Here here FuzzyWuzzy!

Yes enfht. People do have selective awareness! The fact is that governments don’t even know the true figures. The Labour government grossly undestimated the numbers and tried to mislead us on the subject.

nickc – Member

people are deserting labour in droves but the Tories are not benefitting hugely

Apart from increasing the number of county councils under their control, to the extent of pushing the LibDems out of the Southwest, and denying Labour control of any councils, and increasing their share of the European vote to the extent of again Labour having no representation in the south west, and increasing their Welsh vote by 20% yeah, I can see that apart from all that, they’re doing terribly…

Facts well presented nickc!

I watched the interviews of a few Labour politicians after Cameron annihilated Brown last week at PMQs. Amazingly, the Labour politicians were claiming Brown was victorious over Cameron’s “own goal”! What own goal?? I witnessed a similar exhibition of a Labour MP’s complete denial about Labour’s Euro election results v UKIP’s performance on BBC TV today. I don’t read right wing newspapers. I don’t need to read a paper to see what a flock of delusional lost sheep the Labour party has become! It wasn’t always that way however. I did hope Blair would rectify some of the wrongs of the last Conservative administration, but after 12 years, Labour have totally blown it!! Look at the monumental public debt for instance! The issues are considerable and too numerous to list.

Will the BNP do the same as Sinn Fein?

Impossible! Sein Fein used a religious disagreement as grounds to maim and kill innocent people for decades. They bullied governments to the the point where Sein Fein were given parliamentary seats to appease them and to end their violent ways (but that didn’t work either). Nothing will stop those nutters other than the language they use – violence. Very very sad!

In my view we should all feel much more aggrieved about these murdering monsters.

I don’t like the BNP one tiny bit, but they are pussy cats compared to Sinn Fein!

a lot of normal people feel disenfranchised by the mainstream parties.

So why did most of em vote for Camerons lot then? for the same reason they voted Conservative in the loacal elections, to get Labour out of office!

You are overlooking the fact that most people in Europe didn’t vote at all! That speaks volumes about what people think on the matter.

BUT to get back on topic, a significant proportion of the population voted BNP and what has to be ascertained is why and how can their concerns be addressed or their ignorance / prejudice be changed

Well for starters, an English assembly would create a forum for them to voice their concerns! But immigration is not my main concern.

Many people may well be ignorant and prejudiced, but a lot of normal people feel disenfranchised by the mainstream parties. They feel ignored, neglected whilst every other minority group’s interests are met before their own. Are you not able to understand their sense of injustice? This is all due to the failings of the main political parties, to deal with a growing issue of unchecked immigration. Extreme right wing people are cashing in on the situation. I don’t believe that opposition to unchecked immigration has to be a far right wing issue. Jack Straw welcomed Eastern Europeans “with open arms” when the rest of Western Europe delayed opening their borders for 3 years. So are France and Germany far right wing? Of course they aren’t! They were preparing to protect the interests of their own existing population. Making sure they could manage the situatuion. I reckon Straw was just looking for a bunch of extra taxpayers and who would produce a generation of workers who’ll pay to prop up our failing public pension system. But there was no consideration for the impact these people would have on public services. No guarantee that they would contribute, or remain here. There was no measurement of the numbers entering the country. Councils were bound by law (probably foisted on them by Brussels) to accomodate these incomers, but at our expense. No regard for the impact it would have on low earning housholds. It’s been a fiasco! We have higher public spending in deprived areas as a result. A lot of low paid British workers (of all ethnic origins) have found they have been undercut by cheap labour – a good few now claim benefits because of this. So I am not in the least bit surprised that the BNP have gained ground.

What we need is for the main political parties to devise a strategies to make the situation fairer for those who have lived here all their lives, whatever their ethnic origin. That’s not racist, it’s doing right by the people who are worst affected by these sudden changes. The main parties are terrified of the stigma of being branded facists or racists if they so much as utter a word on the subject. The matter is complex and needs addressing, but the “PC do-gooders” are stifling balanced free speech once again.

I don’t know why I am bothering with this, we don’t have the power in the UK to do anything about this anyway. The problem is down to EU directives produced in Brussels.

