jimmer himself – Member

Fifth Gear seems to have picked its game up generally of late. I just hope it doesn’t try and go anywhere near the Top Gear concept.

Isn’t looping the loop kinda like something they’d do in Top Gear and nothing like you’d do in real life?

Parcels 2 Go

Used these people a few times. They use all the big courier firms.

Go on their website for a free instant quote.

Yeah, I’ll just jump on the train. Damn, I can’t, they are on strike again!

£2k for a watch? Is that really necessary? £200 gets you something decent. But if you have piles of money, why not? I saw a solid platinum watch in Harrods a couple of years ago priced at £68000! Why? Because they can, that’s all!

trailmonkey – Member

Why do you think so many people from the around the world come to Britain?

Because of the cultural links established when we barged into countless other countries around the world demanding money with menaces ?

So what about the immigrants from the ones we didn’t barge into?

How many hundreds of years do we tax payers have to repay the alleged debt for what the power brokers did many generations ago? Did we bring no benefit to any of those countries?

The notion that we owe everyone from around the world some sort of compensation under these circumstances is nonsense. In fact it’s deranged!

Nobody alive today played any part in it, so I don’t see why we should feel obligated, or apologetic in any way!

The developed world continues to exploit the undeveloped world, it’s called “trade”! Every country has it’s own government who have the opportunity to rectify the wrongs. Shame there are so many corrupt administrations. Well as they repeatedly squander everything they get to help rebuild their countries, they can always blame it on the colonialists of a couple of hundred years ago when they are held to account!

Back to the Tube strike…. 😆

aP – Member

Well, the “gent” driving his car who turned left across me felt upset enough that I’d shouted “Oy!” to turn around and then drive nearly 2 miles via a completely different route before stopping me and telling me that:
a) I was a c***
b) that I shouldn’t have said anything
c) that he was going to beat the shit out of me
d) why was I critisizing him when all cyclist break the law anyway
e) that I could take down his reg number and report him, but that would just mean that he’d know where I lived, so he could come round and beat the shit out of me
f) that he was going to beat the shit out of me
g) that he bet I was sorry now, wasn’t I?
(at this point I said sorry, so unconvincingly that I really though he’d actually get out and beat the shit out of me)
h) that it was good that I’d said sorry, as it saved him getting out and beating the shit out of me
i) did an 11 point turn to go back in the direction he was originally going
What a lunchtime, and the day had been going so well to start with.

😆 😆 😆 😆

Cold cathode tubes do fail. but inverters are a likely cuprit too.

As you have nothing to loose, open it up and see if you can identify the inverter.

Might only be that.

Next time go for a non-mac PC! This will give you the chance to swap bits, upgrade, choose from a wider choice of software, fewer device compatibility issues and save the hefty premium you have to pay to own an Apple product.

chakaping – Member

Yes, I’m a tube driver.

Shirker! 😆

a hot Oz girl over a “lady”

Well last week’s evictee exposed her rear when she got her marching orders from the plummy sslloooowwww speaking college principle.

It was a very agreeable sight! 😳

This week’s show was a tad unfair on the Aussie girls given that they were competing with the so called hunt “ladies” in a hastily arranged teatime steeplechase. The toff hunt people set them up.

A great show given the stark contrast in cultures. The highly principled finishing school staff really do live on a different planet to real people. I can imagine feminists getting quite steamed up about the sexist subservient rubbish they preach. Totally out of touch me thinks!

business is dire.

You said it!

Be practical, not idealisitic!

TandemJeremy – Member

Spongebob – you do know that you can’t get benefits until you have lived a year in the UK and contributed for that year unless you come from a country with reciprocal arrangements

Really, so a council housing department will turn away a homeless family who have just arrived in the UK? The NHS hospital won’t treat them if they fall ill? For example, how do asylum seekers survive here with no home and no money?

This is getting way off topic! Striking tube workers have no right to close the Tube down for 48 hours in a dispute over pay. They are damn lucky to have jobs, many of which are very well paid for the effort and responsibility demanded of them. People relying on the Tube should not have to put up with the disruption to their lives. Shame on the unions that forced this issue on the workers!

