But if Yorkshire gets independence, would the capital be Sheffield or L**ds? There could be civil war…

The LibDems are also the only party to oppose the war before it started, but then fully support it after it had started.

Ernie, you're just making stuff up now.

I don't think there's anything wrong with saying "we're against this war but now you've sent our troops into harm's way you should give them adequate equipment".

But pints in the US are different. And how many ounces in a pound? Oh I see, 16, not 20. But why? Oh wait I misread your calculation. I'm confused now. How many pounds in a stone, I have no clue.

I'm off for 330ml of beer. Or maybe 546ml if I can find one of the bigger bottles.

That's not the way I understand it. I thought the law changed so that shopkeepers can only display measurements in metric. Dual displays are banned. That's why there are so many complaints.

Wrong.

Complaints are from idiots who refuse to say what something is in metric. They can still display the archaic units if they want (I'm 40 and have no idea how many ounces in a pint or whatever it is).

I remember last election Farage walking around a market in France and saying that there, they can use 'livre' for pound, and the EU stops us from using pounds. Err, well first it's not the EU that says metric measurements should be used, and second, I think he might find if he asks for un livre he'll get half a kilo.

Couldn't we just lie about it?
Have the "deterrent" and the club pass and save the money?

Didn't work very well for Saddam. He took the "beware of the dog" sign down and denied he had a dog, but carried on playing a tape recording of barking in the garage. Didn't stop the US breaking in on the pretext of getting rid of the imaginary dog.

Was Pam Ayres from Reading? I thought she was all about the West Country….

I think her accent was the normal one for places like Berkshire before they became suburbs of London.

I like ales & bitters but not on a warm day.

May I recommend a nice IPA? Thornbridge Jaipur for example?

Johnson Whitby… it has a ring to it

Edit: oh wait, having checked dates, Nixon Whitby. More of a spinner than a fast bowler.

Lords reform is tricky. On the one hand, a load of hereditary old Tories falling asleep after too much port at lunch, on the other a bunch of placemen loyal the prime minister who gave them a peerage.

But replace them with an elected house and what will be the difference between them and commons? Currently the wierd old mix in the Lords has several times refused to bow to government pressure and saved us from the police state that Brown wants to impose on us for our own good. How can we have an elected 2nd house that will stand up to the government of the day?

15 in sheff – but feeling warmer than that in the sun

(2 hours ago it was 12 and cloudy)

Wait a minute… an IT guy in a suit? Something's wrong here…

They should all be put to work building horse drawn carriages. Or perhaps steam engines. Or VCRs.

Or… this is genius. Half of them dig holes in the ground.. and then, wait for it, the other half fill them back up again. They could be digging one and filling in another at the same time! Full employment!

I wonder why this hasn't been thought of before.

I think the fact our top nuclear armed sub is on exercise in the south atlantic along with a squadron of Typhoons at Port Stanley acts as a very effective deterrent to the argies that have been stirring about the sovereignty of the Falklands and the associated gas/oil supplies down there

That and the fact that there isn't any oil there…

Wasn't the poll about who won the debate itself, not about who people would vote for? (they polled people who'd just watched the show).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8624317.stm

SNAP POLLS ON THE DEBATE

ITV: Clegg 43%, Cameron 26%, Brown 20%
YouGov/The Sun: Clegg 51%, Cameron 29%, Brown 19%
Channel Four: Clegg 58%, Brown 28%, Cameron 13%
Sky News: Clegg 37%, Brown 32%, Cameron 31%

Perhaps someone can explain for me why we can't just keep the system we have currently?

And people are about to give Labour another chance!

Personally I hope not. But just commenting on the debate, Cameron has come across as a complete lightweight. Brown hasn't said anything of interest but he's defended well. Clegg seems to have some fire in his belly.

If it seems different on the radio, that's interesting…

Scores on the doors:

Clegg +5
Brown +1
Cameron -5
Stewart -100

WWJR – you mean you didn't print a bingo card?

http://www.debatebingo.com/

or if you prefer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/8620147.stm

politicians talking without interupting each other.

No-one seems to have told Brown about that rule…

I was in this situation not long ago – gardening leave while they go through the charade of a 'consultation process'. They're just jumping through hoops ticking boxes etc. to make sure you can't take them to tribunal, even though in reality they've made their mind up. As others say, ask awkward questions about how you were chosen and they have to respond in writing. You have three months from the point of being made formally redundant to take them to tribunal if you feel they have broken any rules; before then you may manage to ask a question that worries them enough for them to offer you more money if you sign a waiver that you won't see a lawyer later… (didn't work for me, but it did for an ex-coleague of mine).

Once formally redundant, note that you can sign on for Job Seeker's Allowance, your redundancy pay and pay in lieu of notice period doesn't matter. I thought I had to wait for the notice period to finish, you don't. Mind you, it's only £65 a week which won't keep the wolf from the door for long.