I think the great “ideal” of a unified Europe is flawed – it isn’t going to work because the people of Europe didn’t get a choice in the matter. It was undemocratically forced on us bit by bit, which is an outrage!

IMHO We should have EU trade agreements, but not much else. Looking at the 57% that didn’t vote and UKIP winning more votes than the Labour party, indicates to me that there are a lot more people who share my views. We need that referendum which both main parties kept promisisng us!

So TJ, why do we have to pay for Scotish people’s college tuition fees, prescriptions, hospital parking, carehomes for the elderly etc etc?

The public spending per head of population in Scotland exceeds that of the English by at least £2200 per annum.

Look at this article from 2005. News.scotsman.com

Anyone got the latest figures? Don’t kid me that this figure has fallen.

I am in no doubt that the dwindling oil and gas reserves that lie miles off the coast of Scotland would not sustain her for very long.

Was it Scotish companies that found this resource and made extraction viable, or was it a British effort? Who funded it? Remember, we are a union of British people! And haven’t the people of the east coast of Scotland benefitted hugely from this industry already? I didn’t see any oil industry jobs on offer round my way!

You insinuate that everyone outside Scotland has benefitted dispropotionatly more than the Scots. It’s like you think the English are indebted to Scotland. Are you suggesting that these subsidies are fair and proper recompense, purely because we discovered oil and gas off the the coast of Scotland without handing all the profits over to the Scots? This is despite the British government’s investment of UK tax payer’s money. I think this idea is quite unreasonable!

If we have all profitted from oil and gas as you imply, why aren’t the English getting the same freebies which you now enjoy? What about the English who live in neglected parts of the UK? Or those who simply haven’t profitted contrary to how you surmise? The fact is that public spending north of the border has always been high compared to Scotland’s productivity.

In case you hadn’t noticed, the heavily populated South East generates a large proportion of the country’s GDP. So significant public spending is necessary and justifiable, but the ratio of spending to earnings is lower than in other parts of the country.

I think there should be an English assembly! That way we English people would have our interests met. As it stands, Ireland, Scotland ands Wales get their say, but the English don’t.

Having disproportionately high public spending and your own parliament in Scotland means the English are disadvantaged.

I struggle to understand how can any fair minded person can argue that this is a good thing for the United Kingdom!

England does not subsidise Scotland – its the other way around. This myth has been debunked numerous times. fiscal autonomy for Scotland would enrich Scotland and impoverish England

Which planet is that on?

I quite like veggie food actually. 😀

enfht – Member

I think I can speak for the entire UK population, (legal and illegal), in blaming the French. It’s all their fault and it always has been. End of/FIN

How about the Belgians?

Or the Swiss?

😆

Fussy eaters shouldn’t accept invitations to dinner and then dictate the menu.

How intolerant am I on this topic!?

But seriously, what is the point in vegetarianism?

What is it that is so wrong about eating meat?

There are much more important things to worry about IMHO.

Rudeboy said (See that middle tower block? That’s where I grew up!)

Is that why they blew it up 20 years ago?

enfht – Member

I don’t agree with SNP policy, I see them as xenophobic and anti-English.

Here here enfht! We could generalise about the negative comments and behaviour of some Scotish people too. That would make us just as xenophibic and narrow minded as the English haters north of the border!

IMHO, all that devolution appears to have done is create an expensive bureaocracy, divide the UK and encourage discrimination and resentment. I say go the whole hog and give Scotland autonomy! Let them also pay back the money we give them to subsidise the luxuries that aren’t afforded to tax payers here in England! I think the Scots would quickly realise that biting the friendly that feeds them was not such a good idea afterall.

Come on guys, let’s be much more broadmainded and stop this pointless continued tension. I have no truck with anyone I don’t know even in my country (Britain). Being proud about your regional identity is tiring to others. Where I live, if one spouts on about being proud to be English, the PC thought police will immediately label us as BNP supporters. I totally disagree with them, I am no supporter of the far right, but since when did these people consider the feelings of the majority. It’s like free speech has been stifled by some quango. In truth, the majority are all too busy earning a crust to give a toss about politics (I wish I was out there working so I too didn’t have time to think about things).

