Marmora Man

I don't particularly want the NHS to deliver friendship - but it should deliver effective and efficient care. Having worked in the NHS I could come up with a number of ways to reduce costs / redirect costs to patient care without having to increase taxes. GP surgeries such as the Forest Hill one are usually private businesses - albeit effectively funded by the NHS. The GPs themselves are not NHS employees - their income is generated by a function of number of patients the practice sees, number of treatments dished out, number of specific government targets they hit etc. The premium rate phone line income is probably going into "the business" and not the NHS.

THis might be a helpful site for those that dislike premium rate calls to key organisations Say No to 0870

None whatsoever. The NHS budget has tripled to almost ?100bn - to then make money out of those calling for assistance is wrong.

I think you'll find the Brockwell Lido was refurbished using Fusion's own money in return for Fusion obtaining a lengthy (15 / 20 year) option to operate the place. IE - in return for the investment they were given the opportunity to get a return on their investment. I also understand that membership at Brockwell give you no access to Fusion at ED or PP - that's because Brockwell is a Lambeth borough area / facility while ED & PP are Southwark. Fusion effectively have a long lease on Brockwell but act only as contract managers for Southwark and therefore have no say in the costing / access policy.

Sean, as I'm sure you'll recognise I wanted to see where the debate went - so I may have been a little "sterile" in laying down the challenge. However, I think your example above is, perhaps, a little simplistic as well - some people are not eating well or enough, but no one is proposing windfall taxes on supermarkets. If this is a pressing social need then the balance comes from Government balancing its budget and responding to the need - not in Government changing the rules of the company taxation game and creating a new tax on the back of some rather clever special need pleading. Do we put ID cards, the NHS super computer system, 250 Eurofighters, two new aircraft carriers, Hazel Blears or any other government minister, ahead of providing targeted fuel payments to those in need?

One of the problms I have is the house is so stuffed with books there's no room for more, unless I build an extension. I can, with regret, clear out some poor choices, unreadables and airport books but the rest are part of my life and history. Maybe an e-book reader for travel to the beah / pool / distant jungle?

Does anyone have one yet? What do you think? I like the idea of carrying around a small library (160 books can be stored apparently) of favourite and current books. At the same time I love books as artefacts in their own right - old books with other's names in the fly pages, or notes in margins. My own battered copy of The Count of MOnte Cristo (Christmas present in 1963) can evoke memories of childhood, my grandmother and Christmas lunch - just by opening page 1, a e-book willnever do this.

It's been talked of in the press, on radio and on TV. Unions are pressing for it, the Treasury are nervous and Gordon Brown isn't sure. Where do you stand on this? I do not believe it is right to take a large, albeit one off, sum from a business, or businesses that already pay their taxes as set by the state. While the absolute sums they make in profit are large - so is the capital demand on those profits and on their shareholders for re-investment in plant, equipment and alternative methods of creating the energy - wind, tide, sun, nuclear and so on. The idea that the Government should take ?5bn from the energy companies and the disburse this to individual households is ludicrous - imagine the transaction costs involved in this redistribution by this government. If the Government / public really believe fuel poverty (see note later) should be alleviated than it would be better tackled by reducing overall costs to the individual and the best way to do this would be to raise tax thresholds - a ?1,000 hike in tax threshold would give every taxpayer ?220. Fuel Poverty - defined as somone spending more than 10% of their disposable income on energy costs. A strange concept - what I spend my disposable income on is my business - I might want to waste energy and keep the house at 75F with every window open and eat beans on toast, or I might want to eat really well but barely heat the house at all and wear several layers of jumpers and thick socks (as I remember being the case when I was young). Fuel Poverty is a clever way to create a new "need" and disadvantaged group, but what is really required is reasonable incomes and to allow individuals make their own mind up about what to spend it on.

Avoid DKH by going thru' Peckham to E&C and then to anyone of a number of bridges - Westminster, Blackfriars, Waterloo. Agree it's the wind that's the main opponent - yesterday it was always a head wind - going in and out. Keeping a suit, shoes and couple of spare shirts at the office is good practice - then taking a clean shirt and socks daily. I admit there are days when I use the bus and enjoy the 40 minute journey with my book or the paper - but I'm on a make MM thinner campaign so its biking for the foreseeable future.

I was somehow contacted via my business e-mail for this club - still cannot work out how they found it.

A simple piece of maths - the centre is open 15 hours a day Mon - Fri and 10 hours a day Sat / Sun = 95 hours. I have no idea what they spend on maintenance (not as much as they should given general state), energy & utilities (a lot probably - given pool requirements) + staff + trying to make enough to fund future developments - all that will add up to a significant sum. If they are only making ?87.00 an hour (approx ?2.9m a year) - they are probably operating at a loss and being subsidised by council tax.

But man evolved to fight sabre toothed tigers - taking on the N o. 63 at the Elephant & Castle is a doddle compared to that.

Cycle - it's the only way. Even this morning arriving at work after a wet journey that was 5 mins longer than usual I felt invigorated but damp (very). A warm shower and cup of decent coffee later and work actualy seems enjoyable.