You didn't mention your age, if you are 41 or over they should give you 1.5 times your weekly salary for every year of employment for the redundancy pay. I'm 40, it's almost as though they chose me to save a couple of grand redundancy pay, but of course they can't base their decision on age, so that can't say that that's the reason even if it is. If they do say anything like that you should probably get some advice straight away.

The IFS are a right wing think tank, with its roots in opossing capital gains tax.

That doesn't quite explain why they are saying Labour's policy of taxing everyone but then paying credits to people on low pay is better than the Lib Dem policy of taking low paid people out of tax in the first place.

It seems to me that this IFS report, accusing the Lib Dems of missing the point, actually misses the point itself; to follow the report's own logic, you'd have to argue that there should be no personal tax allowance at all (Paxo also made this error in his interview with Clegg last night). Also, paying tax to fund civil cervants to decide if you can have some of that tax back is obviously wasteful.

I'd be interested in a report about whether the Lib Dem idea produces lower marginal rates of taxation for people on below average wages than Labour's tax-and-give-back approach – my feeling is that it would.

When I was a student I got sent polling cards to my address in Manchester and also to my parents in Sheffield (I didn't bother with a transpennine trip just for the novelty though).

Oddly though I never paid poll tax because Manchester thought I lived in Sheffield and Sheffield thought I lived in Manchester. I wonder if they'll ever catch up with me?

The only sexual discrimination here is the assumption that a man would not also have child care issues.

Man transfers music collection from laptop to iPad shocker

I'm with TJ here, you wouldn't really be turning the handle bars to steer, unless you are going really slow – instead you lean.

If going fast through switchbacks you should countersteer – turn the handlebar the 'wrong' way in order to tip the bike over faster (motorbikists do this).

If the front wheel is washing out / understeering would that be because you've got your weight far back? I was told to put your weight central and through the outside pedal and inside handle bar.

Oh and point your head and shoulders at the exit of the corner – and you magically go there.

My original point was that you don't have an "allowance" to do with as you wish

If enough people vote Green that's precisely what will happen – you'd have a personal quota of Carbon (i.e., your energy use would be rationed).

I wonder how many people who vote Green realise this…

http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/policypointers/pbcarbonquotas.pdf

Indeed. That little guy who invented those very useful pockets which some cycling jackets have,
had a go at it a few years earlier.

Julius Ceasar?

what are the chances of creating a post ride 'Electrolyte Ale'…….

You just have to carefully match your intake of crisps or salted peanuts to your liquid intake. Say, one pint beer / one bag crisps?

Or finish ride at pub and have a steak and chips with a pint?

That macbook is at least a couple of generations old by now…

<pedant>
Actually it's the current model white 13" MacBook, new last year…
</pedant>

Did I start this spat? Sorry…

Anyway, to clarify my point – I don't really give a monkeys if you have a digital photoframe, even though I can't see the point. But it does seem that, as a society, we are much better at inventing (and more to the point, marketing to the masses) pointless novelty items, sorry, er, useful devices like this that consume power, than we are at reducing our usage.

Which is fine, whatever. But the net result is, we need more power stations of some form or other, and soon.

It told me to vote Lib Dem. Which I was going to anyway. Do I win?

Digital photo frames are an excellent example of why the "let's all just use less energy we don't need nuclear/wind/magicbeans power" argument that you often hear is bogus.

To go back to the OP, I think the consensus generally is that most people are fed up of the current lot, but not massively keen on the other lot.

BBC 3, 8pm tonight.

I had the problem s12000 describes – somehow Windows had picked up a wrong DNS address for the wifi and that needed resetting.

If you connect to the router via wifi (unplug the network cable) and then bring up command prompt, type this:

ipconfig /all

If the DNS address is differnt to the general router / DCHP address, then go into your network settings in Windows and hunt around for whatever it is that will reset that. You may have to tell it to forget the network and then set it up again, or there might be an option to obtain a new DNS, can't remember.

Maybe the Labour Party have released an iPhone app to obtain personal details in contravention of the DPA?

Oh, sorry, no, that was the Conservatives.

The interesting thing about that is that Cameron is following Obama's playbook…

Does anyone else think it odd that parties are supposed to have any sort of "policy on cancer", breast, testicle or otherwise?

The next three and half weeks will be full of this sort of non-story, tiny differences between the parties magnified out of all proportion, while no-one talks about the realities (tax increases and cuts in public spending whoever gets in).

Just ignore it all, it's froth.

IIRC jacob's ladder isn't too bad at all coming down, just impossible to get up. Whereas cavedale just bamboozled me when I tried to get down it, I'd be going ok for a bit then realise I'd ended up stuck and had to pick the bike up and put it down the other side of a rock. Possibly too much line choice was my problem?!

Bit of an aside – I've downloaded the SDK and written some iPhone apps (one published so far) just wondered if anyone else has done this? If so, how's it going?