Marmora Man

While Marmora Road is on topic - who is it that thinks leaving their rubbish on the corner of Scutari & Marmora is a better option than taking it to the dump or arranging for the council to collect? In the last 6 months there has been variously - cardboard packing boxes from moving, packaging from large goods and, currently, an old rug - which someone's dog has used as a latrine. Eventually the council does tend to remove the items but it is not neighbourly.

Too many caveats. Should have stopped after "I love fireworks". Fun, noisy, pretty and pure a glorious waste of money.

If you have children of the right age, or perhaps even if not, I can thoroughly and without reservation recommend going to see The Railway Children at Waterloo Station (in the old Eurostar area). Fantastic set, a real steam engine and a beautiful performance by all actors. Only one, minor, downside for men of my generation - there's no Jenny Agutter.

Bucket under sink. Dismantle U bend. Wiggle thin stick / skewer up into sand blocked pipe, perhaps running some water too. Re-assemble when all clear.

BB100: If boundaries between state & parents are to be defined more clearly this implies state control and interference. I'm with uppereastsider on this - what at first might seem a "reasonable" suggestion becomes state interference very quickly.

I have been trying to spot the culprit with no joy so far - and echo the frustration you voice. Completely anti social behaviour.

in response to Narnia's Are you, BB100, really saying you want some kind of state sponsored job description and / or qualification for being a parent or child rearing? If so, well words truly fail me.

I believe it is time to draw a line under this discussion. Some of the criticism and the support of the parents has been over the top and hysterical with assumptions made, that have little or no basis in fact, about motives, danger, threats and impact on the children. Others have made positive and thoughtful contributions - both for and against the Schonrock's actions. It is surely time to stop - posts are becoming repetitive, argumentative and adding little to the debate. Perhaps the Matt Cartoon will help all to see a lighter side?

Keef Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Compulsory Criminal Record Bureau checks on almost > every one doesn't appear to have reduced threat to > others by any significant amount. > > How do you know? > > CRB checks are a pain, I'll be the first to admit > that, but then again, they are no more a pain than > filling in a passport application. As someone who > works with vulnerable adults, and children, I'd > say they are necessary. > > Scale them back too much, and there will be some > horrible story that will have huge tabloid > headlines, then be brought up in parliment, then > they'll reintroduce them. That's the problem, the > tabloids are the biggest pressure group there is > in making our laws. Keef - I work in healthcare. The time taken to obtain CRB clearance really gets in the way of recruitment. Over the last 5 years neither I, nor my wife who works at St Thomas', have come across a single occasion where the CRB check has turned up something that affected the recruitment. Anecdotally (not always a good guide I agree) this seems to be the case across wide swathes of areas where vulnerable people are supposedly risk from those with ill intent whose criminal pasts will be revealed by the CRB check. Additionally, the fact that a CRB check for one employer is not portable to another - so one of my manager's operates across two sites - which are nominally separate legal entities but operated and managed as one unit. For every member of staff that works on both sites (as opposed to just the one - about 80% of staff) we require two separate CRB checks carried out simultaneously - ludicrous!

Video technology optional - but England would require an overseas manager at great expense to discuss, via an interpreter, the skills, team formation and strategy before each toss (er)

The essential question is not whether you agree / disagree with the Schonrocks but whether the school, social services or other parents have any right to intervene. Parents are responsible for their children. If they choose to allow / encourage their children to make their own way to school that's up to them - unless it is demonstrably an unwise / dangerous decision. The school is responsible for children in the school and, at the end of the school day, for handing them back to their parents / guardians. This is presumably why the Schonrocks arrange to collect their children as the school controls this handover. State interference in child care already tends to be oppressive. On the whole the state has not shown itself to be a good or effective guardian of children (cf outcomes for cildren in care). THis is a personal decision taken by the parents and no one should have the right to intervene. Comment by all means but no intervention.

I was going to raise this item but couldn't link to ST website. Agree with all the points - the parents are to be applauded. The school to be lambasted, Social Services sent on their way and other parents at the school to be given a short lesson in common sense and parental responsibility. Better to raise an aware, confident and fit young children by letting them take a short walk to school than to create an artificial bubble for them to live in until their teens.

Surely, at least in theory, there are no border controls in the EU - and therefore no need to carry a passport as proof of ID. Ant form of acceptable identity should be sufficient - I've used a military ID card in the past.

Two sides - each 11 players. 1 Referee. 1 coin. Toss coin to see who wins. All go home

Democracy is about participation not abrogation. Just because a governmenthas been voted it doesn't mean we can or should forget about it until the next election. I applaud this idea to keep us involved.

In my experience union officials are less concerned with quality of output than certainty of employment. So yes - I do not see the NUT as a force for good in education.

DaveR - I was about to make exactly the same point. Michael Davern is not a concerned parent worried about schooling but a concerned trades union official concerned about the impact of greater local managerial freedom on his members and colleagues.

Absolutely. Are you pursuing humanist issues - greater tolerance / removal of religious strictures?

There's also a thread I set up in the Drawing Room - to date with no conversation.

Nick Clegg has asked the public to nominate laws that should be scrapped. Scrap Laws Report So where do we start? I haven't really had time to think about it today but ......... 24 hour drinking doesn't seem to have worked? Fox hunting ban has been largely irrelevant Compulsory Criminal Record Bureau checks on almost every one doesn't appear to have reduced threat to others by any significant amount.

Despite the Bank of England base rate being 0.5% the actual London Interbank offer rate (LIBOR) is higher. This is the rate at which banks lend among themselves. Today for a 15 year loan it's about 4% and for a longer loan it's about 4.25%. So given your lender wants to make a profit and has other costs the difference between your rate of 5.9% and 4.25% represents the cost and profit element for your lender.

Brendan Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- I speaking from personal experience of some very unpleasant individuals I?ve met. But I will leave this now as I don?t want to hi-jack yet another thread with dissident ranting. You should get out more Brendan and meet some normal conservatives. I'd recommend Andy Stranack as a good corrective - he was the prospective Conservative candidate for Camberwell and Peckham in the recent election - very far from your caricature of a Tory. I've been arguing for right of centre, libertarian and conservative thinking since this forum was established; I'm fairly sure that at least some of my virtual opponents find that I'm not too vicious or bloody minded in person.

david_carnell Wrote: Both Miliband brothers attended state comprehensives and gained access to Oxford Uni on their own aptitude. I can't imagine their father paying for their education! D Milliband (don't know about Ed) gained his Oxford place on 2 Bs & a D and on the back of an LEA scheme to help inner city comprehensive children get to good universities. Since he hailed from a strong left wing academic background where money, aspiration and access to wider horizons were the norm he wasn't exactly the sort of inner city child the scheme had in mind.

TRy here Electrical Shop

Brendan - I recognise this is your normal level of hyperbole but would you expand on the this vicious ideology? As a Conservative I'm not aware of it.