baroldmc

We?re a long-established friendlies-only soccer team looking out for a few teams to add to our list of oppositions, for the occasional match. We usually play in the Dulwich area. Our squad consists of all age-groups. We?ll play on grass or artificial. Matches usually at weekends but midweek too if a bootable pitch can be found. BarryMc

You'll notice that Prince William has put forward his view on the FIFA roadshow. Do you not find it incredible that a senior member of the House of Windsor, likely to become the unelected head of the British state, should think he can criticize Pope Blatter, 5 times elected ? What does the Prince have to say, may we enquire, about inherited super-wealth and power? Expect silence.

Well it,s Groundhog Day. You just can,t keep Question Time out of the news these days. If you watched last night, you will have winessed ex-party leader Charles Kennedy perform under the influence of the amber dew. It would have been a kindness if Dimbleby's team had gently sent Mr Kennedy home rather than risk the program and the dignity of one of its guests. You have to wonder whether Mr Dimbleby and QT's producers actually communicate. 3 weeks ago a Finchley rent-a-crowd were invited in and proceeded to barrack opinions they didn't like. Now, a guest, clearly not in a state to contribute to public debate is allowed to go on and make a fool of himself. It wouldn't have been so painful if the other guests were, at very least, entertaining, but alas, the Green, the Labour and the Tory reps were 3 unstoppable parrots, enough to drive the rest of us to the bottle. On balance, Mr Kennedy had more to say than any of the three, even though he said nothing. It was left to Ian Hislop to provide the program with a little coherence. It was surely the worst edition ever. Maybe it's time to call time on Question Time

Dear Otto, It IS about QT and about its contents. The debate, as started, is about what happened on a particular edition.The programme itself is a window into regional and national opinion. With opinion comes bias. The entire Palestinian question is stacked high with bias and prejudice. The programme , inadvertently, exposed this. George Galloway was called upon to justify previous remarks. The tone implied he was prejudiced but the sting was in the tail and showed that the prejudice lay with his detractors, including Jonathan Friedland, a liberal Guardian columnist. If that isn't a good enough subject for debate, then what is ?

I was in the audience of QT a very long time ago. A group of us were trawled by the BBC grapevine. because we were involved in an issue locally that happened to be nationally topical at the time. There was no rent-a-crowd going on. Of course outspoken public figures must explain their comments when called upon, especially when the comments might be counter-intuitive, such as in this case. But I felt that it was not George Galloway that most needed to give an account of himself, but Jonathan Friedland. Until that point in the programme, he had presented himself as liberal and progressive, a defender of people put upon by others. When the subject was Palestine, he refers to the horrifying events of 2014 as "a fresh outbreak of violence ", when in fact, 2000 innocent people were killed in almost full view of the whole world. let's call upon him to explain why he is NOT making any comments, and let him explain to us why the Palestinians are denied the right to their own independent , sovereign state.

Was anyone else appalled by the behaviour of quite a large number of Finchley people in last Thursday's audience, as they barracked and tried to turn Dimbleby's weekly party into a shouting shop ? Whatever it was they were demonstrating about, it certainly wasn't freedom of speech. Choose your guests more carefully from now on, Mr Dimbleby. And don't be letting them put members of your panel on trial in full view of the cameras.

If the new Greek government could show that their country can instate fair, equitable tax collection and that it can stamp out the easy corruption that pervades, then perhaps their creditors would give them a second chance. Otherwise, I see little hope. Of avoiding a damaging impasse for the EU

Things like the old-fashioned "barley twist" usually brown. Also the ones with 3 rounded turrets, usually black. Barry 07919 818754

Surprise me and tell me the good folk of Dulwich and east Dulwich and several other adjoining boroughs have failed to notice the changes going on in the skies above their heads. (and I don't mean meteors and asteroids !!) I mean Heathrow who , with the help of the CAA , have been busy turning our peaceful neighbourhoods into airport suburbs. They have altered the height, width and length of the approach paths to Heathrow in the last few months, condemning some residents to hundreds of flights over their rooftops every day where opnce there were none. No consultation whatsoever, no rights for the resident whatsoever I have posted a suggestion this evening on " 38 DEGREES" for a campaign. Please vote for it and encourage others if you agree with the substance of this Barry McNamara

Anyone who is a supporter of social housing would not wish to see a sort of gentrification of areas and properties at the expense of the social tenants. This is likely if the more expensive properties become what housing associations (HAs) call disposals. In fact, HAs are committed to policies of social inclusion and the fostering of mixed communities. A compromise, of course, is to steer social tenants towards shared ownership schemes, even in the case of the more expensive properties If there is a need for much more social housing, it is partly caused by clogging; many tenants stay put for ever due to the lack of initiatives on offer to encourage them to move on into the private sector

Still doesn't explain why it's GREAT Britain, does it?

