malumbu

I thought that I was being quite jolly. You ARE a sensitive lot. One of the most frightening matches of my life was seeing Forest Win 2-0 at Celtic in 83, 66,500 Celtic fans and 500 Forest hiding in one of the stands. Standing in the jungle with the lovely chants of IRA Irish Republican Army, and Argentina Argentina, it was quite nice for Forest to show how much stronger English football is. I did have to mouth the answer when someone asked me how long to go, as I was a big English scaredy cat. I'll tell you how I lost the ticket stub another time.

Long bus journeys are much better, as you can listen into longer conversations, as long as you keep away from the i-pod that is too loud. Even better was when a load of primary school kids got on my bus the other day off on an outing. Made the journey much more pleasant whilst I made sure that I did not come across as a dodgy geezer. I spoke a bit to one of the teachers, and suggested that she got the kids to sing as they would have done in France (well at least in my vision of what it would be like in France). I am sure that it would have been better than Kim Wilde.

It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food It is not the government's role to routinely test food The world has gone mad If we had a goverment that did routinely test food then we'd be up in arms about a nanny state We've been here before in the late 80s and early 90s with listeria, salmonella and then later E-coli. These made people poorly and government changed the law and then where necessary tightened regulations. By all means debate why they did not repond earlier to horse meat, and should this be something that was picked up earlier somewhere in the food chain. And how you can kick the food chain and retailers harder to get them to have better traceability whilst throwing the crooks in gaol. And this is all rich when I see people saying, oh we can't afford decent food, when they are paying ?50 a month for an i-phone and satelite TV. I am not saying lets return to post-war austerity where most of our wage went on living expenses. Just get it into context please. (Sorry I had to rant on-line as I was shouting a the telly again) Going to have a beer now. I'll be closely checking the label first to make sure that it hasn't got any fish in it. Or maybe I'll try some Austrian anti freeze. Oh good come back by the way Top Banana. Clearly you are a more measured and calmer person than me, and also my knowledge of the regulatory structure is a little rusty, although interesting to see that FSA were supposed to do more with less resource (a little bit of knowledge is dangerous). Trouble is I see FSA very different to the Meat Hygience Service(ie policy rather than enforcement), when they are the same organisation. Food labelling was also moved from the FSA back to the agriculture department (think that was the last lot) and nutrition policy went to DH where they thought it would be a good idea for the major manufacturers to dictate what is good for us so we are well on our way to returning back to pre-97 days. And FSA has had its research budget slashed.

Bet you didn't see that one coming PS3 chums

Just to correct myself, enforcement is generally carried out at the local level (but not by the EU) apart from the Meat Hygiene Service that is a national body.

Wot bolloxs top banana Food Safety Act 1990. Food must comply with food safety requirements, must be "of the nature, substance and quality demanded", and must be correctly described (labelled). Enforcement authorities = trading standards, port health, environmental health, meat hygience service. All national bodies. Lots of cross EU working, standards etc, but enforcement in this country is national. Central government (ie FSA) does not generally enforce (there are powers to the Health Secretary) but FSA does have the powers to carry out surveillance where there is a possible hygiene or standards issue. Eg the adulteration of orange juice, factory vs farmed salmon and other areas where there is a quick buck to be made. Interesting that FSA was set-up as MAFF was considered too close to the manufactures and producers. But FSA has been considerably down sized, and food labelling has gone back to MAFF (ie Defra).

The bloke on Channel 4 news shouting his interview at Owen Patterson is annoying me. Patterson also annoyed me by calling it the Food Safety Agency rather than 'standards' Government is there to set the standards/safety framework not chew our food before we eat it. Horsemeat is in the foodchain either due to carelessness or fraud. Enforcement authorities (eg trading standards or the police) will take action as necessary It is up the producers and retailers to operate due dilligence and have traceability in place. It is unlikely to be a safety problem, no one has died and I don't think that their is a rush to the bogs. If you meat eaters ensure that you are eating British beef it probably would never have happened. Fraudsters are always attempting to substitute inferior products - orange juice is a good international example. Ross foods once mixed up their veggie mince, for that awful Linda McCartney brand with beef, didn't hear all the whinging then. Dull story.

My late father told me that there was a horse meat restauarant in London sometime round then. Drive on the M56 when they are rendering carcasses - pooey Or just burn some of your hair, and you get the same smell (not so strong)

A bit sighhhhh Intention wasn't to debate the pros on cons of McD's but a competition on who had avoided it the most. Just light hearted stuff. Like my who reads the Daily Mail thread. But now you raise the inverted snobbery gauntlet. We are a progressively unhealthy nation. The take away culture (not just McD's) is a serious contributor to this Takeaways are not a major contributor to economic growth, skills and career prospects. McDs and the like have enormous corporate clout/brand to influence whole generations How does this support either our national identity (51st state?) or our celebration of diversity? The Olympics sucked corporate cock, and as far as I can see did nothing to support SMEs as was promised. Here comes another winter, of long shadows and high hopes

The thread was to see who had used McD's less than me, and about five of you rose to the challenge. The rest of you just wrote twadle. Start your own thread with "why I think McDonald's is not that bad, sort of, bro, kickin" I last used Kentucky Fried Chicken in the early 80s but got some sort of MSG buzz. They changed the name to KFC as they stopped frying the chicken as it was too high in calolries. Just an intersting point.

The British nuclear power programme was set-up to produce weapons grade plutonium as well as generate power (the first generation of Magnox nuclear reactors, starting with Calder Hall at Windscale and followed by Chapel Cross over the border). The Americans did not trust us to share the bomb technology (even though British researchers were an essential part of the 'Manhatton prject' that developed the first nuclear weapons). They offered us their bombs but we said "nuts" we will make our own plutonium. Similarly the French went ahead with a nuclear power and weapons programme. All the top nuclear physicists in the early days of nuclear power would have had an interst in weapons. Nuclear power plants and research establishments had barbed wire and armed guards. The nuclear power programme, perhaps up to 20 years ago, was synonynous with weapons. If you belonged to the CND in the 50s - 80s you would have been most likely against nulcear power. And later you would have worn a rainbow jumper, a little goatee and drove a 2CV.

