Loz

DulwichFox Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Do they have Wi-Fi in Leeds.. ? lol > > Foxy Of course. Though it is steam powered.

Actually, Foxy, it's damn useful on the train to Leeds, when you only get 15 mins free and the trip is over 2 hours. There are a couple more gotchas. Cookies can get in the way as well.

ianc Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > If they really wanted to, coffee shops could impose a time limit on wifi usage per device. All > devices have a unique MAC address, and you could set a 1 hour (or less) limit, with a 24-hour > return time. ... and really quite trivial to work around, if you know basic networking.

Lots of buzz phrases, but no real action plan. Having said that, Tessa does seem to be the best candidate declared so far. The Tories don't seem to have anyone credible (though Justine Greening, should she go for it, would be interesting) and the LibDems have yet to declare anyone yet.

Louisa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Bermondsey has always had a very close knit community feel. Families going back generations > with a history in the docks that would have been just up the road. It's one of the last bastions of > any sort of cockney heritage within the inner boroughs of London. I think its independence, even > after merging with southwark council has remained strong through the years. Only very recently has > gentrification gradually started to change some of the area. But not all by any means. Great > documentary called "we was all one" on YouTube, explains the tribal history of the area > concentrating on the markets and docks. The touched on this in the Beeb programme - Bermondsey council (as it was then) would only give council houses to those with ties in the area. It meant that it remained a white working class area - it wasn't a racist policy as such, though it did have an effect in excluding any recent immigrants. That changed when it was merged with Southwark.

Not quite OKR, there was a really interesting show last night on Beeb 4 - The Secret History of our Streets - which covered Reverdy Road, Bermondsey. It showed its beginnings as a developed market garden area and tracked residents who had lived there over the years. It's on iPlayer and well worth a watch.

Holding back the ears. I hope I mould before I die

To be fair, AqM, one of your your first gambits was to tell people off for having opinions on the poor, sick, young, unemployed, disabled or foxes when they were supposedly issues that didn't directly affect them. (And erroneous, as I scored on two of those. Though sadly not the 'young' one.)

Sorry Maxxi - I meant in terms of the "give everyone a degree" point you made, rather than funding. I don't have a problem with free university places either (as you say, I benefited from them), but if you shove everyone into a uni, then costs skyrocket and funding becomes an issue. It's all tied up together. And if you are going to charge then the graduate tax concept isn't too bad an approach. And AqM - dunno of you meant me, but I outed myself as a "usually vote LibDem" person ages ago. But I don't rule out voting for anyone, though - in various election (national, mayoral and council) over the last 20-odd years I've voted Labour, LibDems and (more rarely) Tories.

Maxxi has it right - Blair's mistaken approach that 50% of leavers should go to Uni was a waste of resources. You don't need a degree for theatre studies, etc. Hell, even accountants and nurses don't really need a degree. I'd return things back to a nice balance of degrees, vocational qualifications, apprenticeships, etc, etc. Get degrees back to the traditional higher education areas where they belong. Germany has it right. Differing ways (indeed, different schools) to get to the qualification you need, depending on if it degree/technical/vocational. But it's so damn sensible it would never catch on here. And it always amuses me that lefties howl about the current fees system simply because it is Tory policy, as you couldn't really devise a more left-wing approach: the richer pay, the poorer don't. Australia has a similar system and, tellingly, was implemented by a left-wing government.

lostcat Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > This is so sad. Apart from a few exceptions, I seem to have found myself among a sea of tory > voices. Is this representative of east dulwich or is it just representative of this forum? You are just falling for the old "if you don't agree with me you must be a Tory" fallacy. I didn't vote Tory. I'm just not of the limited outlook that Tory governments are inherently nasty and evil. Especially when there is a fag-paper difference in most Labour and Tory policies. Your "Labour-good, Tories-bad" view just doesn't bear scrutiny. Each have their strengths and weaknesses, good ideas and bad ideas. ETA: For Otta: after long consideration of changing my vote, I decided to vote again for the Lib-Dems in hope they would the regulating part of a coalition once again, but unperturbed about whether that was with either of the big two.

http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/laughing/roflmao.gif

Did you know you can download spell-checkers for most internet browsers?

Did you ring 101?

... a little bit out on Germany and GB! Good to see the old voting blocs starting to break down.

1) Sweden 2) Russia 3) Serbia 4) Australia 5) Germany 12ish) GB

The Latvian howling banshee entry was pretty much classic bat-crap weird Eurovision stylee.

Russia could definitely be in with a shot. Unless the issue of half of Europe not liking Russia much at the moment lowers their vote significantly. Still Sweden and Serbia for me, with Australia and Russia doing well and the UK scoring a decent mid-table mediocrity.

Georgia wasn't too bad. Azerbaijan seems to have the bastard child of Robbie Williams and Shane Warne as a dancer.

grabot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Interesting. That contradicts my experience in multi-nationals in the UK for whom the European > market is moribund, the focus is US and APAC. I thought the quality of UK workers, the UK legal > system and GMT 0 were the big draws... But they will still want an EU/EMEA presence - it is still one of the biggest and most important markets. And German workers, the German legal system and GMT+1 would be a more than acceptable alternative.

Up until Spain it was a bit of a run of entries with no hope of winning going on with not much standing out.

I think Bruno Mars might be consulting his lawyer about the Aussie entry. Could be a contender, though.

Serbia was described on Twitter as "like Adele and Lady Gaga all rolled into one", which sums it up quite well. Norway was truly boring. Sweden - good song (could even chart with a remix), clever staging. Could be a winner.

Pretty much dross so far. Lithuania and UK best at the moment, though the girl in the UK entry looked like she'd never performed on stage before.

I actually quite like the UK song. Best we've had in years (though that's not difficult).