DaveR

Huguenot is right and wrong. The specific problem in Cyrpus is that their decision to make themselves a tax haven means that their banking sector is far too big compared to their domestic economy for a bail out with austerity conditions a la Ireland, Portugal - nothing to do with the EU or the euro. On the other hand, the reason their banks are in the sh!t is (in part) because they bought lots of Greek govt bonds and lent money to lots of Greeks - lots to do with the EU and the euro. H's problem is that he's turned himself blue insisting that nothing to do with the eurozone sovereign debt and banking crisis has anything to do with the EC or the euro project that he's lost any credibility, even when he's (a bit) right.

It's a small point but if you are going to say: "Stats do not show the true picture." then you should at least have a stab (no pun intended) at explaining why. What was said was that teenagers know: "if they are stopped my the Police and caught with a knife nothing is likely to come of it." The stats show that they have a roughly 1 in 4 chance of ending up in prison, if convicted. There may well be a valid debate about whether that proportion should be higher, and how long sentences should be, but the starting point is that the stats do show a true picture of what currently happens. My only other observations would be (i) that a lot of much better informed people than us have done a lot of very credible research about the deterrent effect of the nature and severity of sentencing - it's not quite as straightforward as 'give them 20 years and they'll never do the crime' and (ii) I've never met anyone who has actually set foot inside a prison who talks as casually about giving people 20 years. NB - in deference to any statisticians out there, I acknowledge that the report linked to contains mainly data, as opposed to stats.

"Many Teenagers carry a Knife.. They Know that if they are stopped my the Police and caught with a knife nothing is likely to come of it. Even if the Police Procecute there are too many Social Workers out there to 'Put in a Good Word' Sentences are ridiculous.. a few hours community service.. Tap on the wrist is now 'Assault' If you carry a Knife you should expect to be Banged up... Not rewarded with some Motor Mechanics course or the like... Good kids don't get those kinds of oppotunities.. We will never rid the streets of knives and our kids will end up seriously hurt or worse if do not take a more serious attitude to knife crime.. " there are some stats: http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/statistics/criminal-justice-stats/knife-possession-stats/knife-possession-bulletin-q4-2012.pdf

Most kids seem to get the hang of the mini micro fine at around 2 years old (both of mine did), which I guess is one of the reasons it's so popular. We didn't give them helmets - tbh it never even occurred to me.

"DaveR - I wan't aware of this. Do you have a link to any info on that?" It has been reported quite widely - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/18/hugo-chavez-revolution-corruption-claims "he has reined in the worst excesses of rampant corruption that was by and large responsible for those troubles" unfortunately that doesn't seem to be true either: http://www.transparency.org/country#VEN_DataResearch_SurveysIndices I think the best that can be said for Chavez is that, whilst he doersn't come anywhere near to living up to his own hype or that of some of his supporters, looking at the history of South American leaders, he could have been worse. This: "He seems to have become a pariah for daring to thumb his nose at the Monroe Doctrine frankly" is definitely letting him off the hook.

Everton 1 Man City 2 Aston Villa 2 QPR 0 Southampton 1 Liverpool 2 Stoke 1 West Brom 1 Swansea 2 Arsenal 2 Man Utd 4 Reading 0 Sunderland 2 Norwich 0 Tottenham 2 Fulham 1 Chelsea 1 West Ham 0 Wigan 2 Newcastle 2

The obvious alternative to an estate is an MPV - the same amount of space in a smaller footprint. The most reliable cars generally are still Japanese, and I believe that is particularly the case with automatics. the Nissan Note is ugly and boring but has sold millions because it is incredibly practical and reliable, and comparatively cheap; however, it's on the small side. Toyota Verso or VW Touran are good and bigger but for ?10k you won't get one less than three years old.

