DaveR

The law doesn't define drunk - it defines consent: "a person consents if he agrees by choice, and has the freedom and capacity to make that choice." So drunken consent is consent unless it removes capacity. However, if a person is unconscious then it is assumed both that they did not consent and that the suspect did not reasonably believe that they consented.

"In order to be able to hang on to charity tax breaks Public schools have to make clear in their annual report and accounts how many state school children they have helped by "sharing" the facilities." There are lots of different ways for educational charities to fulfil the public benefit requirement. Guidance is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charging-for-services/charging-for-services-illustrative-examples-of-benefits-for-the-poor I have no idea what Alleyn's do and what they disclose in their annual report but I assume they comply with the guidance.

There's a lot of confusion about the charitable purposes of public schools. The trustees are bound by the purposes of the governing document. A court case some years ago established that, where the charitable purposes relate solely to the provision of education, then providing access to facilities to the local community will not only not qualify as charitable but may be in breach of the terms of the trust.

These folks have a good range of interesting vinyl and rubber tiles: http://www.harveymaria.com/

The Isle of Purbeck is beautiful - you could take a train to Bournemouth, and then take your bikes and go across on the chain ferry. Stay in Swanage, and you're on the South West Coastal Path, with great cliff top walks.

"They WILL survive as long as there are people whose only experiance of food is Burgers..Fries and Pizza.." Because of course people who eat burgers and pizza wouldn't ever eat any other kind of food. Unlike the guy who eats curry five times a week, whose tastes are many and varied.

Is the PL that strong? Maybe not in the last 8-10 years. Since 08, Champions league finalists = 7 Spanish, 4 German, 3 England and 2 Italy. Last English club in the final in 2011/2012. In the same period Spain won the Euros twice and the World Cup, Germany won the World Cup and reached the last four of the Euros 3 times. If England are shit (and they are) it's not because the PL is strong, it's because English football doesn't really prize tactical discipline, though with Guardiola and Klopp currently looking good, that might change. I don't think it's a coincidence that the most successful recent England manager was Capello.

"Franco Manca... MEATliquor... The Real Greek.. all owned by the same company. All with a very familiar formular." Is that the formula where you find a restaurant or small group of restaurants started and run by people who are really passionate about quality food, invest in them, and then try to expand without losing the original focus on quality? It's not the worst formula; probably the best formula for a chain. Obviously you're going to get slagged off by people who pride themselves on their ability to blind taste a chicken madras, but I reckon they'll survive.

There are a few streets in the triangle-ish bounded by LL, Dulwich Park and Calton/Townley where it seems a large proportion of the residents go the whole hog i.e. decorations outside, adults dressed up inside and particularly good 'treats'. You can go out pretty much as soon as it gets dark so 5.30 should be fine.

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/politics/politics-headlines/correct-deckchair-placement-could-have-saved-the-titanic-says-corbyn-20161007114961

"You are too quick to call peoples views stupid Dave" "Dave seems to think that traveller children deserve no extra effort, because instead of seeing the life of their parents as a culture that goes back centuries, he sees it as a 'lifestyle choice' instead. It comes from the same place of prejudice that all prejudice against travellers comes from." "I wonder if Dave has a view on the disruption of autism, or he excuses it on the grounds no parent chooses to have an autistic child." Asked and answered, as far as I can see. And to be clear, I have no prejudice against travellers, people with autism or even people who post stupid things on internet forums.

1. uncleglen posts and nobody really reads it properly - instead there's a mass outbreak of pious BS, dismissal 2. rendelharris agrees with uncleglen 3. I point that out. 4. Renewed outbreak of pious BS, this time including "Dave seems to think..." i.e. anyone challenging my worldview can be assumed to hold a whole load of repellent views.

Two posters who are obviously current or former teachers agree that traveller children are disruptive to a school as an inevitable consequence of the lifestyle - two posters who, from what I can see, have never agreed about anything else. No criticism of the lifestyle, or suggestion that that it can't, or shouldn't be done. So maybe not a 'red herring' or discrimination or racism or any of the other frankly stupid, knee-jerk things posted on here in an orgy of self righteous virtue signalling.

"This may be a hard concept for you to understand," Is it hard to understand that this is incredibly patronising and makes you come across as a complete c0ck? To what extent should a system with finite resources and established structures be required to change to adapt to the life choices of a minority group? This is a serious question. No one else mentioned disruptive behaviour - this is you reflecting your prejudices onto others.

Yemen is a mess - it's never really been politically stable and the current civil war is just the latest in the series. Write to Helen Hayes and Boris Johnson if you want, but you're wasting your time - it's 50 years too late for the UK to do anything meaningful. Giving to famine relief and medical aid charities always a good idea though - can I give a shout out to MSF http://www.msf.org.uk/country-region/yemen

In absolute terms there's no difference in pure efficiency between different types of heaters - producing heat from electricity is a straightforward process, and in energy terms you get out what you put in. The difference between the types is how quickly the heat is produced and dispersed. Fan heaters are only good when you just need instant heat. For a bedroom either oil filled or panel heaters with timers would do the job. Can't they extend the 'economy 7' (which I assume means storage heaters) into the bedrooms?

