DaveR

I had exactly the same experience, and started having the same suspicions. Always seemed to get punctures when parked outside the house, although to be fair there was always at least one skip pon the street and hence builders' waste etc. No problems since I moved, so maybe not accidental

A source of much debate amongst ED parents with pre-school kids I know people with kids at, or due to go to, the following schools, where the feedback is generally very good: Goodrich, Dog Kennel Hill, St Johns & St Clements I went to look at Dog Kennel when it seemed likely my daughter might go there, and I was pretty impressed - it struck me as being very well run, and the kids were well-behaved and seemed to like being there. I have heard mixed reports about Heber and Goose Green, but there certainly seems to be a consensus that they are both a lot better than they used to be and likely to keep improving. The Dulwich Village schools (C of E infant school and Dulwich Hamlet Junior) are fantastically popular If you can bear the hassle, I guess you need to book some school visits at rhe same time as property viewings - good luck!

The pattern of gentrification in London is largely a story of re-colonisation i.e. areas of Victorian and Edwardian housing which was built for and occupied for many years by the middle classes, abandoned when they fled to the outer suburbs and commuter towns during the 30s through to the early 1980s, and then re-occupied when the trend for inner city living took off. In the meantime a lot of public i.e. council housing had been built or acquired by local authorities throughout inner London. This leads to the current strange situation where the LB Islington, for example, is synonymous with gentrification and wealthy/high profile residents - ponceyness, perhaps - but also has one of the highest proportions of council tenants of any London borough. ED is not so different - the ponceyness may be very visible, but that doesn't mean the area is in fact homogenous, and it's arguable that people's behaviour and attitudes are far less easy to classify by reference to income, for example, than in the past. As has been said by numerous people above, in terms of shops and bars etc. you get what the majority of people want. So, why oh why are there so many shops selling crappy gift type stuff that no-one in their right mind would ever buy - that's what I want to know.

There is a gift shop at the site of the tomb of mussolini in Predappio, where you can get all sorts of stuff I was tempted by a T shirt with "Meglio di vivere un giorno da leone che cento anni da pecora" (better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep) but all the cash goes to the fascist party, so I resisted

Spanish black pudding definitely superior - morcilla cebollada, made with extra onions I think the Barcelona tapas bar does piquillo peppers stuffed with morcilla - lovely

I was working out my list of acceptable boozers, then read Sean M's post and found it was basically identical, even including Franklins - often overlooked but a nice place for a quiet pint or two. I was once in there with wife and another couple, relaxing drink and a chat, when three young blokes fell in through the door - dodgy haircuts, shiny shirts, obviously on a LL crawl. It took them about 10 seconds to take in the overwhelmingly civilised nature of the place, at which point they fell out again. I confess though that I used to live v. close to the Vale and occasionally went there for a last pint on the way home - even v. pissed, you know it's all wrong.

This is a subject close to my heart, and I've been trying various caffs over the last few years. Of the ones actually on LL in the centre of ED I reckon the best one is The Lane, next door to Property In. Near the station there is one at the top of Melbourne Grove opposite the post office which is pretty good. My favourites are the Upland as already mentioned and the Blue Brick on Fellbrigg Road - the Blue Brick probably just shades it on food quality. I've also heard that the Plough is top notch but for some reason not been there yet - to be remedied, hopefully soon.

Shepherd's Bush - doesn't bear thinking about

You wear a very tall wig and go as High Barnet

Sapporo Ichiban in Catford is very good; sushi, sashimi and all the other usual stuff - noodles, teriyaki etc. It's not that far from ED - admittedly we always drive.

The spuds were so bad it was a crime.....?

As a result of the heightened threat of terrorist activity, the French government has increased the level of national emergency...... from 'RUN' to 'HIDE'

"Experience tells me that people who don't like the smell of smoke are perfectly prepared to believe that smoke is a murderous posion chewing away at their very existence. Once one believes that, the emoptional response can drive behaviour quite out of proportion with the threat, making pubs quite intolerable at smoke levels that are negligible. It's like the monster in the closet - it doesn't need to be real to be terrifying" I'm an ex-smoker, and I can't stand those people who take huge moral offence to the whole thing - makes you want to punch their lights out. Unfortunately, getting banged up is notoriously bad for your health!

