by Australians (odd then that Australia uses kilometres).

Is it any wonder no one knows how to drive on motorways? As a learner you aren't allowed on them – so how can anyone instruct people what is right or wrong?

I had a motorway lesson a few months after I passed my test. This was 20 years ago, do people not do this any more?

Speed limit should be 80mph to bring us in line with Europe. Everyone drives at 80mph anyway.

Where are you working in Manchester? City centre? If so, and you can get from your house to Sheffield station relatively easily it shouldn't be too bad. A guy at our office did it the other way for years, he lived in Manchester city centre, walked to Picadilly, train to Sheffield then tram to Sheff uni.

As you probably know, studentish areas to west of city centre but not too far out would suit, or maybe hillsborough and tram straight to station. Or, Dore / Totley is further out but has a station (though you may find you have to get train back into town and out again to arrive at work in time).

Obviously west side of Sheffield is best for mtb… (edge of peak).

Fly to Girona and then instead of going to Barcelona, stay in Girona?

Because a jogger has chosen to jog along the pavement and should ensure they are doing it safely and considerately. Barging into another pedestrian causing them to fall over and die is pretty reckless.

Well the "causing them to … die" bit isn't right, since you could bump into someone and they fall over 1000 times and 999 times they would not die. The dieing would be due to some other unfortunate circumstance, i.e., luck.

As for bumping into people when jogging… it's pretty difficult to avoid sometimes when people jump out from behind trees, suddenly veer across your path without warning, or many other such dumb things that people do, I regularly have to take avoiding action. If I did knock someone over it would not be my fault, it would be theirs, and I tend to think the same about cycling on shared paths. I'm going not too fast and keeping an eye out, that's my side of the bargain, but if someone doesn't look where they are going and steps into my path, they (at the very least) share responsibility for any untoward outcome.

To be honest if a jogger knocks someone over and kills them they should be in serious trouble anyway IMO.

I don't see why. What about if I just bump into someone walking? What if a child roller skates along a pavement and an old lady falls over? What if someone trips over a twig?

Why can no-one on these threads accept the possibiity of accidents occuring? Everything isn't someone's fault, and even if it were I fail to see the utility of locking people up (at huge expense).

It's one long path so once you're on the right track pretty hard to get lost (there's a sort of triangle at the langsett end but you'd end up in civilisation either way).

Personally though I'd never venture out without my OS map – if you did somehow find a footpath or singletrack and wander off remember you might be 5 miles from anything resembling a road, it's wise to know where you are.

EDIT: I see you're asking how to get on the right track after the bridge over the stream… well, left, first of all, and then I'd have to check my map as there's the bridleway and also a footpath going a different way. I _think_ the bridleway has a sign and is signposted for Langsett, but I might have imagined that. Hence the map!

Further edit: Yes, after footbridge at slippery stones it's left, follow (indistinct at first if I remember right) path for 300 metres or so then take a right up cranberry clough, if you miss this you'll be on a footpath to nowhere in particular – according to the map ;-)

http://www.multimap.com/s/ADtTtcGR

If I knock someone over while jogging what's the sentence?

Oh no, I just remembered I took a photo of some paragliders near Castleton last year on the basis it would make the photo more interesting than sky on its own. I now realise that they should have swooped down and stolen my camera in case I captured their soul.

Or… get over it? I've had people photo me when out mountain biking, for exactly the same reason I photographed the paragliders.

What about people with photographic memories, should they be blindfolded when out in public?

Glossop's like Stocksbridge without the glamour (or the bypass). Commuting by car into Manchester would be a nightmare, you could get to Sheffield quicker. Getting to north Cheshire / south Mcr / airport area is even worse.

Best thing would be to knock it down and finish the M67.

They've banned swimming trunks in swimming pools? Are the Taliban in charge of Alton Towers? When I was growing up swimming pools banned baggy shorts.

Perhaps they should just ban men completely, after all that would fit in better with the modern understanding of 'family friendly'.

GP or minor injuries clinic if there is one might be better than casualty. Worth getting them to listen to your breathing at least, and a prescription of ibuprofen will probably follow…

EDIT: not sure how samuri recovers after a couple of weeks, I broke one and it was weeks of not being able to breathe properly followed by months of not being quite right and years of it being painful if any pressure was put on my chest.

if you want city life there is no uk better option

It's exactly the same as any other city, only bigger. That in itself is exciting for precisely 45 minutes, then you get over it, surely?

1 + 1 = 10

Mossies aren't midges though are they? Is it just the Scottish midge is more bitey than the English sort? Chippier attitude?

Are Scottish midges different to English ones in some way, or is it just the numbers of them in the Highlands?

What is the name of Bart's youngest sister then…

Which one?

Regularly see them zipping across our garden at dusk, you can only see them for a second sillhouetted against the sky they're so quick. I presume they live in the woods nearby.

I'd love it if someone could point out why it's supposed to be morally better to deny clever kids a decent education at 11 years than to deny thick kids one at age 11.

Wierdly I remember a (Labour voting everything-is-Thatcher's-fault) mate of mine at school was quite happy to claim he was better than me at 18 because he got a place at "proper" university whereas I was inferior because I got a place at a Poly. At first I wondered what this was all about, then I worked out that snobs can use just about any situation to make themselves feel better. Voting Labour being just one of these.

