DJKillaQueen

They are terrorists, that's right. But they want money, rather than to mindlessly kill people. The British government won't pay ransoms to pirates and rightly so because if they did there'd be kinapping of British nationals every week. It's a no win dilemma unfortunately. Hopefully at some point the pirates will release them.

Take away university status from old polytechnics, reduce degree numbers and breadth and concentrate the money on those students who are genuinely in the top 25%. That's how it was when I did my degree. But it's a difficult one, because it requires the assumption that only 25% of the public are capable of attaining a good degree. And I'm not sure that's true given the range of professions we now have and the wide range of skills and knowledge required.

I meant there are too many media degree courses compared to the jobs available in that sector..... But some of the courses are not as good a others because they may not be as well equiped or might rely too much on theory over practise and so on. Media covers everything from web content and design through to feature film making so different courses will have emphasis on different things. If we are talking TV and film courses, The National Film and Television School will give you three years of practical programme making (using top end equipment and dubbing theatres), with input from industry professions, balanced with lectures in film history, and theory etc. Another degree course might only have video cameras and low tech film making equipment with little input from industry professionals, and an over balance of theory. Not hard to see which is the better course, the more likely to get you an assistant position in the industry and more likely to give you the contacts you need to get started, but also is going to be harder to get onto and will require a bit of talent. NFTS is the Cambridge of film degrees if you like.

That happened to me today turning right...me on bicycle, bus behind with no room to overtake me in filter lane.....did he think I am superman or something?

I was quite happy to be spared reading the IFS report in preference for a nice bottle of Sambucca..... I can only assume LM that you had 'rimming' on your mind! >:D<

Good going.....I like to hear stories of triumph over the traffic Tsars!

Well how many wardens do you think it will take Tony to issue all the on spot fines required to rid Southwark of dog poo or even just to make a noticeable difference? A statement of intent is a waste of time in itself as well. I'd also add that a survey designed to gauge public opinion (as this is) is also pointless if money isn't going to be spent acting upon it's findings.

Wages of 20 employees at minimum wage (?5.93 per hour) equals ?4744 per week or ?246,688 per year and that doesn't include London weighting, pension provision and the various other costs to the employer. Southwarks annual budget is around ?3.5 million so you are seriuosly suggesting that spending 7+% of the annual budget chasing dog poo every year is good value? Especially as it won't make much difference anyway. Dizee's point about more bins etc is a good one and that is where money would be best spent.

?40 a day for the wages of 20 blokes wondering around. That to me is a perfect example of an insane use of resources and tax payers money. I think more would be achieved in targetting problem areas (be it a park, street or area) by giving out free poop bags and scoops to owners and trying to re-educate bad owners. It would cost far less and would probably be more effective too.

If you want to work in the media a job as a runner will be your entry point and you learn on the job. This doesn't get you anywhere either. This is a business I know inside out. People with the best jobs in TV/ Film either have unrelated degrees from good universities or they did the recognised film related degree courses (and there are around 15 such degree courses around the country) - National Film and Television School and so on. There are several one and two year on the job apprenticeships too where you need a degree to apply. Directors of photography, Editors, Production designers and so on do not start as runners. Media degrees have become a soft target by those who know very little about film/tv/creative industry employment. Some are rubbish, just like some courses in English Literature are rubbish, but there are some that (whilst they may not give any kind of extensive practical knowledge in film or programme making) are excellent courses for would be journalists, writers and so on. It's not the courses themselves at fault but the number of them on offer. We churn out far more graduates in that area than there are jobs in what is a niche industry in the UK....especially the film side of things.

And more importantly how man of those jobs will go to the LTU? I also don't see how a high speed link between London and the North is going to make much difference either. A train gets from London to Liverpool in just 2.5 hours as it is. We need new businesses being incentivised to locate in areas with high unemployment and they need to be a range of businesses too...not just low skilled/ low paid call centre jobs and the like. No government in the last 20 years has done anything near enough to facilitate this and I find the ConDem policies and views on the LTU particularly insulting in light of those people who were left out to dry in the 80's.....Employers will NOT employ a 50 something LTU...whilst we have an economy were there is a plentiful supply of newly unemployed. And the ignorance of politicians in relation to the problems of the LTU is disgraceful. I'm glad that James would be horrified by a London council increasing rents by 80% and can fully see the logic of his point where the measure might help more rural authorities where local private sector rent is compartively low, but he forgets the words of the spending review.... The 80% raise is supposed to help make up the shortfall in governemnt funding for socials housing (they removed half of it in the review)....In London where there is dire need for new social housing I think we can expect the rises. I also would say that it IS a tory view that there should be no lower or subsidised rents. It has always been a Tory view and they really don't care if such a move kills any hope of social mobility for the poorest or traps them in greater poverty. Why else would they think a 10% reduction in HB after a year is a good idea? Cameron and Clegg have absolutely no experience of the world that their polices are about to ravage. They have no comprehension of what it might be like to live on just ?55 a week for a long time...and worse still they've done no research to find out.