Very good article by Philip Collins in the Times today about Momentum, pointing out that the characterisation of the whole group as hard left entryists is way off the mark, and that the party should be trying to harness the enthusiasm. To quote him: "The only thing wrong with their slogan ?Jez We Can? is the first word."

Under the heading, "does Southwark listen?", the OP says: "After all the discussions on here regarding the 20mph speed limit on roads, it is interesting that Southwark has now put in legal notification notices, Southwark News, to make it official. How many people in the borough actually read these notices and have the time or will to comment for or against. Rather like the manifesto, hidden away on page 7/10 , under healthy living last para." Surely the question arising is 'does anybody read notices, manifestos, make comments, or do they not bother and then complain afterwards?' There may well be valid criticism of Southwark not consulting or ignoring consultees views, but this seems an odd way to raise it.

"DaveR - it's pretty difficult to have evidence when we are venturing into new territory! Circumstances and conditions that create certain outcomes are fluid and constantly changing, especially now. Equally, do you have evidence that contradicts what I'm saying? But as an example, don't you find it different, uncertain and surprising that the UK will very likely be leaving the EU, unthinkable to many of us six months ago? ETA. I remember all the experts saying, based on "evidence", that the effects of the crash that occurred in 2008 would be over in six months" It's a bit too easy to say "how can we have evidence that everything has changed, when everything has changed?" I guess I would say that the best evidence as to the attitudes and behaviour of the British electorate is history, especially recent history. There was a general election in 2015 that returned a Conservative majority government, when polls predicted a better outcome for Labour and a worse one for the Tories. The polls currently predict a pretty catastrophic outcome for Labour in an immediate GE. Yet you find it easy to believe that there is a groundswell of opinion widespread and numerous enough to return a Corbyn-led Labour govt? Despite the fact that the Labour Party has been very publicly tearing itself apart for the last year. And to be clear, I was shocked but not surprised by the referendum outcome - when you ask a binary question it's obvious that either answer is possible. And I don't recall any experts predicting that the effects of the 08 crash would be over in six months - apart from anything else, the 'crash' didn't really start until after Lehman in Sept 08. We may disagree on what constitutes an expert, however.

"We live in very different, surprising and uncertain times and what may have been true a few years ago cannot be used as evidence or a benchmark for what may occur in the future" Do you have any evidence for that? It's quite a bold statement, and a big risk to take if you are the leadership of a major political party, deciding that its electoral strategy is going to be predicated on getting more voters out, as opposed to taking voters from the other side. JC's stance on immigration isn't going to be pulling many Labour voters back from UKIP. I'm looking at this as an observer - I'm not voting Labour any time soon, if ever - but I'm a bit surprised that JC supporters seem so optimistic about his ability to win a GE. Sacrificing power for your principles I understand (whether it's a good idea or not is another matter) but there seems to be an inordinate amount of rose-tinted belief that 'everything has changed'. It's surely worth remembering that since the financial crisis the political left in Europe has failed to make any real headway. Obviously if you think the UK is like Greece, you may not agree.

I would retire (in the sense of giving up the day job) but probably not stop working. I'd just organise work around my leisure time/activities rather than the other way round, and probably work largely on a voluntary basis.

It's unfortunate but unavoidably true that preserving the Victorian character of the area has a cost (which falls on people who don't own property here, but might want to, or to rent) and changing that character has a cost that falls the other way. It's a classic political decision, and there's no 'right answer'. IMHO it's ludicrous to think that the current density of population in London's inner suburbs can be maintained indefinitely - what other city in the world has cosy little houses with their own gardens 10 minutes odd by train from the financial district? Better to have a plan to change incrementally and comparatively sensitively. By those criteria, this application should be supported. All the objections are essentially NIMBY. Complaining about parking is pointless - that's another political decision that has already been taken.

"The cruellest thing about this whole shambolic situation is that under different circumstances, 80% of the people arguing on this thread against each other would be be on the same political side" ....and you have to suspect that this is representative of what's going on in the country as a whole. Lots of people whose natural inclination is to vote Labour arguing with each other about (broadly) whether JC is nuts or a victim of media conspiracy, while the millions of people who voted Tory at the last election (and perhaps most particularly those who switched from Lib Dem) are, at best, untouched by the whole debate, and at worst are saying to themselves "well at least I won't have to agonize about who I vote for next time".

The 'our government will...' bit is crap. JC and JMcD are proper old school Marxist socialists - they don't believe in entrepreneurs, or really in the private sector at all. If you think that has changed you're deluded.

JC and particularly McDonnell have done a lot of homework and had a lot of advice in recent months. This is a quote from McD on the BBC this morning: "Our government will create an entrepreneurial state that works with the wealth creators, the workers and the entrepreneurs to create the products and the markets that will secure our long-term prosperity," It's obviously crap, and he doesn't believe a word of it, but he can get away with saying it (where a 'Blairite' can't) precisely because his supporters know it's crap and that he doesn't believe a word of it. Will voters be persuaded? We can expect a lot more of this - moderate but ambiguous statements, and an absence of hard policy commitments. In short, a lot of spin. The irony.