My utterly random list of comedians who are generally shit on TV but surprisingly funny doing live stand up: Harry Hill Mark Lamarr Lee Evans Bob Monkhouse Frank Skinner

For cycle shop, Balfes is very good, but mlteenie (his user name on this forum) is the first port of call for many for repairs and servicing. Opinions are always divided on shops/pubs/restaurants, but FWIW my recommendations would be: Mootown (North Cross Rd market) for British and Irish cheese and super friendly service Blackbird Bakery (North X Rd as above and ED Grove) for bread, cakes, pastries and similar service William Rose, Sparkes, and the butcher near the Plough are all way better than average/supermarket meat Fresh Flower Co., for bonus husband points The Great Exhibition for a decent pint and an ambience that is as reasonable a balance between traditional and poncy as you're likely to find in a neighbourhood like ED Palmerston for proper food Koz for good Turkish food and old school hospitality (I feel terrible that I'm betraying Hisar, but I think they've gone down hill a bit, and Koz is better IMHO) Ganapati (Bellenden Road SE15) for more interesting Indian food than you'll find anywhere in SE22 There are also a whole bunch of shops selling gift type stuff and decorative things that I don't go to (although I occasionally have to lurk around outside them) that I'm told are useful for buying things for women (I don't want to be sexist, but I would genuinely be interested to know how many men have ever either bought or been given anything from Celestial, or Oliver Bonas, or any of those other places).

Did I get any points?

I agree with much of the above, but the thing that tips the scales for me is that even Chavez, the champion of the poor, couldn't resist plundering his country's wealth for the personal benefit of himself and his family.

Premier League Saturday 9th March 2013 Norwich 2 Southampton 0 QPR 1 Sunderland 1 Reading 1 Aston Villa 2 West Brom 2 Swansea 1 Sunday 10th March 2013 Newcastle 2 Stoke 0 Liverpool 2 Tottenham 2

"Apart from the usual suspects I'm happy to 'support' any English team in Europe" Would the usual suspects include Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea, maybe Arsenal? So you're happy to support any English team you don't regard as a rival. Big of you.

It's worth being clear that competition and the profit motive can bring benefits even without conventional private sector involvement. The only essential requirement is a minimum number of different providers who are independent of each other, and who each gain from their own efficiencies i.e. if they save money they keep it. Some or all of the providers can be not-for-profit organisations - they still compete.

"I use my old work shirts as decorating shirts, gardening shirts, pyjama tops in winter." It's a good idea, but I have plenty of old t shirts for that kind of stuff. Years ago my Dad used to pass his old shirts on to a mate who was a builder, who used to wear them on site. I always thought it was pretty funny because my Dad was a fairly dapper guy, who bought his shirts from Aquascutum. Not exactly standard site clothes.

Slightly odd thread, I know I have half a dozen work shirts that have worn out round the collar. They obviously can't be given to a charity shop as not fit for sale, but it seems odd somehow to throw them away - decent quality 100% cotton etc. Any ideas?

The holy grail is the old school caff that doesn't skimp on the quality of the raw materials - decent eggs, bacon, sausages etc, but without the twee name and inflated prices. I used to live about 5 doors away from the Hercules Dining Rooms, on Hercules Street,just off Holloway Road - fantastic traditional London-Italian caff, mobbed out with builders and coppers, thick cut bacon in crusty rolls, home made pies, if you went in during Christmas week you got a glass of grappa......them were the days. In ED I like the Plough Cafe and the one next door to the shoe shop on LL - being refurbed at the moment. But the best breakfast is at Franklins.

Saturday 2nd March 2013 Chelsea 2 West Brom 0 Everton 2 Reading 0 Man Utd 3 Norwich 0 Southampton 2 QPR 0 Stoke 1 West Ham 0 Sunderland 2 Fulham 0 Swansea 2 Newcastle 1 Wigan 1 Liverpool 1 Sunday 3rd March 2013 Tottenham 3 Arsenal 2 Monday 4th March 2013 Aston Villa 1 Man City 3

