mockney piers

Ah jaysus sean, I'm getting there, now, where are me wellies?

"I once met a lovely woman who falsely claimed that there was research based evidence that proved teenagers who were breastfed did not develop acne ? when I challenged her on it, she said that it did not matter that it was a lie, if it meant more women breastfed, then it was a good lie!" wow. That's succinctly described Tony Blair's government. "people who blindly elevate these charismatic characters despite the evidence in front of their faces (the German army facilitated Hitler)" mind you this, apart from not making any sense (though I understand what you are getting at), has surely and not before time godwinned this thread. I declare it an ex thread ;)

That's terrible Anna, sorry to hear that. Big boo to the snubber, shame on you, really. If even Wolfie and Jah Luh can get on like the gentlemen they are over a hot toddie then there's absolutely no excuse for anyone else to behave like that. I demand an apology to the enigmatic and rather wonderful ms j.

'm ff t rlnd. Thy dn't hv vwls n thr lngg t ll. Wrds.

rp?

Actually to be fair I think in the immediate aftermath the USA had to be seen to punish someone and not look weak or vulnerable. Toppling the government that harboured your enemy and dropping lots of bombs on al qaeda was a pretty understandable reaction. I dont think that's sinister at all. I do think that the likes of Cheney and his PNAC buddies thought it a great opportunity for some neo colonial spread as a bulwark against potential renewwed Rusiian dominance or possible Chinese dominance of the area. Cynical perhaps but again hardly sinister. Afghanistan has been a trickier prospect than they figured (though frankly entirely entirely predictable). Iraq exposed the limits of American power rather than demonstrated the US was not to be messed with, and Georgia was the final nail in PNACs policies. Expect a rollback of American influence in the ex soviet stans to follow. On other words the neocons couldn't have got it more wrong if they'd tried.

I agree with DC's proposals and political comment. The only problem with the RAF thingy is that it's all brutalist pragmatism, there's a whole few stylee romance connected to the fellows don't you know, bally Gerry and all that. It would be like proposing integrating stonehenge into the ministry of obelisks and having a cheaper more effective site just off the hangar lane gyratory. I do think that the TOC's have been a huge financial burden and getting rid of that bad idea will be less expensive going forward, good housekeeping I that sense. Plus, rather than getting rid of the assemblies I'd suggest getting rid of the countries, not net contributors at all, though as long as we get to keep all those expensive liquid gas installations and those welsh resevoifs supplying the midlands and stuff.

Blimey. I turn up to the last drinks. First one I'd been able to in six months and it was me, weegee and a small but suprisingly knowledgeable bay tree. This time ots the world and her aunt and I can't blimmin make it (in oireland.....again) anyhoo have a tip tip night everyone!!!! They make a mean chilli cocktail thing there btw.

Thanks BN5, very interesting and enlightening, no pun intended.....well, just an eeency bit.

I'm a little confused by your post yman (as in bill?) "we differ in our tastes, ideas and ideals" being you and this forum? So why be here at all if you don't mind my asking, especially living in the Netherlands as you say you do, you're like a red martian turning up to the green martian's annual convention surely? "It's no wonder people are leaving, they're growing up." This thread is 10 months old, so that's quite a conclusion to come to as a newcomer to these boards, or are you making a prediction as a result of your civilising influence upon these faceless keyboard warriors? ;-)

You know, just thought Id ask.

God there are some real saddoes in this world.

Dg str rbbsh mAb i 2 old nw

Ah I see. No. I guess some people might be so lateral in their thinking that they might come up wih it. As I said I think most people come up with an answer then see if it fits the clue. Long words are easy to narrow down once you have a few letters, after that it's a process of elimination. Admittedly I read about this clue elsewhere but I knew why it was the answer in an instant.

Ok I'll give it away senselessness sense less [ness] take the letters ness away from sense and you are left with e.

I was only puing your leg santerme. But Wow, I don't think anyone thinks Vietnam was part of a domino effect, that's one of the most discredited historical theories around. And how was containment not geostrategic, surely it was the very essence?