You'll find far more fox poo in Peckham Rye Park for example than you will dog poo, and then there's rat and mice urine and poo and bird poo......and oh yes...what about men that piss all over the streets....? I do hope Southwark will be wasting money employing people to exercise inneffective zero tolerance on them.....lol. You get the point.

so that universities aren't stuffed full of kids studying pointless courses that never lead to a high paying enough job for them to repay loans in the first place....... That's a good point until you come to the classics and other 'academic' subjects - many of those don't qualify the student for any kind of speicific job either. A Cambridge English Literature graduate may well become a journalist but in doing so will spend many years not earning enough to repay the loan. There is a case to say that University is as much about as studying something to a high level, for the continuation of knowledge in itself. You'll remember polytechnics. Their job was to provide more vocational degree courses, such as engineering or graphic design and so on. It would be a great shame if things like History, Launguages, Fine Art, Philosophy and other academic subjects disappeared from our Universities because students felt they had to take courses that would best enable them to repay the loan. In my own case I did a degree and then followed that with a two year apprenticeship in my field. I would never have got onto the apprenticeship without the degree. And even then I was 30 before I earned anything like an average salary because the reality is that most jobs (including many professional jobs) never pay high enough salaries.

Southwark can pass all the bye-laws it likes...the fact remains they won't be able to afford anything like the number of wardens needed to make any difference to dog fouling, and where they do find offenders will spend more money than they'll recoup from those they chase to court because they can't afford the ?50 fine. Totally unworkable and makes no financial sense.

If you want to see a city really swamped with dog poo, go to Paris. On the spot fines might work but only if the dog owner co-operates and can pay. Don't think we really need to clog up the courts with yet more pointless minor cases. The vast majority of dog owners are responsible, let's not forget that. Southwark have already introduced compulsory registration and chipping of dogs owned by tenants. I think that's far enough.

Paul and Rachel Chandler it seems are still being held captive. There's a website called savethechandlers, but it hasn't been updated since July.

Funnily enough I was thinking exactly the same thing a couple of weeks ago. It suddenly went quiet.

Yeah I saw it....loved the line 'mug shot on a mug!'

LOL Mac. Marie whilst you are busy 'toying' with another driver, you are not paying attention to the road. That in itself should tell you it's not a good idea. Personally, I ignore anything that's behind me (unless it's something I have to get out of the way for, like an emergency vehicle). Because if ever the day comes...and I hope it doesn't...where a child runs out in front of me, I want to be able to hit that brake the moment I see it.....not after I've hit them because I was focused on whether the driver behind me is getting too close or not. If he crashes into me...it's HIS insurance that will pay....not mine.

No Narnia I don't agree with that (and nor does the highway code). If the nearside lane has space you use that, with the middle lane for overtaking only. If the nearside lane is extremely busy, as it might be with lorries and other vehicles limited by law to lower speeds (with small gaps between vehichles), then you stay in the middle lane until such time as reasonable space becomes available in the nearside lane. That is a totally different attitude to thinking 'sitting in the middle lane no matter what' is ok.

Matt reminds me of Shane Ward and like him, his appeal will be limited to the uk. Rebecca may well do well internationally. She reminds me of a young Billie Holiday...who also was painfully shy. Treyc's problem I think is that she doesn't engage with the audience. She's not the only one but with a voice like that she could have a great career if she knew how to 'perform' better. They need to give her a song in which she can get the audience in the studio involved.... For me Beyonces performance of 'If I were a Boy' on the show was the ultimate masterclass on performance. She used the walkway and camera and told a story. Treyc needs to do that instead of singing to 'air'.

But there isn't any other way in system that has to be accountable for every thing it does and every penny it spends. It takes time to analyse, design, get approval and then execute.....and councils have far more to take care of than they have time and money to do so. So the planners have no option but to pick and choose. They chooose the junctions that have the most problems....it's as simple as that. The junction of East Dulwich Road and Peckham Rye. There have been fatalities there. Road accidents will always happen and most of them will be down to driver error. No amount of redesign of anything will stop that.

James is absolutely right. Process is not playing politics. And what he says about data forming decisions, and not demands 'something should be done' in spite of data saying otherwise, is absolutely right and that is the process that is followed. But lobbying can bring new data to the fore and it can challenge existing data as well. The example I gave of a survey being used to dispute claims by the Friern Road residents, turning out to be irrelevant because it was outdated, is something that would never have come to light if those residents hadn't challeged that data.

You mean Cher? I tihnk she has too big a following. I think it will be Katie that goes.

Transport sub-committee meetings can influence decisions too. The point is that when people are face to face with those involved in the process of decision making - they get heard more than they would by letter. You know that to be true as well as I do.