mockney piers

The Bluebell Inn in Hempstead is very nice. Dick Turpin used to live there and the redheaded barmaid was rather lovely, if a little scatty.

How about "Do I stay or do I go'? or is that a bit wordy?

we did cross post a bit LB, but you very rightly pointed out that we have often sent people to countries where they were in all likelihood going to suffer or die, Iraq being a good example as are a whole raft of rather troubled African countries, with Gamu's own Zimbabwe being something of a case in point. She doesn't strike me as being particularly political mid you, but there have been examples.

Where does X Factor sit in all of this again? Are we proposing to turn visa applications into some sort of game show? I reckon the leggy Russian will probably win every time.

It is a bit half truths Ridgely. If someone is a terrorist, ie we catch them doing something against the law, we will lock them up, either from a prevention of terrorism law or for something else (explosions, murder, sabotage etc). If ty're a foreign national we'd like to be in a position to deport them either during or after their sentence, but if it's deemed likely that their country of origin will torture or kill them then we won't. We'll either try to find someone who'll take them or we'll do some sort of unsatisfactory half way house like a control order. Recently we've done things like giving them to dodgy countries who promised nicely not to harm them, I'd be interested to know if they've been good to their word. Mind you we've also recently turned a blind eye or have even colluded with sending people without charge to countries who specifically will circumvent due process for robust interrogation techniques (ie shove them in dank cells without anyone knowing their whereabouts and torture them). It's called rendition and something of a low point in this countries recent chequered past. I'm sure you fully support human rights and back this country's (usual) stand on thinking torture and extrajudicial (or even judicial) execution as bad things?

Firmware is the software that runs your router, your router is the most important firewall to stop malicious things attempting to hack into your PC, it's generally a good idea to keep it up to date. The only way that things can get into your PC after that is if you install them. Typically these are malware or trojans rather than viruses. They can get in because you install them in a trusting fashion when they're not what they claim to be. It might be a toolbar or a utility of some sort tat you're looking for. Generally they come from unsolicited and untrusted sources, ie not your mum or your mate, but if they themselves are infected then a virus could send emails from their machines so that it looks trusted and it might say 'click on this t's great' and the this in question will be an executable, ie something that executes on your PC. One surefire sign is if the file has .exe at the end, but it could easily be in a script of some sort, and clever types even manage to embed bits of malicious code in things like pictures or PDFs to exploit vulnerabilities in the programes that use them, ie Adobe Reader, so its also important to install those updates when prompted. Bottom line trust noone and research before downloading and installing anything, make sure its from a reputable site such as http://download.cnet.com Cue smugly tedious Mac owners bleating about how they don't have to worry about this sort of thing.

I'm pretty sure Susan Boyle stood in front of the Kings Horse at the races.

Ha ha, cheers quids, i take it all back ;-P

80k is a decent salary or a lot of money? I'll let you point me to the relevant post rather than trawl through 7 pages of ramblings...again...thank you very much. A quick swizz shows ?58k to be in top 5% and ?118k to be in top 1%. Are they merely decent salaries, are we talking that weird new yardstick 'more than the prime minister' or are you referring to obscene money....can you give me pointers on that too when you're done patronising me?

X Post

Gamu was a terrorist?

Really? Most project managers in the city that I worked with just got promoted out of harms' way. They were universally appalling and I never understood why Organisations insist on employing so many of them. I've worked on so many top heavy projects I've lost count, and I doubt that any of them were on less than 80k. Weirdly, despite endless ramblings about Public sector inefficiency, my experience there has been better. Did any of them have balls? No, some got a cushy number thanks to a mate after time in the forces, some just moseyed their way there, but most of them just went to public school. Thinking about it, what do you mean by 'a lot of money'?

But I coulda been a contender if I'd had one iota of ambition or drive or the foggiest idea what i coulda contended for.

AVG is free and does the job. But tbh, just make sure your firmware is up to date on your router and don't run untrusted executables. Frankly that's all you need to do.

Wankspanner? Was it good, don't tell me, doorbell goes, mechanic is at the door.....

Plys if you earn loadsamoney you really dont want to hang around in the most boring country in the world. New York I just about buy it if it wasnt for visa issues etc etc, Hong Kong, just doesnt have the expertise and people wouldnt move wholesale. Ultimately its something of an empty threat. That's not to say other financial markets wont eclipse us in time, but in the short term its bluster. Poppycock I say!!

wow. solidarity sister!

destin? is that a word, wasnt he a french politician? As I said before, many people were given poor advice by people with vested interests in doing so. Only with perfect knowledge can we have perfect decisions, failing that it is not always an abrogation of responsibility to blame someone else at least partially, occasionally it really IS someone else's fault! Mind you I'm wondering how many people didnt pay attention at school because it sucks man!!!! with their teacher saying, listen up or you may regret it one day. Hard to know I guess.

"The press are doing a good job of talking us into a double dip" I agree. Obviously credit crunch had a very real impact on us, but much about a recession is caused by a loss of confidence and a downturn in domestic consumer activity which makes up something like 65% of our GDP. I think we had the press to thank for that and may well do so again. Interestingly our combined exports to India and China total less than we do to Ireland.

Plus it always seems to happen to PLCs. Short term gain for long term pain?

I thought it was an LSD reference....again....

ooh, my smoked beer was bavarian. Is there anything they don't smoke down there?

"can we please get away from this idea that hard work and education equate to wealth" though in fairness it's a damn good start. I'd add ability to spot and exploit imbalances in the market or at least willingness to partake of a lucrative market rather than a depressed one. Oh and of course a healthy dose of luck always helps. Though to move it back to fair societies, we do need nurses and teachers and so forth which we all know dont pay well, so fully support the idea of state funded or at the very least subsidised affordable housing. Something that might help us to avoid those awful housing bubbles too. A double win!

"The only way is to do what Australia did - get as close to China as possible" That won't look nearly so sensible when China blunders into its own difficulties a la Japan and Korea before it.

"It was and remains a tragedy that the government couldn't leverage..." I'd alter the c to a w, I happen to know that her maj's gov't has made a tidy 6 billion out of the Lloyds Banking Group shares it holds, that's 6 years worth of child benefit thinking about it.