"You privatise a system, you introduce the interests of corporate business and you remove money from the system in the form of profit." "the theory of competition leading to increased efficiency is dandy on paper, its bollocks in practice" "It does not work well when the goods and services in question are essential to human health (water, gas, etc) and/or when - objectively speaking, whatever it feels like when you are the consumer- consumer choice should NOT be the determinate of what is on offer or when. Healthcare is an unsuitable candidate for privatisation on both grounds." All very plausible, but is there any evidence to support any of this? Comparing the NHS with utility companies is attractive, but there's no obvious reaosn why it's a good comparison other than utilities used to be wholly publicly owned. Actually, i would argue that utilities are a particularly poor comparison, because the 'single infrastructure' issue just doesn't apply to healthcare. Even then, it's convenient to look at energy and ignore, for example, telecoms, where it is indisputable that private ownership and competition has delivered better services at cheaper prices for consumers. "And my comparators are the UK and the US." Why? This is always the comparator that people choose when in fact they don't want to engage in a rational debate. Why not compare with Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, or Sweden, all of whom adopt a fairly radically different approach to the UK, but similar to each other in the sense that it is not assumed that direct state provsions of healthcare is the best system. It is widely accepted that the US system, based on private insurance funding, is massively inefficient - the barriers to change there are every bit as ideological (and hence ridiculous) as in the UK. Many Americans equate public healthcare with socialism, just as, unhappily, many Brits equate any real change to the NHS with privatisation and the triumph of corporate greed.

I find it interesting that at the same time as people are campaigning for the Chief Exec of the NHS to resign, against a background of numerous stories of needless deaths and poor levels of care, the attitude persists that there exists a mythical institution called 'the NHS' which is an inherently better way of delivering publicly funded healthcare than any alternative system, and needs to be protected at all costs. It is always worth remembering that the NHS is pretty much unique in the world i.e. no other developed country chooses to organise public healthcare provision in this way. For that reason, if for no other, I'm sceptical of any argument or campaign that starts from the premise that 'the NHS is under threat!'.

In answer to the question posted in the subject line (kind of), if you don't understand the possible unintended consequences of setting targets, then setting them is unlikely to improve performance, and may well make things much worse. Simple 'number' targets may work well for predictable, mechanical processes, but they almost certainly won't for complex, judgmental processes - like rape investigations.

At the risk of being a bit pseudy, the way the media treat victims exposes the difficulty of using objectivity as the key driver for ethical journalism. Objectivity is usually understood to mean neutrality i.e. not taking a position between competing versions of events. However, where there is only one version, and it is asserted very strongly and with the authority and moral force of coming from a victim, neutrality will mean (in practice) simply presenting that version without challenge. Another view of objectivity is that it involves testing any version of events against the objective truth (or the closest to it that can be identified). In the case of victims of sex crimes (for example) that would make for pretty uncomfortable media interviews: "So Miss X, even though you were raped, the evidence doesn't suggest that the change in the law you are campaigning for is really justified. In fact your personal experience pretty much disqualifies you from making a rational assessment on the issue. What do you have to say to that?"

"However, I want to give extra support for reading, writing and numeracy because when I tried to read a book with her, she listened only one or two pages and she was not interested even though I have tried different books. If I tried to help her in writing, she was only interested in first five minutes and get bored and played herself. I am not sure whether my technique is not right." I think it's important to distinguish the different skills and mental processes that sit behind reading and writing. Kids will understand stories and language long before they understand the mechanics of reading, and will often reject your efforts to engage them with the written words if it gets in the way of listening to the story. It may be more productive to separate out reading stories from learning basic sounds and words ("A is for apple" etc.) Similarly, writing involves physical/motor skills and cognitive elements; the motor skillscan be developed in lots of ways, most of them more interesting than writing words that they don't understand. My experience is that reading and writing are like walking and riding a bike - provided they are given the opportunity and encouraged, kids will pick them up very quickly once they are ready, but before that point it will be a real struggle. when your daughter starts reception there wil be lots of kids who will not be reading or writing at all and the school will be prepared for that and teach accordingly.

Schools are supposed to monitor progress at an individual level so that kids are not stuck in an ability group and then forgotten about. In practice, a lot depends on how active head teachers and other managers are on this topic, and how good individual class teachers are at doing it. It's probably one of the more important questions to ask as a parent, IMHO. My experience of the local primary school my kids go to is that kids do move between groups, and even within groups may be given slightly different work tailored to their ability, and there is also some specific provision for both gifted kids and those who are really struggling.

"As it happens, the CofE incumbent is allowed into your property if you are in his/her parish. (I could be making that up, but I have a vague memory about it.)" I'm pretty sure that's not the case.