mockney piers

what a toroughly pleasant way to while a way a couple of hours of an afternoon. A genuine delight to meet everyone, both us crumblies and the little ones, and hope to meet again soon!

Damn that Cromwell and his antiditestablismentarian ways. I'm definitely with RD and Jeremy on this one. You can't have your cake and eat it. You can't have the pride in the achievements without the shame of the darker side of one's past (and as part British, Spanish and German, god knows I've picked the best ones for both sides of the coin). Nationalism is the greatest con trick known anyway. It was just how the ruling elites, no longer swanking around in funky armour, managed to get the people they've been oppressing for hundreds of years to do the whole dirty getting cut down by grape and musket shot and machine gun fire for their continued nefarious ends. Marvellous.

I think the closest descriptor that applies to a modern nationality is probably Armenian. You could definitely get away with Hellenic, but Greek is a little meaningless in the modern sense. If you think about it someone from the Nile Delta at the time would have been culturally very very similar to someone from Constantinople or Antioch and noticeably Greek flavoured, but it would be disingenuous to claim that someone from Alexandria at the time was 'Greek' as such. Definitey not Turkish, they turned up in Anatolia quite a while later and they weren't nice to the Armanians at all but that's a whole nother story. In a fit of bonkersly retro-fitted question begging logic you could probably say he was Georgian I guess. Most definitely not English, but not really the point either. I think titch has it as it goes, very unenglish to have some sort of crass selfconcious affirmation of nationality. Far better to enjoy some warm ale and watch some cricket what! Nut what would a dodgy spic like what I is know about all that anyway, I'll just dit in the corner sn throw a donkey of a church tower or something. ?Ol?!

hurrah, don't worry, we won't tell on you keef. Be good to see you, hopefully i won't be on an 18 minute limit this time :-/

3 month old Rory will be in attendance with 442 month old big kid.

Outnumbered just keeps getting better is all I have to say about the debates. Ok, caught some of it, and there was no daylight between the three. I know what you mean about Clegg, it's like the lib dems grew him to order in a vat or something. Actually there was, I thought Brown was the worst. I'm not convinced he's human, but at least he isn't a stepford politician; plus every other line felt pre-prepared and he'd grin idiotically whenever he delivered one of these, and it all stank of Campbell if you ask me, has he been employed on the sly?

Ooh. A plan!

All sounds great. Herne ia always a winner and I'm pretty free every day but Thursday next week. I like the Florence, though mrs mockney now avoids it as they wouldn't let her sit in the front with Rory and is now more partial to the Prince Regent with it's tables outside. Anyway, happy to join anyone in whateverthe plan as I'm easy going/a bit desperate ;)

Fridays mrs mockney and friends tend to 'wfh' so I'm usually set for lunch. Well the missus does actually manage some work, not convinced by the rest of them. Herne sounds great for a midweek wander, keep me posted. And thanks for the advice and of course the kiss *blushes*

and Kim Deal == Valerie Singleton

Rory (3 months) and I (a bit older) are enjoying our walks together especially now it's sunny, but CBeebies is slowly turning me into a homicidal maniac. I suspect I may be craving human contact, I understand this is a phase all new stay-at-homes go through. I'm figuring this being a sociable type of neighbourhood that people do meet up every now and then. Does anyone hang around a pub with the papers and a bit of gossip for an hour in the afternoon at all? Are dads welcome?

I believe it's Nantwich quids.....says it all really. I remember when Belgium came out top and the beeb interviewed some Belgians who agreed that it was a very nice to live but was definitely the most boring country in the world hence why they took more holidays than any other country. But I don't really live here for the quality of life. It's about friends, earning potential and culture in that order for the moment (and the climate in London is actually pretty good). I know it can be much better elsewhere as priorities change, and I do intend to settle somewhere where that's the case, when sunnier and a bit more boring is exactly what I'm after. (though you couldnt pay me to live in Nantwich)

reminded of this.... And indeed there will be time To wonder, "Do I dare?" and, "Do I dare?" Time to turn back and descend the stair, With a bald spot in the middle of my hair? [They will say: "How his hair is growing thin!"] My morning coat, my collar mounting firmly to the chin, My necktie rich and modest, but asserted by a simple pin

Well, new zealand is beginning to think seriously about becoming part of Australia which rather suggests that in some respects it's a failed state. Whoops. Ideally I'm with you MM, that's why I keep voting for the anarcho-syndicalista in Spanish elections (he'll, just because I can). But 'small' government will never again exist as lo g as the concept of government as we know it continues to be useful, the world is just too big, too complicated. The degrees by which we seperate out concepts of big and small are so tiny as to be almost meaningless which just makes me chuckle as wee all bicker. To a certain extent it makes me symapthise with Sean's much criticised 'not much will change' position. Of course no has ever come up with an expression that describes this...plus ?a change etc...(baddamtish)

It did didn't it. Likewise his talk of political reform on the start of electioneering. Yeah, that's a vote winner! political debate had to take second place to Outnumbered though, best programme on telly at the moment!

