mockney piers

I think he'd already changed though. He'd aged quickly over the years and it was the end for him and the game in one form or another (witness poot in series 5). But agree about that scene, it portrayed in one scene such an enourmous unburdening and foreboding, brilliant. It is bizarre that you hate him for the Wallace thing, but over the next 5 series he becomes the character I care about more than any other, with exception of Bubbles I guess (and Beadie..mmmmm)

It's my work do that night, so probably won't make it, but may be able to pop along assuming an early finish. Ooh, and good night on Friday, quite a turn out I must say, I'm still wearing my bodie strange head scarf thing, got some very strange looks on the tube this morning.

How about the Mag?

How about (yet another) wire thread for discussing the many many issues raised in the wire, with clear indication in the title that it's full of spoilers. GK is much less prone to spoilers, there are no plot twists and almost no dramatic tension. Like the old adage about war goes, it's weeks of boredom followed by minutes of terror. It's not quite that, but most screen time is devoted to soldiers being bored, soldiers griping about their superiors being petty and incompetent, and superiors being petty and incompetent. And DVD (of sorts) SB. I feel no guilt because I'll buy it as soon as it is available. to nestle alongside Band of Brothers with whom it shares many similarities.

I tucked into David Simon's Generation Kill yesterday. Again it's well written and rooted in an honest rather than a dramatic portrayal, based on the experience of an embedded journalist during the initial invasion it follows a company's experiences, the good, the bad the tragic(omic) and the incompetent. Also like the wire it's immersed in the language and culture of it's subject, so I warn against watching four episodes in a row, you will have weird dreams almost entirely in tla's and abbreviations like sit rep. But I do recommend it.

I published the lsit of top contributors above somewhere, and you're by and large right especially about the business, particularly the banking sector, but there wasn't a single lobby or pressure group contribution accepted, which I think can only be a good thing.

I should be along too despite suffering the same ailment as weegee

I'd say that 25% of the economy dependent upon one sector based in one corner of the capital, whilst the other 98% of the population get by providing services to each other based upon cheap credit and confidence grounded in the housing market is a very unhealthy way to be, We shoulld diversify and with so many important challenges in the world to be met, not the least coping with dwindling resources and climate change, we need technological advances and hi-tech industry to allow us to meet those challenges and produce goods and skills that will be of value for the rest of the wolrd. For starters the nuclear industry is being touted as at least a medium term answer to our energy needs and security and we hardly have anyone left with any knowledge, hence we'll be chucking something in the order of trillions at the French over the next 50 years!! So plenty of opportunities for the country to do something worthwhile. Much as we did need to prop up the financial sector in the short term, those billions would have been far better invested in the education and scientific research sectors.

Arsenal 1 Manchester United 2 (could cause an upset, but I don't see it) Wigan Athletic 1 Stoke City 0 Hull City 1 Bolton Wanderers 1 Sunderland 1 Portsmouth 1 West Ham 2 Everton 2 (bogey team, but here's hoping) Liverpool 2 West Bromwich 0 Blackburn Rovers 1 Chelsea 2 Aston Villa 2 Middlesbrough 1 Manchester City 2 Tottenham Hotspur 1 Fulham 1 Newcastle United 0 (corr, poopooed 2 revivals at the end there!)

Very very good points lard and quids, quite agree. On the subject of the mines, when carbon products become far too valuable for simply burning for energy, we'll probably be quite glad of all that coal left in the ground!!

Don't remind me, and ewwwwwwwww. could be a winner for the next election cmapaing Gordon Brown, he's the right man for the [hand] job!

You doubt, I don't. Mind you, a couple of hundred extra quid in my pocket, I'll happily forgive Labour for all the corruption, the incompetence, the shitty foreign policy, the gold sales, the arrogance, the ID cards, the erosion of civil liberties, and will mandate them with my next vote, especially if GB massages my feet too.

except for Keef who really is an n word in real life! kidding Keef, kidding!!

"I certainly like you better than your man Hugo-please-move-to-Singapore-because-I'm-lonely-nought" ever the charmer, would it surprise you to hear that some people aren't nearly as spiky as their forum personas would have you believe? ;-P

That's a pity, perhaps another time, maybe say hello next time Dulwich roll over to Bury St Edmunds ;)

Still, Labour won a by-election, pure coincidence I'm sure!!

ooh, AD, as we're in your neighbourhood do we get the honour of being graced by your company now that you've emerged from your self-imposed exile, or will you simply sneer from your ivory buckle?.

Gawd bless 'er, and all who sail in 'er

Went on a rate-cut celebration spending spree down fopp. Ted Barnes - portal Nou. Wow frankly, shiveringly dark, occasionally intimate countryesque, folk inspired tunes, with accordian, strings, guitar, harmonicas, and glockenspiels, accompanied by his own gruff vocals (think Robert Fischer from the Willard Grant Conspiracy) and collaborations with other quality vocalists such as Froncoiz Breut and Beth Orton. Frankly breath taking. Go...go now...buy! Also worth a mention, the latest Wolf Parade CD, lovely, and Yeasayer's debut 'All Hour Cymbals', which is treading ground forged by Panda Bear/Animal Collective, but really good stuff.

"BTW (how on earth can banks justify setting up fees of ?999 charge for setting up a new deal within a current mortgage I already have with them?" How else will they pay for the christmas bash in the current climate?

I'm with Asset, discourage easy unsecured credit and encourage saving. Work toward ending dependence upon the housing market for consumer confidence and growth, if just to end every dull: 'Bird Flu to kill millions, house prices drop' headline.

Brown was *trying* to eliminate boom and bust, the banks were just *trying* to turn lead into gold by selling sub-prime mortgages. Trying isn't enough, doing something sensible is. I'm not happy about mortgaging future generations (including ourselves frankly) by saddling them with debt the size of the half the entire annual national wealth generation just to underpin a bunch of banks who were behaving irresponsibly, allowing them to lend us our money at interest and squeezing credit in order to achieve this and go off on effing jollies. I don't like it but I understand it; however this is just pure short-termism at it's worst. Might be time to actually produce stuff again rather than all survive on selling each other stuff. I'm not a great fan of Keynsian spending in order to stimulate the economy with all its inflational pitfalls, but lets face it, all that wonderful infrastructure put in place last time we did it is absolutely falling apart, and the private sector has hardly come to the rescue, just grown fat over letting it rot and getting the taxpayer to bail it out every time. Maybe it could help stimulate the (re)birth of a really modern, competitive and technologically advanced manufacturing sector, one where the the margins are to be found in ingenuity (investment in sciences and learning please?) and advancement, rather than the cheap labour the west has offshored it's manufacturing capacity to elsewhere. Dropping interest rates is going to achieve how much of the above? (well apart from encouraging capital investment, god only knows the banks should relax their hold on credit as it is after all our money they're lending out)

Yeah, I just went down to Fopp and splashed out in celebration, but I must say my first reaction was what the hell?!?!? An unhealthy dependency on the housing market as the engine of consumer confidence, spending being the means to growth, was what got us into this mess in the bloody first place. Seems like a very cynical short term fix that will do nothing to alleviate the underlying issues, it sure as hell won't encourage saving. Back to the drawing board Brown.

It's a norwegian blue scam, so no need to worry, but healthy scepticism regards the unfamiliar or suspicious is a sensible way to be. Wow, ?1800, christ on a plastic dolphin, how the hell did you manage that?!?!

I'm a bit concerned by one of the related videos, not looking very SFW I must say!! Anyway, nice stuff Jah, here's weatherall doing what he does best, remixing cool music! http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xjkcMwQYO7U