I spend hours wondering why it is that people have to make a point about their origins. What the hell does it matter???? We are all on this tiny planet together, so look for the things we have in common, co-operate, avoid conflict FFS!

My left knee is recovering from a 35 mile offroad ride at the weekend, so why can’t i post on here today?

Long haired 2″ brush with fine tip and a steady hand! Masking tape is a waste of time frankly. You won’t get a good edge and run the risk of pulling paper and paint off when you remove it. It takes ages to apply too.

Have in your other hand, a white spirit dampened rag for “accidents”. Sometimes if you wrap it round the tip of a flat blade screwdriver, you can just take off the ofending paint and not the good bits.

Have some of both paints and go and retouch any bad bits after the paint has dried.

Practice!

My Hope is still silky smooth after 14 months being on me old bike. Why waste money on CK? I guess the fashion victims will prefer the CK. 😆

What shocks me is that around 300 million people didn’t even vote!

Maybe 60% of the EU population don’t think that the Brussels parliament is that important.

Perhaps they don’t know much about it.

Who knows, but with such a low turnout one could question the validity of the results!

LCDs are better. They last far longer cause the plasma is a gas. They are also a lot cheaper to run cause a plasma has to have 3-4 cooling fans to keep them cool! The plasma will draw a lot more power than an lcd.( when was the last time you changed the batteries in you old calculator?)

I respectfully, but strongly disagree! Plasma TVs do not wear out within their useful life!(within a time we would use them for – say ten years). They install them in airports where they are left on 7×24 for years on end. The picture quality actually improves over time and plasma screens handle Freeview and standard definition material with far greater clarity. My Hitachi performs better at year 5 than in year 1! The problem is not longevity, it’s justifying buying a replacement and finding a home for the old set! I sometimes wish it would die, so I can upgrade!

On standard definition Plasma sets handle motion far better than LCD too. Motion artefacts are quite appalling on many LCD’s and at best are OK with everyday signals.

Most Plasma sets do not usually have cooling fans, but they do generate more heat than a comparable LCD. Most current LCD TV’s use a cold cathode tube for backlighting and there is no doubt these can fail. I know that laptops with a few years use fail with this problem, so I think this issue needs condideration. I’d wouldn’t expect a cold cathode to outlast the 100k hours a plasma would. So this notion that plasma’s wear out is a myth and people should really be focused LCD cold cathode failure.

LED backlighting is coming in now which will reduce consumption and be the ultimate in reliability. If they can get the image processing to a point where motion atrefacts are undetectable then plasma will be obsolete. I know that things have improved a great deal, but LCD remains inferior.

LCD can produce very sharp images with no motion artefacts when they have a Blu Ray source with the best interface, but this is not what you will be watching most of the time.

LCD is the greener choice however.

I have both LCD and Plasma sets and a mate of mine has two of each (he’s loaded). So I have had plenty of chance to experiment with picture settings. His 50″ Samsung LCD is impressive (faultless) when fed 1080p from a Blu Ray player over HDMI. On standard broadcast definition via Sky it is mediocre though. My aging plasma is better by a country mile.

As people correctly point out, comparing shop TV displays is a waste of time because the sets are rarely all set up properly. Some numpty salesmen think that max colour and max brightness etc looks best, but it just doesn’t! Then people in the shop fiddle around with them too.

I’m sure we will see some awesome new products withing a couple of years so my advice is to sit tight.

I took a picture of this from the opposite side of the valley from the Aguile Du Midi which is at very lofty 4800m, below Montblanc. Here’s a pic of the top station….

I had been to Chamonix a couple of times before this walking trip and the guys on the earlier cycling trips reckoned that there wasn’t much that was rideable on the Brevent/Flegere side above Balcon Nord. Well the pic revealed loads of trails up high and with a few running back to the valley floor.

On the next biking trip we went right to the top a couple of times. The top sections had some snow even in July.

When we went there, the bikes were carried by 2×3 timbers with hooks, placed in the ski holders.

A lot of paths are closed in the school holidays. You need to check with the Chamonix tourist office to find out the dates and which trails.

On a later trip we managed to get across from the top of Brevent across to Flegere, but we couldn’t see much as the clouds moved in.