Good for you oldgit! We should all aim to put violence to bed. Easier said than done for some and in certain situations. Self-defence as a last resort is the only acceptable time to get rough, but if you learn ways to manage anger (both your potential assailant’s and your own), a punch up can usually be avoided. Assertiveness training is the starting point. Reading other people, knowing what to say (and when) is not always easy however.

Those that enjoy violence really do need medical help!

Eastern countries etc,,,to places were people are delighted at a chance of a tangible job where previously they really struggled!

Why do you think so many people from the around the world come to Britain? The easy, free availability of heathcare, benefits, education and housing. They can’t get this where they live!

There is nowhere else in the world where you can get everything paid for on benefits without contributing!

Rudeboy said – Would there be so much anger, if this were a more financially stable period? Would there indeed even be industrial action at all?

Of course there would! Even more so! Have you forgotten the other public sector stikes? The teachers went on national strike over pay 14 months ago for example. The RMT had several Tube strikes in 2006 and 2007. There were plenty of strikes when the economy was doing well! In fact this is when stikes tend to occur – when unions think everyone else but them are getting a better deal. The politics of envy/jealousy!

I clearly detect jealousy from you Rudeboy, you assume everyone who is working in the so called “greed” sector is loaded. That is so far from the truth! The opposite is often true in fact. Public sector workers have a great deal more job security, higher average wages and fabulous pension provision, all from a sector that doen’t make a bean in profit and has no natural predators.

Nobody is looking down on tube drivers! This is not some issue about social status, it’s purely about being rewarded an appropriate ammount of money for the job that you do. Because of the situation with unions and the usual “tail wagging the dog” scenario, tube drivers are overpaid. The unions hold TFL to ransom to get their way and they win!

Look at the Fleet Street printwortworkers dispute in the 80’s. News International opened the Wapping site and computerised typesetting. The entire lot of the Fleet street workers were out on their ear. They deserved this because they had held the newspaper bosses to ransom for years, earning hugely inflated salaries. The resulting violent protests went on there night after night and even disgruntled sacked miners from up north rocked up for the punch up.

Unions did the same to many large corporations e.g. Fords in Dagenham, wrecked the profitablity of the company. Manufacturers went elsewhere in the world as a result. Mostly working people lost out. Nice move you idealistic union numpties!

Rudeboy openly admits to being idealistic. Well ideology is a sign of madness when you ignore practical reality, the hard facts of life – someone has to earn all this money at some point. We should all aspire to certain ideals, but not when it is going against the grain, going against what is economically viable.

Rule number one: We have to make good products to sell, that people will buy, preferrably to sell abroad. Not a chance! The public sector should be there to support this and should be a sized according to what the so called “greed sector” needs and can afford to support. Labour politicians can’t grasp this fact and this is why they keep expanding a public sector while the economy shrinks. The road to hell!

It was roger!

As a more mature adult, I now seek to avoid violent confrontation, and can usually use me big gob to talk me way out of trouble.

😆 Rudeboy!

Didn’t your big gob get you into those violent confrontations? If your entries on STW are a reference, I’d bet it did!

Love the “more mature adult” quote! Vey funny 😆 Getting there slowly!

Seriously Rudeboy, I have read a lot of your stuff and I think you have some issues you would benefit from addressing. I know you have a positive side and you really need to focus on this.

I don’t think political ideology has anything to do with this, but your surroundings do. I recommend you get yourself out of London. Avoid any large conurbations, go live in a place where people are more inclinded towards being personable, rather than wanting to beat “seven bells” out of one another at the slightest provocation!

There is the Accor hotel group which are cheap to stay at. Formule 1 being the cheapest, but have shared loos and showers.

We stay at Dijon. It’s a bit of a schlep down there, but it gets you closer for day two. Troyes wouldn’t be a bad place to stop, but I have never tried it.

You can get to Verbier via the chamonix valley. There’s the Vallorcine valley just past Chamonix valley, then you descend to Martigny. I seem to recall Chamonix to Verbier took about an hour in the car. There may be a more direct route however.

Sounds like one of the leads that power the cold cathode backlight.

Try to repair it. Insulate and support the join with heatshrink sleeve (Maplins supply this).

If this fails, go online and look for a replacement. eBay often have used laptop spares available.

This week the toffee nosed finishing school is hosting a traditional british,,,,,,”hunt”! 😆 😆 I think that’s how you spell hunt.

What a waste of time this forum is!

