mockney piers

"Germany has the best beer in the world without any argument" I know they're not a great side, but no argument? Belgium?

fair enough Snorks, connection is good, I don't mind the Germans, my Gran was, and I liked the Croatians even before Bilic, and they thoroughly deserved to show up an arrogant but poor England side, so they're my second team. The whole ABE thing does wind me up though, so as it doesn't apply here I shall swallow my words and perhaps even eat my hat ;-)

Let's think, religiously supports Germany...you can only come from Scotland!!!! 2 words...Grow.......up........

How often are semis the real finals, it'd be a cracker....go Spain

I really should add that a referendum here would have been every bit as nationalist and stupid and probably based on mythical straight bananas, no one has a monopoly on stupidity.

Totally agree, I was there the other day, looking at all the Sinn Fein 'Vote No' posters and listening to people saying how they have to vote no but nobody having the foggiest why. Actually spoke to a Fianna Fail councillor who knew his biscuits but couldn't persuade anyone of the sheer hypocrisy of their stance. Tossers (well, 53% of them are) have now consigned Europe to 3 or 4 more years of political soup, unwittingly continuing all that we don't like about Europe.

ooooooooch

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/17/flying_toilet_terror_labs/

As for 'before the biometrics', yes indeed. Once upon a time in this country it meant something to be a citizen and have Policemen and politicians as servants of the state. It was a point of pride that no policeman had the right to ask for your papers (that's what the gestapo did see - ooops Godwin) Under Labour the social contract is being turned absolutely upside-down, and that is a bad bad thing. Biometric or no, ID cards is indicative of a sinister turn in the social philosophy and concepts of individual freedom that underlined what this country used to represent. I don't give a sh!t about terrorism, there are better ways to battle that than give the state greater means of control, especially when they are playing the fear card to try and get it past the public when they've admitted that it wouldn't in any way shape or form have prevented the London bombs. *edited for shocking grammar and spelling

I'm currently designing an IT System (I know a little bit about it see) for the NHS to help it gather together the thousands of processes and systems used within the hundreds of organisations within the NHS, because noone has a clue what's done where by whom. There is no such thing as an NHS database, it doesn't exist, some PCTs are largely subsisting on paper and pencil and use their monitors as flower stands. Fujitsu and co have installed their system in 9 of the 47 targetted Trusts over 6 years at the cost of about 3 billion quid, and none of that even works. I throw out ID because it's a desire from on high and noone has been able to justify why, leave alone come up with actual concrete requirements, and hey presto the costs have been spiralling out of control since day 1, a sure-fire sign that every responsibility is being shipped from pillar to post to avoid blame. I'm not some luddite here, but I do know a lot about why and how projects fail (I worked for EDS remember), and this one is absolutely doomed, as is the taxpayer.

Back on the subject of this hypothetical secure, well designed and distributed database system, that will doubtless come in on time and under budget. Who has been hired to implement it? Fujitsu, who have fiiiinally been sacked from delivery (or not) of the monumentally costly and useless NHS IT strategy, CSC (see above NHS IT strategy) and EDS who have screwed up pretty much everything they've ever touched and have been woefully poor in the area of data security in the past (and I should know, I worked for them, incompetent and clueless doesn't even come close). Well that's alright then, it'll all be fine!

or as halm man half biscuit said "We?ve got lo-fi, we?ve got tie-dye We?ve got grey and brown and black We?ve got stickers on guitars We?ve got a tape for Steve Lamacq We?ve got celibate lead singers We?ve got Sebadoh?s and Docs But what ain?t we got? We ain?t got mates"

I was listening to Half Man Half Biscuit's new album CSI:Ambleside alst night, and couldn't help bu think of our Louisa during Lord Hereford's Knob "As I camped out one evening to take the midnight air I heard a maiden grieving from somewhere over there Who is it you are mourning For whom do you wear grey She said I pine for no one, I just can?t pay my way Ever since the chattering classes invaded Hebden Bridge And priced the likes of me and mine To the pots of the Pennine Ridge To South East Wales I was forced to flee And now I have no job That?s why tonight I?m sitting on top of Lord Hereford?s Knob"

Genius!! From Balakov Here's the Set including some classic film stills such as Star Wars meets North by Northwest

It'll be tighter, 1-0 to the orange boys for me. ANd hats off to Cro, Mrs Mocker's bet looking a bit better after her post cro v austria despondency.

I do now answer to mockers and I can't decide whether I like that or that's just too weird.

And though I prefer London to t'north for a number of reasons, it really is friendlier oop north, and clubbing was waaaaaaaaay better from what I experienced. Though coke and booze was heavily back in the london scene by the time I moved back south, ruining all that was good about the dance scene. These days I'm pushing it if I listen to Ladytron. Here are some memories http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f91d_WooFM8&feature=related Ooh, cringeworthy, the eyes!! Human Traffic makes me cringe with embarrassment too these days. and this made me chuckle

Bagley's but not until about 95-6 In the headier days I was based in the North Midlands and could be found int he likes of Shelley's, Golden, Entropy, Kinetic (various stoke towns) Swoon (Stafford) Voodoo (liverpool) Wobble (brum) Orbit (leeds)

Here's a great collaboration, Dirty Three and Chan Marshall (aka Cat Power)

Blimey, language, now you're asking as it's a subject that almost noone agrees anything about. But roughly our own Latin A came from the Ancient Greeks, who resurgent 300ish years after the collapse of the minoan civilisation, found themselves partial to travelling and foreign technical and cultural innovations. It's thought they stumbled upon literacy from the phoenicians with whom they traded, and applied it to their own language, with the funky idea of actually using Vowels (ancient Hebrew, like phoenician (for the two tribes were probably both of Canaan origins in the deep mists of time) also forewent written* vowels. We all know how good the Greeks got at this writing malarkey and the Romans nicked a variant of their alphabet (and their Gods and stuff) for their own purposes, an alphabet we use largely untouched to this day. Why's it first someone else will have to hazard a guess to, but Alpha Beta has a nice ring to it doesn't it. *edit: you'd struggle speaking without vowels.

As it happens that IS the third rule of Drink Club, but in telling you this we have both of course broken the first rule of drink club ..... sshhhhhh

Why do I get a warm feeling inside after Huguenot's quality posts?

mrs mockney loves the Apprentice, if she went on it I might die of shame

you are a bit Queenie (off blackadder) Consider yourself crowned!!

I meant about them being dark and broody rather than brooding, but now I feel like I was missing the intentional pun :-$