"If all troops left [Afghanistan] It would be Saigon all over again with helicopters collecting the last one's out from the roofs" "It is completely facile to make a comparison between Afghanistan and Vietnam" ;-P Though I agree they are very different conflicts and there is very limited usefulness in comparisons the bottom line remains that neo colonial powers are propping up a client state that is rapidly losing the support of it's populace and pushing ever larger numbers into an insurgency. It is unwinnable militarily and that's the lesson that needs to be learned from Vietnam. I think the endgame here will be very different especially with the Taliban having lost and abandoned it's heavy weapons and with a change of heart in Pakistan. We'll not see the Taliban tanks rolling into Kabul ever again, we will see some elements of this insurgency (call them taliban or not, unimportant really) form part of a government wihin the next two years.

We've an infestatin of ladybirds (the foreign bitey ones). At this time of year?!?!? Weird

Lesson three: codes there are millions of these little blighters but you find most compilers share a core list that become very familiar overtime. These are the thing that make most peoples eyes rolls when someone explains a clue to them 'how the he'll am I meant to know that?' they say as someone says 'well quiet here means P' Setters use them as glue to amke a clue work when it's not quite there, they are a pain and you only learn them through experience and repetition a bunch for starters Hospital = H soft or quiet = P (piano) or SH hard or loud = F (forte) army = RA, RE, RM, GI (royal artillery, engineers, marines (yea yeah navy) etc many more of these) a, an, one, single = A or AN or I (looks like a 1) rating = AB ( something naval, somehing boatswain?) sailor = SALT, TAR, RN (royal navy) AB again etc home = IN honour, degree = BA or MA or another one that has he right letters pupil, student = L queen, Brenda (private eye only) = ER (Elizabeth Regina) hot cold left right = H C L R like I said the list goes on and on

It is DC, very well done!! Btw flower = river because it's something that flows. Just thought I should clear that up. Will ponder on lesson three.

Actually I'm inclined to blame society rather than religion on this count. Terribly repressed societies are prone to this behaviour*. In 50s England if a girl from a good family 'brought shame' she could end up wih her kid sent for adoption while she spent the next forty years in a mental home. I used to do visit to our local loony bin as a volunteer when I was a teenage and met a couple of examples. Lovely people had become fully instituionalised by this point, and suffered the double of indignity of not only having been locked up unfairly for life, but then kicked out to fend for themselves to save money, having spent half a lifetime unlearning all those skills. Mind you there's no excuse for the standards of care in the laundries, or for that matter in the mental instituions of the 50s and 60s. *I'd say that Ireland has changed dramatically in the last twenty years. It was about 25-30 years behind Britain in terms of society relaxing and liberalising thanks mainly to money, jobs and the relative comfort that brings, as well as the information revolution, and as it came much later the pace of change has been markedly more dramatic than here in the UK. The in-laws are still finding much of that change difficult to cope with in the elder ranks and I've heard talk of recession met with gleeful hope that tougher times will bring the younger generation back to the church.

Actually I'm inclined to blame society rather than religion on this count. Teribly repressed societies are prone to this behaviour. In 50s England if a girl from a good family broght shame she could end up wih her kid sent formadoption while she spent the next forty years in a mental home. I used to do visit to our local loony bin as a volunteer when I was a teenage and met a couple of examples. Lovely people had become fully instituionalised by this point, and suffered the double of indignity of not only having been locked up unfairly for life, but then kicked out fend for themselves tomsave money having spent half a lifetime unlearning all those skills. Mind you there's no excuse for the standards of care in the laundries, or for that matter in the mental instituions of the 50s and 60s.

I can confirm that all spaniards actually DO sleep under their hats during a very long lunchtime before throwing donkeys out of church towers, so I think that's a pretty fair assumption to make.

How many letters is that?

While people ponder over that one.. Lesson two: the double literal. Quite simply two words that are synonyms of each other in some fashion. Get the word that links them and you have your answer. Something like left drink? (4) port left = port = drink a decent rule in cryptics is think laterally when given a word, avoid the obvious connotation and gomfor a more obscure one. Flower often means river; main or drink something to do with the sea. In this case it is just a drink so what a setter will do is distract you with a setence that hints at an alternate more obvious meaning or a question mark thus making the double literal into an image of someone getting up or leaving a pub, when actually it's a very straightforward double literal?