"I bet Mockers always voted lib Dem" Ha ha, you know me too well (in national elections at any rate). I liked the comment on HIGNFY last night "40% of lib dem supporters say they are prepared to vote tactically, the rest will do what they've always done, waste their vote" Sounds about right and I'll be wasting it again this year. I'm not dogmatic it's just that the other parties may occasionally say sensible things, I was shocked to hear Cameron talking about helping drug addicts go to addiction clinics rather than the usual bollocks about being tough on crime, but as a whole only the liberals make sense* more often than not. I wont do my usual thing about New Labour but suggest anyone thinking of voting for them read "The Rise of Political Lying". It didn't tell mem anything I didn't know, but the sheer weight of it in a short read is utterly damning. *Though amused to read the manifesto promise to allow illegal immigrants who have been here for ten years to have residency. Err, how does that work?

Mr Tumble freaks me out. I blame Poltergeist. While we're at it, I'm pretty sure the tombliboos bed down in an alien's digestive tract everynight which is also pretty odd if you ask me. Mind you, CBeebies overload has been all made worthwhile having just witnessed Yoko, Toto and Jamoko perform a pastiche of the climax of The Good The Bad and The Ugly, complete with ersatz Morricone...genius!!

To be fair I know Spain really very well indeed. And you're right, I never once met that type in Madrid, and there are loads of Brits living there. The costas however (though yes, I met some nice ones too).....(and yes, they're more happily launch into slagging off Britain than Spain, but believe me they slag off Spain. More than once I've wondered what on earth they're doing there, but then that makes me sound like a daily mail reading 'if you hate it some much why don't you etc' type, and even the thought of that makes my spine shiver). But agreed, Falklands....

Not true. They were given British Overseas Territory Citizenship which gives them access to British Citizenship, which is not the same thing. The second one is also a bit iffy, there are twice as many saffas here as there are ex-pats in S. Africa, which doesn't include backpackers, those holding short term working visas and generally annoying student types. And when it comes to Brits in Spain slagging it off there is no contest believe you me!!!

We shall have to agree to differ then ms muck. I think of threads as conversations and dislike things being repeated ad nauseum. But that might be a reaction to Dpaniards who feel they have to say everything two or three times, preferably shouted over everybody else speaking at the same time. Hmmmm, perfect description of the forum thinking about it!!

I realise that jeremy, and it's a web culture standard too, I just wih people would hit "quote this messge" a little less often especially when, as Mick Mac points out, they quote an 20 paragraph post and add "me too" at the end. Bah humbug etc.

Totally agreed MM, that is one of the most annoying habits that plenty of posters are guilty of. Keef's patented "what bob said" does the trick much more succinctly. I have done the odd fisk when someone's tortured logic needs teasing apart thus making a converstational response impossible. BUt on the whole I think it detracts from a conversational tone, you wouldn't fisk someone down the pub would you, you'd say "I don't know I think you're barking up the wrong tree with your dog clamping idea, but when it comes to taxing three wheeled prams I reckon you're on to a winner there." On here it just makes for a more pleasant read and is a bit more aesthetically pleasing; better than all those damn ugly greater-thans ">" everywhere. If you are going to quote, and its a perfectly valid thing to do, then I'd love it if people just picked the relevant bit more often and use either "sumfink" or . my two-penneths worth anyhow

I'm pretty sure the answer is still no Keef, and I think it makes sense to keep them (I'm pretty sure it would be a simple SQL statement if it HAD to be done). I imagine one of two things has happened, either a banned person has come back in another guise and a flurry of posts were manly deleted along with his/her account, or someone has changed their name making it look like their posts have gone. If ladymuck is referring to Declan then that would certainly be the case.

I fucking hope this is going to he a biscuit appreciation thread; if not I've been tending the wrong grave......

I cut my online teeth on Quake 2. Done most since then, especially team fortress and the unreal tournaments. Problem was they're all so prone to cheating that in the end I descided I couldn't be bothered. PC became a place I did strategy games and MMORPGs. Console for immediate kicks and currently MW2 doing that very well. If you want to get proverbial cocks on to the table I think I may have been on consoles before IBM PCs even existed and almost certainly before you were born. Noobie. Funny, no really.