1981 Fiat 127 903cc
1989 Ford Sierra 1.6
1986 Rover 216
1990 Golf GTI
1998 Ford Focus 1.8
2005 Audi A3 2.0

Right lets go back to my previous example of if they were married in a country that allowed marriage at 16 and lets say the marriage was subsisting and it was not forced. So they can prove all this and then apply for entry clearance to the UK, should discretionary be shown? No because the law states 18 and they'd be refused. End of. Now the law is 21.

Nuke – did you read the article? The point here is that they have been given leave to marry by the UK authorities, and they would be allowed to live anywhere in the EU other than here because they are legally married. If they had married elsewhere in the EU they could live here legally. The only problem is someone is inapproprately applying a rule that was intended to cover a completely different situation without using the leeway that the law specifically built in to avoid this kind of problem. Besides which, you can get married at 16 in the UK perfectly legally.

Ernie – if you think middle managers wouldn't avoid using discretion so as to help them meet their targets, then you have a different experience of middle managers to me. The CPS situation you quote is different in that the CPS have to balance bringing cases that they can win versus ones they can't realistically win ('guilt' is not relevant). In this situation, someone at the bottom will have been told not to use the wriggle room the law allows by a superior who has targets to hit.

And yet, they gave the UK Border Agency discretionary powers to deal with any possible anomaly where there is clearly no question of a 'forced marriage'.

I wonder if HM Govt. also set a bunch of arbitrary 'targets' for Border Agency managers to meet?

Oh it seems they did, as laid out in their (laughably entitled) "business plan":

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/businessplan/

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/sitecontent/documents/aboutus/businessplan/april2009march2012/ukborderagencybusinessplan.pdf

For example, top of Page 29: "B.1 PSA 3 Indicator 3: Increase the number of enforced removals and voluntary
departures year on year."

We stayed in a modern hotel in the Vila Olimpica, a few streets away from Hotel Arts. Perhaps a bit new-town-ish but 5 minute walk to the beach or a 20 min walk or short tube journey to the centre.

Dammit, Sponging-Machine already did my joke. Ho hum.

The other daft thing about this situation is that they can now legally live together anywhere in the EU except the UK.

It does all sound like legislation drawn up quickly with no thought to the unintended consequences, and then applied to the letter by jobsworths even though the legislation specifically leaves room for flexibility. All perfectly standard for modern Britain.

When I worked in rural Cheshire (at a certain large nuclear physics lab) I car shared with three different people over the course of the year. The first couple of people were a bit of a detour and I had to drive to theirs even when it was their turn. Worked much better when a new guy started who lived half a mile from me.

I was an extremely poor student on a placement though, and petrol was my second largest outgoing after rent so I needed to save cash.

It was sometimes useful that I had to leave work at a set time to give someone a lift when my boss was wittering on about something at home time… ;-)

The whole of East Anglia's not flat

Yes it is

not even the whole of Cambridgeshire's flat as anyone who's ridden over the Gogs can tell you

Some googling later:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Magog_Down.jpg

Looks pretty flat to me.

Perfectly normal to be apprehensive. It's a big change, but then again it's going to happen anyway so no choice but to get on with it.

It's like Invasion of the Body Snatchers – once you've become a parent you can't understand why you worried. Apart from the lack of money, time, sleep, and being the least important person in the house from now on.

On the other hand in many ways it makes life a lot simpler – you now have a purpose in life so no existential worries. Just practical ones.

Make sure you get one that broadcasts on more than one frequency and set up a couple or more presets on both the gizmo and your radio as you get interference from different radio stations as you drive around the country.

Stoner – you seem confused, or at least you are confusing me. It is 20 years since my A-level Economics exam after all. By "real money" do you mean M0?

But the money actually in the economy is much more than that – it's the debt-created increase in M3 (or M4 if you prefer) that created, just for example, the series of consumer led bubbles of the last decade. It might be not as liquid as cash-money but that hasn't stopped people from spending against it.

To go back to the OP – money is increased by bank lending (central banks and governments in the sense of the strictest definition of money, commercial banks in the wider sense), and I guess where it comes from is "the future" – because effectively you're borrowing it against a debt to be repaid in the future.

The tree outside my office window is turning brown and dropping leaves…

Peak District, preferably northern bit, direct trains to Manchester and Sheffield, if further south Derby / Notts also commutable.

Or just west Sheffield – you can live in a village in / on edge of the peak district and cycle into town largely off road if it takes your fancy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_supply

If the borrower deposits the £8 back in Bank A, then the Bank A can lend another £8 to another borrower (as long as total lending based on that class of deposits does not exceed 80%). Net Assets = £10 – £8 + £8 – £8 = Net Assets of +£2.

If the borrower deposits the £8 in Bank B, then Bank B can lend 80% of it, or £6.40. Net Assets = £8 – 6.40 = +£1.60. And Net assets in the system = £10 – £8 + £8 – £6.40 = +£3.60.

The total amount owed is never greater than 80% of the total amount deposited.

What if the assets are junk based on mortgages that will never be paid back taken out on properties that are now declining in value because they were only worth the previous price when banks were effectively creating money to throw at US/UK/Irish consumers because Chinese/German businesses needed to invest the profits they made from selling things to US/UK/Irish consumers who'd borrowed money to buy the things made by the Chinese/German businesses?

What then? ;-)

Just to clarify, as we seem to be heading off on some tangents already. What I am asking is; if there is more money in the world today than yesterday, then where did that money come from? What mechanism brought it into existence?

5 people each deposit 10 pounds with bank.

Bank then lends 10 pounds out to 6 different people.

The mortgage on my first house was an endowment, does that count?