DaveR

Car parks attract cars. I don't think we want to encourage more traffic to LL and surroundings.

So being a private landlord in Germany is fine but in the UK it's somehow immoral? You talk about straw men but I don't understand your logic

Bornagain, I'm sure the piece, and indeed you, speak for many teachers (thanfully not all, or even the majority) who have opposed every reform of state education over the last 30 years (under both Conservative and Labour governments) despite the overwhelming evidence that the system waas failing children. As I said above, all the evidence suggests that the changes have been positive. GCSEs and assessment, every teacher I know is in favour of the move away from assessments because of the endemic gaming of the previous system. The teachers that I have met through my children's education are also generally committed and professional, and appear (unsurprisingly) to have a much more nuanced, sophisticated understanding of current circumstances than someone who got out 20+ years ago. BTW, whenever a serious area of policy is reduced to a single name - "Gove" - you know that you're going to get a political rant thinly dressed up as rational argument. See also 'Thatcher' and 'Blair'. And as for Ken Baker, if (as the OP claims) you have any interest at all in education that is 'useful in real life' you should be cheering him on now: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/schools/kenneth-baker-open-your-eyes-gove--this-is-what-pupils-should-learn-8463992.html

If the OP had said 'here's a link to a piece of art that is not intended to be anything other than an overemotional representation of one extreme view of current education policies, that you may entirely sensibly disagree with' I'd have no objection. Even then I'm afraid Parks/Scargill means it's a load of crap

So are we agreed that the link in your original post was to a load of simplistic superficial nonsense, making zero contribution to the real and complex debate about what effective education looks like?

Anybody who cites Rosa Parks and Arthur Scargill in the same sentence has sacrificed any credibility they ever may have had. I thought it was a load of crap. Edited to add: all the evidence is that state schools have been getting better and better at exactly the same time as teachers have been protesting that it is being destroyed. Funny that. PS - what is progressive education? Is it different from effective education?

I guess it takes a while to build a brick pizza oven, and difficult for someone to run a pop-up while you're doing it.

The evidence seems to suggest that most UKIP voters don't know much about the EU, and care even less. When asked what they liked most about Britain, the most common answer was 'the past'. Anti EU rants are (in electoral terms) just a convenient way to hark back to the halcyon days of supposed British greatness. The supreme irony is that they never existed, can't be brought back, and any effort to do so would probably harm the average UKIP voter more than anyone else.

*comedy*

unlurked, why are you such a f*cking tw*t? Or should that be the subject of a separate thread?

Fergie picked Moyes based primarily on his character, and there's nowt wrong with that if you're looking for a guy to build his own squad over 2-3 years. Unfortunately, delivering results at the level expected by United, with a squad you largely inherit from someone else, takes more than that. The obvious choice, love him or loathe him, would have been Mourinho. I've never had very strong feelings about him as a person, but he's an outstanding manager, and I reckon Chelsea are still favourites for the title.

"BTW, has anybody actually paid ?1 million yet for > a 'normal' ED house? Not sure what you mean by 'normal' but, having had a look on Mouseprice, it would seem that over ?1million was paid for a house on Rodwell Road (SE22) in December (4/5 bedroom) and a few on Underhill Road have also breached ?1million." I guess by normal I meant not either (i) SE22 but really Dulwich Village, e.g. Woodwarde Road or (ii) properly big 5-6 bed houses, which are comparatively rare in ED other than in Marmora Rd and surrounds. I just had a quick look on Rightmove and most of the houses with ?1 million+ asking prices are still in one of those two categories. We'll see, I guess.

"And for want of those monies, I fear that East Dulwich will stay a slum, albeit a more expensive one" Alex K, I'll make this as polite as I can. If you had a firmer grasp of economics I suspect you wouldn't be out leafleting on a Saturday afternoon.