Great that England is 3 - 0 up but I always feel the Duckworth - Lewis calculations give the advantage to the team batting second with fewer overs to face the likelihood of them losing wickets is reduced. So - to an extent SA were unfortunate on Sunday.

Brendan, Different experiences! For me EDD works - for others, obviously not. MM

In my experience EDD staff are fine, helpful if you are looking for a specific ingredient or item, or want to order something for later (we had a great picnic supplied by them on 4th July and the weather was great too - tho' I don't think EDD can claim credit for that) - but given the usual queues and limited space the staff seldom have much time for friendly chit chat, so perhaps come over as professional rather than friendly. The quality of everything there is high (I still find their sausage rolls the best) and while there's undoubtedly a premium pricing policy on balance the VFM equation works for me.

Won't the input energy exceed the output energy in such a system? Particularly if you factor in energy cost of creating the engine in the first place? Otherwise electrolysis in O2 & H would be a perpetual motion machine - which my physics master taught me was impossible?

I also add that the Greenwich Picturehouse is pretty close and is a good experience. Mixes standard mainstream films with more obscure / revivals / arthouse films. Good bar and eats. Generally a more mature audience interested in the film rather than talking - also, so far, no nasty cheese & nacho type food smells Greenwich Picture House

Tidal power is predictable and huge (rise & fall in the Bristol Channel is never less than 20 ft and can exceed 35 ft). To my mind, it should be possible to harness quite simply and effectively by placing hydro turbines under the sea to capture the ebb and flow. With the correct design it should be possible to harness both the rising tide and the falling tide using the same (reversible) turbine. Thus generating power for almost 20 hours a day (allowing for an hour's slack at each high and low water period). As for storing the power - there was an elegant solution in N. Wales where a hydro power plant used to use "off peak" power to transport water to a higher level and then, by releasing it generate power at the required times. Inevitably there was an energy cost to this - but it worked to shift power to desired time(s). (didn't get as much energy back as used in lifting the water to a higher level) The undoubted difficulties of placing engineering plant on / close to the sea bed and connecting to the shore have been overcome by the N. See oil engineers, so don't see this as a big problem. Tidal power in this way would be: non polluting - gets the green tick An extension of existing technology - so not too challenging Doesn't create eye sores - thus better than windfarms Is predictable - thus better than windfarms Is pretty much eternal - at least until the sun goes out. Would also add that, as one that spent much of the 80's living with a nuclear reactor at my feet, I have never feared them or their by products. A reactor with sufficient power to provide electricity to Southwark for 20 years wouldn't be much larger than a submarine reactor - ie about 10m x 10m x 10m. The ultimate waste products do indeed have a long half life - but much of the waste creates only very low level radioactivity - the bulk of it being shielding, pipework and other similar materials. The more highly reactive nuclear core would amount to only a few pounds weight.

I saw the incident from almost beginning to the arrival of the police - to whom I gave a statement. I considered the actions of the Somerfield staff excessive, they weren't prepared to listen to my, or others, remonstrations so I called the police. I'm not claiming my reports was 100% accurate - no witness ever sees everything - but I stand by my report. I can be as strong a supported on Law 'n Order as the next man and hard on criminal activity - but I prefer the criminals to have been thru' the justcie system before punishment. The only exception being defending myself, my family, my property from active criminal activity - and then I subscribe to minimum force necessary.

coachkelly Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > MM...apologies if this has been brought up as I > tried to read all posts but may have missed one or > two, but as you witnessed what seems like a > criminal assault ,did you report it to the Police? Yes

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I'm beginning to regret my initial posting. It seems to have uncovered a seam of illogical and repressive thinking that is all rather unpleasant. It was for that reason I didn't partake of the "stranger in Peckham Rye park" debate.

James, You don't want a society that, when confronted with criminals, turns a blind eye. I agree entirely. I saw criminal behaviour - an assault on a person who was, allegedly, a shoplifter. I intervened. I certainly did not take any self righteous pleasure in finding a person in authority abusing their position. If the alleged shoplifter was truly guilty he should be punished thought the court, magistrate or jury system, not beaten up by vigilantes. If more people took a stance on anti social behaviour of all kinds - there might, just might, be a fall in crime and a growth in the acceptance of certain "social norms" about what is right / wrong. So do ask the teenager to turn down their phone, do stand up and offer a seat to a pregnant lady, do remind people about littering. Your own situation experiencing the terrible bureaucracy of the courts / justice system is undoubtedly horrible - but it cannot be a reason to abandon the proper due process of law - it is a reason to do more to ensure it is properly deployed by staff that have open minds, common sense and a perspective about the real balance between victim and perpetrator. Something you indicate, and I believe, to be out of kilter at present.

I walked into the shop - there was no incident / violence occurring. I wlaked to the right by the wine shelves and freezer compartments, I had just collected my ice cream and was walking back to the check out when my way was blocked by this fracas. The "restrained" individual cannot have been offering significant violence / threats / noise or anything else for more than 30 seconds, if that - otherwise I would have been aware. My first thought, and that of many around me, was to assist the one man being apparently beaten up by three others - as I made a move to do this the crowd was informed that one of the three was "security" despite not being in any kind of uniform. (He may have been undercover - not that this would excuse his behaviour)