Morality and do the right thing, how quaint! As soon as you get payed to be a politician you start to be corrupt!

I cannot agree with that!

There are a lot of good people in politics doing a lot of work behind the scenes!

I think the media have exposed the worst ones at the expense of all others. That’s a tad unfair!!!

This thread was about one of the worst offenders. The man who claimed the most.

He reckons he’d done nothing wrong, the Justice minister FFS!!??!!???

Empty snow covered slopes are pretty useless if the lifts aren’t running.

Avoid Val Thorens unless you like hoardes of privileged toff university kids all behaving like utter cocks!

the kids have asked mummy on several occassions “why do you smell of ‘bruce'”?

😆 😆 😆 😆

What a great story!

I wish I had Bruce’s problem! 😉

Lucky b……

Rudeboy, if they don’t like the pay and conditions, they can always leave!

So Rudeboy, project, yot think that the tube workers are justified in striking over pay in this economic climate?

I fundamentally disagree with the right to strike! Unions are bullies, not just to management, but to some or all of their members.

Also, the tube network issues have nothing to do with my unemployment! My point is that Tube workers, by disrupting the service, have not the slightest interest in the innocent people their unreasonable and irrational actions impact on. They don’t give a damn about their customers!

Moving to a different place to get away from London would be nice, but very expensive and it’s not just about what suits me, there are other members of my household. It’s also important to remain close enough to where the main sources af work are. If a great job comes up somewhere different, I’ll give relocation some serious thought, but as it stands, i’m like most other people – you have to live in a densely populated area to get work.

Finally, I have sorted out an alternative to the Tube. I am not a regular commuter now, but I did my DAS so I that I can get a bike to commute next time a job arises (where otherwise i’d be dependent on public transport). I’d sooner drive to work if it was close enough and without too much conjestion.

The Tube will be the shame of the UK in 2012 when stories of how overcrowded, dirty and unreliable it is reach all corners of the globe. If the people who run and man the underground made the effort, the experience would be in a different league from what it is today.

Why Tube workers are stiking this time

I use the Tube. The service is rubbish. These strikers are on another planet! Most have no concept of the customer – the crux of all the issues with the Tube.

Bob Crow is mad supporting a strike in this climate!

He also has spearheaded strikes and disruption over the contracts awarded to the now failed Metronet and also Tubelines. He argues that the maintenance should have remained under the control of the London Underground.

My experience is that LU workers take every opportunity to disrupt the service when there is the slightest whiff of a technical fault of any kind. They then blame Tubelines for this. As far as the LU workers are concerned, the passengers (customers) can go to hell!

There are thousands of people who depend on the tube who are feeling insecure in their jobs. The tube workers frequently make these people late for work and when they strike they make it very difficult to get to work. Many people I know have taken pay cuts and i’m out of work due to these difficult times.

Bob Crow and his bunch of lefty idiots are totaly out of touch!

Sack the lot of them!!!

RegP – Member

Sorry are any of the replies from quilified sparky’s?? Just a small point?

Why? I know a qualified sparky. He’s the biggest bodger I know! Caused me no end of trouble! You either have a way with hands on work, or you don’t! Complying with regulations on a job like this is not a difficult.

woody2000 – Member

I thought it was illegal to do anything more than change a lightbulb if you’re not qualified? Wrong!

You must have all work carried out in bathrooms, kitchens and oudoors certified by a qualified electrician. Anyone can do the work so long as they are reasonably competent, just so long as the qualified person will sign it off.

This comment pretty much sums up Labour’s attidude to the immoral abuse of the expenses system.

trailmonkey – Member

He’s been cleared. What’s your point caller ?

I’m not alone in thinking people like Makik have no credibility after passionately proclamining his innocence on BBC TV.

Sod the rules, it’s not about what you can claim, it’s about what you should claim!

As chewk points out, most will get kicked out in a year or so, but this is an example of the Labour cabinet not understanding how “bang out of order” their MP’s have been over the expenses issue. Clueless!

Bring on the General Election!

i disagree – the iphone has MUCH better build quality, and feels a much higher quality unit. The touchscreen and useability of the iphone is also in a completely different league to the 5800, which i found to be too clunky (virtually having to physically press down the screen to press buttons…). screen resolution isn’t really an issue (and i prefer the less-widescreeness of the iphone compared to the narrow one on the 5800)…

Yes, iPhone is a better tactile experience, but there is nothing wrong with the build quality of the 5800. It is up to Nokia’s usual high quality. The touch screen works really well and the widescreen format suits video material especially well.