For anybody who is really interested, the following case shed a lot of light on how these schemes work: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2011/4023.html Somerfield had written into the contract that the parking operator would not be authorised to take proceedings, so the letters they sent to people were found to be misleading. However, not every landowner will have that term. The court did not doubt though that the scheme was capable of giving rise to contractual obligations to pay the overstaying charge which were enforceable (though not allowed in this case to actually be enforced).

Very good draw for Chelsea, and interesting all round. AM will fancy their chances against Barca, as will Dortmund against Real after last year. It would be typical Mourinho luck to get Chelsea into the semis with Barca and Real gone.

"The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4 specifically enables recovery of unpaid parking charges from a vehicle's registered owner if the driver's name and address aren't made available." It does, but the onus is still on the car park operator/landowner to prove that there was a valid contract and that the charge is not an unenforceable penalty i.e. you can only recover the money from the keeper if you could have recovered from the driver. The reason most people are not pursued when they throw the ticket away is that many landowners do not allow their parking contractors to pursue their customers through the courtds - bad PR and all that. Obviously the parking people won't tell you that, but if you get follow up demands, read them carefully - if they don't make explicit that they have the authority to issue proceedings, the chances are they don't. It's not right to say that private parking demands are unenforceable per se - if there is a clear sign stating the terms on which parking is made available, you will be taken to have accepted them. However, it seems clear that only the tiniest proportion of cases are actually taken beyond the heavy letter stage, so completely ignoring them is a reasonable strategy, but be aware that some cases are pursued to court.

We've been very happy with violin teachers from musico south for our daughter (7) I have bought violins from this site: http://www.gear4music.com/String_Instruments/Violins.html and I guess the teacher can advise on size. If you need an 1/8 size, let me know, as I have one now outgrown.

"I'm just extremely anti-authoritarian ..." I think you're flattering yourself there.

Fascist, draconian, authoritarian? Get a grip. If you don't like it, go somewhere else. Were you honestly expecting sympathy?

The obvious target for penalties is vacant property, rather than specifically foreign buyers, although it would be likely to hit overseas investment buyers more than any other group. I do think the impact of overseas buyers, although material, is a bit overblown - it's a huge factor in Central London prime areas, and there's a certain amount of trickle down, but there is plenty of domestic demand. Supply is a far bigger issue IMHO.

Whether you call it interference, regulation, or whatever, govts shouldn't try to control or eliminate market forces (because they can't) but they should avoid doing things that make markets work badly, and they should certainly have the ability to intervene to achieve particular outcomes. On the supply side there are lots of things govt can and probably should do to encourage brownfield development, discourage land banking (and house banking), get more stock into low cost housing etc. On the demand side, funding for lending is just obviously stupid as a policy, and discouraging vacant housing will push some demand away, but mortgage rates will soon start creeping up and that should have the desired effect. Going back to the title of the thread (27 pages on), it may seem trite and unhelpful, but, even when the current frenzy cools, buying a house in this area is going to continue to be near impossible if you don't have enough money. That's what happens in gentrified neighbourhoods in big successful cities.

We've stayed a couple of times at this B&B in Ramsgate: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_Review-g186314-d678525-Reviews-Glendevon_Guest_House-Ramsgate_Isle_of_Thanet_Kent_England.html It is a great place to stay, and not expensive. Ramsgate is not the loveliest town, but it has an enormous beach, and is close to Broadstairs, which is much nicer, and also to my favourite beach in the area, Botany Bay.

So I thought I'd seriously explore the real ale/craft beer situation by going back to the Rake last Friday, and, as it turned out, drinking far too much. It was all great. Hopstar Lancashire, Brooklyn IPA, some Belgian stuff, and chili plum porter. And various others, and some pork pies. And loads of blokes with beards (ironic and non-ironic) getting on famously, and even some women who didn't look as if they were desperate to escape. Perfect, although I was a little tired and pensive for much of Saturday.

I thought it was worth reviving this thread so see if any of the Chavez apologists want to reconsider: http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2014/03/10/venezuela-launches-new-fx-regime-as-shortages-worsen/?o=os

IKEA has fun kids bedding that is not gender specific