Screwed by the Thatcher government, the Major government, the Blair government, the Brown government and this shower. In the late 80s we had in-house capabality based on 40 years and more experience. OK in our rush to make fissile grade material for the independent nuclear deterrednt we'd cut a few corners in design and construction and put up too much barbed wire, and keeping in British meant that we'd kept our own inherently safe gas cooled reactors rather than looking at world standard. We'd scored a further home goal by not fixing on one design. Anyway Thatch said we'd build one American design PWR per year into the 90s. Then she changed her mind, and decided to waste much of our own natural resource, methane, on power generation. We'd never had it so good, as we all rushed to buy our shares in the privitised utility and generation companies. Oh how short sited. Foreign ownernship means that we have no energy security. The foibles of the market mean that our energy prices are set by Gulf royals, Russian Oligarchs and unstable states. When we still produce much of our own gas and do not import any Russian (my dear readers we are so connected to Norweigian supplies that despite what I said about energy security, we can still get it direct from Scandanavia). So back to nuclear - in the late 80s BNFL were the biggest earners of Yen, now we'd expect Japan to build our power stations for us. Nulcear, and in fact all energy, does not mix with the market. A whole generation of nuclear energineers lost. Shame on you. I've written government papers on this - not quite with the same personal views I hasten to add. And German brown coal is shite. Ours was quite good but just cheaper to export. And on an anti-nuclear stance I marched for CND and would still happily unilaterally disarm. Interesting that I can divorce nuclear weapons from nuclear power.

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Shocking news about the weather in North London and the home counties. Apparently the snow was so bad many Arse fans could'nt make it to the Emirates today as seen by the many empty seats on MoTD. It seems that they have a dreadful micro climate there as this seems to be a regular event. Good on the club to credit the empty seats as full. Pathetic.

It appears to be me (with the e-dealer and Annette Curtain coming in a poor second or third place). And unlike a previous life on line I am not even trying. But I am a newbie, perhpas there are others who outshine my feeble efforts. Hopefully this will get no posts which will add to my cred.

Dunno what this thread is about. I went to the Babur for the first time in a few years. F me, it has really gone up market and could give the Cinnamon Club a run for its money. Not for the feint hearted in terms of money, but your bum will be fine in the morning.

I was drawn into an ad tonight on the box where a new man moves into the family house and the teenage son resents it. But it all ends nicely in McD's Rather than put my fingers down my throat I thought I'd rant about it on line. I have been to McDonalds three times in the last quarter of a century. In 1991 in Budapest as I could get a cup of tea with milk in it. Around the same time in Windsor to have one of their ill fated vegi burgers. And in 2000 I had some curly fries in Mexico City. Now I remember I did have something meaty after a Siouxie and the Banshees concert at the Birmingham Odeon in 1984. I am not after debate about how unecessarily maligned McDs are (it's just capitalism, we get what we want). I am just interested if anyone in SE London has been there less than me.

Two things to note. Firstly sex can be nice, well sometimes. We weren't told that at school. I found out through my sister's teenage magazine. Ditto for drugs. Love the line in Trainspotting (Renton): People think it's all about misery and desperation and death and all that shite, which is not to be ignored. But what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise we wouldn't do it. After all, we're not fucking stupid. At least, we're not that fucking stupid. Take the best orgasm you ever had, multiply it by a thousand and you're still nowhere near it. Trainspotting also shows the other side of course.

I want to build one on another allotment site if you fancy helping Annette!

Wood fired oven at Honor Oak allotments and 'Grow Mayow' in Mayow Park. www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2011/may/04/building-cob-pizza-oven-pictures#/?picture=373810302&index=8

Fair point and apols, I make enough mistakes. Only supposed to be a light hearted comment. Humble apologies and humble pie.

Really don't understand how any of you out there can like rock stars that have been around for 25 years (Stone Roses) or worse still 50 years (Stones). Music is stale and has long since been cutting edge. Kunt and the Gang (for the name) and 12 Bar Club (as it is an excellent venue) sounds far more interesting. I've been to a few reunions and always think WTF did I spend the money, even when I have cut price tickets through ebay. Of course there are exceptions - Morrisey (although please don't do the Smiths numbers) and I saw the Chameleons when they reformed in 2000, but was rather pissed which helped. And Young Marble Giants at Dingwalls in a couple of weeks time. Still sound fresh 30 years on. Other groups to hate - Manic Street Preachers, one good album, U2 (quite good in 1980) and even Pulp - why ruin the memories of the summer of Britpop - 95? Hopefully the Stones will do a repeat of the famous Sam Fox and Mick Fleetwood in 1989. Actually no, I hope not as that was actually entertaining.

Can please someone tell me why any footballer would want to go to QPR - apart from the obvious (loads of money, to sit on the bench and get relegated). Don't understand.

Odd as I thought that our chimneys were designed to creat a good updraft. So problem is(a) not enough air, have you blocked up air bricks or sealed windows? (b) cold spot, light some paper or a lot of kindling to warm up your chimney But to be honest this sounds dodgy and you could die from carbon monoxide poisoning (get and alarm) so get it sorted by an engineer with HETAS accreditation (says the person who has done numerous open fires with not a problem....)

Is there a Brixton in the USA? Thought the Bridge had courts but didn't see anything on their website Virgo Fidelis Convent is the posh school in Central Hill This thread is quite useful: hwww.sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=24108