Quite right senor el Pibe. And whatever next, Bolivia I would guess ! BaroldMc

I was saddened to see that, in solidarity with their Argentinian n'bour, Paraguay has closed its ports to UK shipping! How petty!

?An excellent quality glazed bureau bookcase, probably rosewood or mahogany (no veneer) with a lock and key. ( Photos available via e*mail ) ?120 The 3 sections are: BOOKCASE with 2 shelves 27"" wide This sits upon....... ......WRITING DESK / BUREAU with a "fall" supported with 2 pull-out slides. Leather writing surface. 7 pigeon holes & 2 mini-drawers. 3 DRAWERS, dovetailed; decorative handles. Other points: overall dimensions are 17" depth, 30" x 80" bookcase detaches easily for transportation purposes leather writing surface needs replacement very narrow crack in the wood at side of drawers Contact Barry in Clapham on: 7733 8297 calls and messages 07919 818754 calls and texts only

Replying to blogger Mockney Piers, Feb 9th, you mention the British army's reluctance to go to Iraq . Could there be a connection between that and their eventual defeat? Whichever way you look at it, what purpose did they serve? Why, if they achieved anything on behalf of the British people, did opposition to the war increase as it went on? And if the army didn't want to get involved, then you have to ask - forget the questions I put in my original blog of Feb 2nd - what exactly DO they want to do for us? Clear the snow off the planes at Heathrow perhaps (if only) and leave it at that. Even if you think the Armed Forces have done us great service since 1945, you have to ask what we need them for in the future. Search out Simon Jenkins on this topic, in The Guardian about 2 months ago. What about the issue of the UK as a member of the EU? Take a look around, you'll see that some nations, especially new members, are going at the project with fantastic energy. Britain, by contrast, drags its feet, feels permanently menaced by what it sees as EU bureacracy, always wants to do things separately, thinks it can ignore Acts and treaties it has signed up to and, in my view anyway, falls behind. Why? The Establishment is obsessed with the "special relationship" with the US, which is essentially a military one and one which allows us and our Armed Forces to pretend we have independent nuclear and conventional deterrent capabilities. Blair was a total hostage to this national self-delusion. Just when the people wanted him to be embedded in European policy, off he went to do the bidding of Bush & Co.. Again, I argue as before, this happens not because the Armed Forces do or don't want to get involved, but more simply, because they're there. The relationship within the UK Establishment is self-perpetuating and we need to break the habit and move on........probably to Europe

There are all sorts of things that happen, really important things, negative things, happening to us all the time due to the continuing dominance and distortion of power by our Armed Forces within the UK Establishment. Just one of those things was the Iraqi adventure. Many of us who became totally disillusioned with Blair over his decline from his 1997 Camelot moment to warmonger and quisling for the US, declare that his 'psychology' is faulty. Piffle! The British political class like to behave as the direct descendants of the victors who sat at Yalta in 1945. After Suez in '56. we should have allowed our colonial egos to deflate. Instead, we maintained our Armed Forces at such a scale that they have now become the ultimate tail that wags the dog. Blair was a major casualty of this. Their huge presence perpetuates the falsehood that the UK can go being successfully belligerent, brandishing nuclear toys and joining up with "Policeman" Bush and now Obama to lay waste foreign lands. It's sad; and not only because we've got the habit of losing BarryMc

Do we still actually need the Armed Forces any more in the UK? When did they last do anything for us that wouldn't have happened anyway? Given that they gobble up tens of billions of quid every year, are they up to the job? Are "the cuts" significantly about Muggins (that's us) paying for the military adventures they get up to abroad? Are all those young men and women sacrificing their lives and limbs to protect us or to protect the upper echelon of the military in their cushy grace-and-favour lifestyles? BaroldMc