Michael, if you prefer schools to be accountable, why prefer a community school to a foundation, where, as you say, parents have more control? The NUT is concerned with the interests of teachers, not pupils, and has consistently opposed any measure to make it's own staff accountable. Further, the persistent failure of LEA controlled schools to provide a decent standard of education to inner city kids is the reason we're in this position in the first place.

If anybody is really interested in the contempt issue, this is the view of the House of Lords from the leading case, re Lonrho plc: "The only safe course, we think, is to apply the test imposed by the statutory language according to its ordinary meaning, without any preconception derived from A-G v Times Newspapers Ltd as to what kind of publication is likely to impede or prejudice the course of justice. The question whether a particular publica-tion, in relation to particular legal proceedings which are active, creates a substantial risk that the course of justice in those proceedings will be seriously impeded or prejudiced is ultimately one of fact. Whether the course of justice in particular proceedings will be impeded or prejudiced by a publication must depend pri-marily on whether the publication will bring influence to bear which is likely to divert the proceedings in some way from the course which they would otherwise have followed. The influence may affect the conduct of wit-nesses, the parties or the court. Before proceedings have come to trial and before the facts have been found, it is easy to see how critical public discussion of the issues and criticism of the conduct of the parties, particularly if a party is held up to public obloquy, may impede or prejudice the course of the proceedings by influencing the conduct of witnesses or parties in relation to the proceedings. If the trial is to be by jury, the possibility of prejudice by advance publicity directed to an issue which the jury will have to decide is obvious. The possibility that a professional judge will be influenced by anything he has read about the issues in a case which he has to try is very much more remote. He will not consciously allow himself to take account of any-thing other than the evidence and argument presented to him in court." The general rule is that fair discussion is unlikely to be contempt, and there is a presumption in favour of allowing reporting of anything said in open court

If this is accurate, thank god. There were at least three previous incidents, at Hamlet, Rosendale and Charter, and I understand there may have been at Alleyns as well - some friends who have a daughter at Alleyns and live near Rosendale say police were doing house-to-house enquiries last Friday.

LL (mini) pub crawl route (tried and tested) - EDT, Bishop, Black Cherry (quick cocktail), Liquorish, Inside 72, the Vale (last one optional - it's on my way home, always fancy one last drink....)

The father of a friend of mine grew up in ED in the 1930s, and has very fond memories. Having said that, most of his family were 'in service', and there was a complete division, financially and socially, between 'them in the big houses' and the rest, but that was the prevailing situation at the time, and people generally didn't question it. We're all incomers, because talking about the 'old ways' is entirely arbitrary - it just means how things were whenever you felt most confortable in the area. I've only lived in ED for 4 years, but it's changed a lot in that time. Market forces aren't perfect, but they're better than the alternatives - people get what they (collectively) want, rather than what they are given. Having said all that, I wish there weren't so many rubbish shops selling gifty type crap - candles, naff jewellery, things with amusing designs on them that don't do anything. Who buys this stuff??

It's not that fascinating - non-domicile rules, offshore trusts, lots of avoidance scams involving things like options in non-UK companies. However, if it weren't for the relatively low tax rates they wouldn't be here (or paying any tax) at all.

English dad, half welsh half lithuanian mum, malaysian chinese wife, interesting kids

About fifteen years ago I spent 6 months working in Milazzo, the main port for ferries/hydrofoils to the islands, and went often. I went back on my honeymoon (1998) and stayed on Lipari, and visited Panarea, Vulcano and Stromboli. It's been a while, but I doubt things have changed too much. Most of the visitors are Italian, which means they descend in hordes in July and August, but are sparse at other times. Panarea and Stromboli have quite a few fancy places to stay, and get a lot of private yacht traffic in season. Lipari and Vulcano are more straightforward family holiday type places, but nothing like the scale of Spanish resorts. The islands that everyone left are Filicudi and Alicudi, and they're still pretty quiet. Not sure about Salina - never went. I love the Aeolians - great food, nice people, low key, and each of the islands is different. None of them qualify as party islands say Ibiza style. Another random fact - they used to mine pumice on Lipari (maybe still do), and the waste heaps are like huge mountains of talcum powder. You used to be able to slide down them into the sea - imagine powder skiing on your backside. There's a famous scene of people doing this in an old italian film, the name of which I can't remember. If you go, have a meal at the Filipino restaurant in Lipari - it's one of the best in Sicily.