We wanted to see if we could go up to the top station of Brevent and go off to the left and off the back of this mountain arriving down at Servoz which is a couple of kms further down from Les Houches. There are trails there, but we don’t know if they are ridable. You can get the train back up to Chamonic from Sevoz. You can take your bikes on there and it’s a cheap ticket.

Chamonix has some hidden gems which took us a few years to discover. I’m sure there are many more. If only I had the time and the money!

Just popping to Tesco’s for a pint of milk love,,,,

NC10 from eBuyer is pretty cheap now and has excellent battery life.

By the back end of the year there will be HD capable netbooks out that use less power (integrated graphics and processor chip from Intel is due – I forget the name. nVidia have a similar chip out too).

I wonder if the Polish polish apples. 😆

I had a tent which was 9m x 4m (T shaped). Apart from needing a dead flat pitch, it was too wide for a standard pitch. So I flogged it on eBay at 100% profit 😆 and bought a 5m x 5m 8 man (more like a six man).

I chuck in two tiny 2 man tents just in case we end up without finding a large enough pitch.

I also have a sturdy 3m x 3m gazebo with zip on sides, so am thinking I might “out” the big tent and just use the 2 man tents for sleeping in. It would certainly save me a lot of time setting up and packing away, not to mention freeing up space in the car.

I’d take the company’s contribution and the tax perk, but bear in mind private pensions provide shockinly poor returns. Don’t rely on this, or any other little pension scheme other employers provide you throughout your career!

Your fund will not be secure, or under your control and when you finally take your pension the annuity provider can reduce your pension if the markets take a bad turn. Don’t expect them to jack it back up proportionally when the market makes a recovery though.

When you die, your spouse might get half your annual pension, but not all annuities make this provision. If you have children, they won’t see a penny of your pension investment.

Conversely, putting money away in accessible/liquid investments means the money is in your hands, you decide what happens with it. Whatever the investment, it’s in your estate (trust funds of more than 7 years aside). When you die, your wife gets the lot (up to the nil rate band in force at the time). Any children stand a chance of inheriting later on too.

Annuity rates are so poor that, aside from the employer’s contribution and the tax rebate of personal pension contributions, it’s a bit of a waste of time after they take their charges and apply “smoothing”. Smoothing is sold to us as a way of ensuring funds aren’t hit badly in turbulent years, but they also hold back money when things go well. I’d sooner the investment was rewarded in line with the investment company’s market performance for any given financial year, but i’m sure that would hit them in the pocket! One thing that is for sure is that “smoke and mirrors” confusion around these investments abounds!

A few years ago when annuity rates were better, to get an annual pension of £35k required a pension fund of around £700k.

Now work out how long you are likely to live after you retire. The average age for a man is 78. If the individual had not invested in the pension fund, he may have had less cash built up at retirement due to not getting tax an non-contributory benefits, lets say £500k. Assuming he/she wanted to take as much as £35k a year, this would last around 15 years. If you add the continuing growth in the investment it’s going to last longer. Potentially it could last a lot longer, but as you have the money, you can protect it from big market fluctuations. You can take the risks to grow the investment. Perhaps you would buy property to let. Their would be a yield from rental income as well as the increase in the value of the property (inevitable over the long term).

If you have a private pension fund, I recommend taking up smoking a year or two before you retire. You will get a much better annuity rate because the provider, statistically speaking, is expecting you to die sooner.

How depressing!!

If you set the wifi router to bridge mode, it won’t be available for wifi connections from a PC. i.e the two routers talk only to each other. You can only connect via ethernet port.

What you have to do is run an ethernet cable from the master wifi router on one of the ethernet ports to the slave wifi router. The master will be your original router.

You then set up the slave with a different SSID. Then on your laptop(s)/wifi devices, add to your saved networks the secondary network settings.

Tiredness/fatigue perhaps.

These sound like involuntary spasms. I have a friend who gets these as well as full blown cramps. She reckons it’s a salt deficiency. Who knows.

I’d go see a GP – someone who knows what to look for and who knows what they are talking about!

Hope it goes away!

Dare I say get a mac!