If you consider that it’s half the price of an iPhone, it’s a no brainer. Yesterday a friend called me to ask what I thought about the Nokia. He has an iPhone which is nearing the end of it’s 18 month contract. He is looking to switch handsets because he doesn’t want to spend £35 a month on airtime. He’s now going for an 18 month contract with a free Nokia 5800 and will pay £15 a month. So he’ll have a brand new handset and will save £180 over the the iPhone upgrade. A no brainer IMHO.

Go ahead, get your new iPhone! The power of marketing!

Apart from disc brakes and alloy wheels, Harley Davidsons look like antiques. Huge engines – like a lot of American cars.

If you think about it, a product that hasn’t moved with the times should be super cheap, like all the ancient British cars that are still made in parts of India.

Harleys: for people with deep pockets, who can’t/don’t want to ride round bends, who (in the main) love polishing chrome for hours on end.

iPhone’s have a great UI, good game support, great web browser.

They are way too expensive however!! Locked to O2 if you want to do things by the book for the next couple of years at least.

When the battery gives out on your expensive investment, then what do you do?

A Nokia 5800 is a better phone because it’s costs far less, takes Micro SD cards, has an FM radio, has a replaceable battery, is available for any network, has a higher res. screen, can forward texts, can cut and paste, works with BBC iplayer, streams live bbc tv, works with youtube, works with Nokia’s free Sportstracker and other GPS apps such as Viewranger. Takes any 3.5mm headphone/earphone and has fantastic audio. The only limitation i can see is the limited number of IP radio stations in the realplayer format. The web browser is adequate, but not outstanding.

Nokia are a the biggest manufacturer of mobile phones, they dominate the market because they make solid, reliable products that work. The 5800 is their first touchscreen handset. A total winner!

Or be a fashion victim, have your wallet emptied and buy the limited iPhone!

Wow, long wordy responses to match some of my contributions! 🙂

I’d shop the guy! Smokers puffing their shxt into an enclosed space is so anti-social and selfish. There is a health implication, but the worst thing is the disgusting smell that gets into your hair and clothes after the briefest of encounters. It’s a highly offensive habit and the law states that you must not do it in a work place etc. No excuses!

I don’t subscribe to the “it’s his/her life not mine so let them get on with it” attitude. When smokers end up in hospital, it costs a fortune and deprives people of medical attention who are ill through no fault of their own! I’m certain that tax receipts on tobacco sales don’t cover the costs of smokers’ illnesses. Not to mention the misery that the friends and loved ones suffer when someone is seriously ill and/or dies.

Shop ’em! No question!

It’s difficult to give advice without seeing the installation, but I’d avoid hacking plasterboard unless it’s absolutely neccessary.

If the damaged cable runs to a socket, down from the floor above, why don’t you attach a fresh bit of cable at the socket and pull it up using the old cable as a pull through? You will have to identify the correct cable above and this will involve taking up the floor above.

If the power socket is a spur, this will be easy. If it’s on a ring, you might have damaged both cable drops to this socket. So you will need to establish where these two cable run to.

After you fix this, get a power cable detector before you drill any more walls. They aren’t expensive.

A letter to your MP I think!

It’s very reassuring to hear “someone in the know” say the things you so desperately wanted to hear and after so long. It must be a huge relief as you begin to move away from all that uncertainty.

Wishing you the very best of luck to your missus on her road to recovery. I hope it will be swift and complete.

Actually, we would prefer if a UK government had the balls to create a UK Space Agency and directly fund the UK industry with us having the option to opt into ESA programmes – just like Germany, Spain, France, Italy etc.

Perhaps UKIP would be the party with “the balls” to do this.

I don’t support BNP but I repsect their right to exist and express an opinion. I support free speech!

On the subject of UKIP, I don’t agree with the politics but I think they are legit. BNP on the other hand seem very dangerous to me.

aren’t all elected MP’s “legit”? Isn’t that the cornerstone of a democratic system?

Well actually, a party that found a suitable place for religion, relegating it to it’s rightful place – an insignificant recreational passtime, or for supporting the needy.