Only f you want to pay twice as much as you need to and be limited on software and device compatibility.

They are pretty though – like iPods.

I don’t think you can use T-Cut on metallic paint.

Erm, yes you can! Just make sure you don’t rub away the entire laquer coat. To be honest, a specialist dent and scratch man will be better equipped to sort it out. If the scratch has penetrated the laquer, its going to need re-laquering and cutting back.

Given WCA has just got a nice new job, me thinks he should either pay for it or claim on his insurance. It would be worth telling the neighbour what you had to pay to get it fixed, but accidents do happen and children are highly prone to these.

I try and park my car away from where kids play (on my drive). Strangely though, despite a hedge dividing our gardens, my vehicle has been damaged twice by the next door neighbour. Once by the mother opening her 4wd door an denting mine (she and her Chelsea Tractor driving girlfriends use my driveway univited when we go away – women and their appalling spatial awareness eh!! – that ain’t sexist, it’s a scientifically proven fact!) and the other was the 4 yr old’s brake lever scraping the wing. I didn’t mention either of these incidents because I didn’t see them happen. I’d noticed the damage had appeared despite the car not being used and then I discovered paint from my car at the exact corresponding heights on their car door and the girls bike’s brake lever.

The only way to ensure your car is safe is to park it in a locked garage. I appreciate your exasperation WCA.

Maybe it’s caused by something totally unrelated. If your GP is stuck for an explanation and this carries on, why not try another doctor in the practice for a second opinion?

Sorry, but the Passat Tdi is a massively better car.

BigButSlimmerBloke – Member

tyger, I mean as a person, not as a politician.

Neither. Apart from the unbeleiveable arrogance of “having ended the boom and bust” of normal economic cycles, he’s then tried to jump on every bandwagon conceivable – the fat ugly bird from big brother, the ugly bird from the singing programme, whilst all the time failing utterly to do anything about the mess he created due to his completely inept handing first of the economy, then of everything else. Totaally summed up by the fred Godwin affair – “this government doesn’t reward failure ” I believe are the words ringing in Sir Fred’s ears as he struggles to cope with a £750k pension and gets to keep his knighthood.

Sub Prime Minister indeed.

Well said BigButSlimmerBloke!

And don’t forget Gordon imposed taxes that very adversely affected private pension funds the moment he became chancellor. At a time when pension funds were performing badly in comparison to earlier years (due mainly to the trend in falling in interest rates). And today during PMQ he says he is doing everything to help pensioners. Fxxking hypocrite!!!

Part of me is slightly sorry for Brown now, as he so desperately wanted this job, only to find out that he’s utterly rubbish at it. I agree, however, PMQs has become an unpleasant spectacle. There’s no joy in seeing his suffering.

How can you feel sorry for a man who did untold damage to the country when he was chancellor starting from 1997?

IMHO, PMQ is one of the finest entertainment shows going! Perhaps they should rename it “The Westminster Charade”!

Seems to me like the female cabinet members who have walked can’t take the pressure and at a time when their leader most needs them. Just shows how weak they really are and that we’ll be better off without them!

Would the last person to leave the cabinet please switch the light out? 😆

Now, how about a general election?

I’ll take the job that you reject!

Warm weather brings out all the biker tarts. They are too scared to get their bikes dirty (might destroy their image). They have delusions about being moto gp riders whilst pixxing off every other motorist and giving people like the misinformed Kate Humble the ammunition to tar all bikers with the same brush.

Errect a fence!

Beautiful frame, shame about the colour.

100 man hours plus materials. Not cheap!

I think Stoner must have something extra in his pipe.

Where do you put the kebabs?

Sadly, the only thing I can programme is my old VCR! 😥 Thanks anyway.

If Ashcroft (or any other MP) is on the fiddle, sack them. If the fiddle is criminal, prosecute them.

Any politician that willfully evades a repeated question clearly has something to hide, Hague isn’t the first and won’t be the last. If Hague didn’t know the answer to the question, he just had to say that he didn’t know. It is safe to assume he knew full well judging by this video.

Do these politicians think we are so stupid that we can’t see through the smoke screen?

Wilton Felder – Inherit The Wind?