Michael Palaeologus

I fear that many (not all) of our politicians let us down, sacrificing what is best for their voters and their own morality for the needs of Party or, Cabinet unanimity. This is true across the political spectrum. Having lived in a number of constituencies, I prefer to be represented by a back-bencher with independent attitude, rather than a nescessarily neutered front bencher. It would seem that rank does not bring privelege, at least for those that vote.

Those of us who are not fans of Ms Jowell do seem to be attracting the ire of elements of the EDF Old Guard. Calm down, we are all allowed a voice. I for one hope that now that Ms Jowell is not on the front bench she will be able to prioritise this constituency and not Labour cabinet/shadow cabinet policy or the needs of the Olympic Boroughs.

Coffee House, Beak Street The French House, Dean Street Red Lion, Kingly Street

Be nice to seniors Alan. SWADESH Mick.

Ooooooh!! Just four days to go. Yummy.

I am not assuming a conspiracy, I am saying that it does not look unlikely. In any given cock-up vs conspiracy debate, normally I will be the one seeing a cock-up and pouring scorn on the conspiracy minded. In this case, I am not so sure. It needs more detailed investigation. For the state, its aparatus, politicians and the press to be so wrong, for so long, without there being some cooperation, to my mind, is unlikely. A conspiracy at a national level, perhaps not. At the South Yorkshire regional level, that could happen. That the state then did not want to dig too deeply, not challenge the official version of things, that could happen too. Simple momentum is in itself a clumsy, formless and directionless force. For it to have so universally blanketed the truth for so long, strains credulity.

I was of the opinion that the Hillsborough campaigners should draw a line and move on. The review and report has made me ashamed of that opinion. There is evidence of a police cover up, there is evidence of a cover up by the ambulance service, there is evidence of subsequent manipulation of evidence by local politicians and evidence of at best, profound naivety by national politicians and the national press, possibly even a cover up. Kelvin McKenzie should be horse-whipped, "I believed the voices of authority" - tosser. He was the editor of a national newspaper, he was paid NOT to believe the voices of authority. Whether these cover-ups were coordinated, we dont know; but to assume that they were not, at least at some level, is itself naive, given the vast amount of systematic manipulation and lies perpetrated by various elements of authority. Many of those responsible are alive and well and should face criminal charges. Only then can we draw a line and move on.

Top Cat!! The cartoon - Choo Choo and Office Dibble!!

Your cats - are we talking Top Cat and Choo Choo?

Post Olympic depression. Having spent the best part of 6 weeks in a state of euphoria, they are all knackered.

We need more cats. There's a shortage.

English is spoken by the uSA by what is the biggest (still) economy in the world and is also culturally dominant through TV and film. It is also the language of computing, aviation and international commerce. English is a common language spoken across India, a rapidly growing economic presence. It is a real dogs breakfast of a language. It shamelessly and joyously takes and adopts new ways of communicating, new words, new syntax. It is a little bit german, a little bit french, a little scandinavian, a little bit indian, a little bit latin, ad nauseum. Indian english is different from American english which is different from Scottish english and so on and on. People can use english in their own way and do dont feel that the adoption of english makes them a victim of linguistic imperialism. The strength of english is that it is not English.

Where you at Ginger B?

I went to Lanzarote in early January. Quite odd sun bathing by a pool at that time of year. Got chilly in the evenings, but thats what bars and restaurants are for.

Victoria Principal...... Oh yes.

I remember Moos. Lost to us. Doing good works among the natives in foreign parts as I understand.

Two weeks to go curry lovers. Suggest that we meet in Franklins Bar at 7.15ish and go on to Swadesh at 8ish.

or, it shows that she put her career as a cabinet minister before the wishes of her Constituents.

Why Tenerife? If you are looking for warm you could try Lanzarote (less spoiled by tourism) or Turkey - some nice villas in Turkey.

Use the computer that you are posting from. Think of the rain forests that produce paper... ... and the Octopae that produce ink.

El Pibe Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I don't mind Easyjet, it still provides a better > service than RYanair, and I've had too many > hideous delays with RYanair such that I boycott > them unless there is literally on other carrier > for the route. > > I usually fly Aer Arran to Ireland. They've been > taken over by Aer Lingus so I'll be most upset > RYanair take them over as it's down to that no > other carrier situation. Booooooo Absolutely. I too hate Ryanair, their crap customer service and their arrogant Chief Executive who goes out of his way to insult his customers in order to grab a few headlines. Aer Lingus' main hope is monopoly law. Ryanair would be the only Irish carrier. However, they are successfull because they are not reliant on the Irish economy and are spread across europe. Aer Lingus is more Ireland-centric and has suffered as a result. The economics may win out. Ryanair want Aer Lingus' airport slots, especially those that serve Heathrow. If they win they may simply scrap all long haul services and/or join one of the two big alliances (Star and One World) to provide a long haul service by proxy.

Not sure what this great screed tells us. It isnt how you experience the easyjet website. I find the easyjet website easy to work through and you can swiftly and easily identify the costs of flights. As noted above, there are few back office staff, so few people who can deal with out of the ordinary requests. So, such things take a long time to deal with. The asumptions is that most people will NOT take check-in luggage. Hence you pay for the nose to pay for check in luggage and the insistence on one piece of cabin luggage each. If you book in advance, flights are often cheaper, if you are on the email list and can take advantage of cheaper offers, then you can get some bargains. However, you get what you pay for. Dont judge the cheap carriers against the full-service carriers, they provide a different service. Aer Lingus was haemoraging money using a full service model, Ryanair were taking all of their short haul business and they were not competative on the long haul transatlantic routes. They have moved to more of a cheap-carrier model, cutting back office staff and so costs. Having said that, Ryanair wants to take them over and there has been a running battle between the two. I suspect that Ryanair will win out, it wants the long haul routes to feed its short haul service into. Short haul will be branded Ryanair. Long haul will keep the Aer Lingus as the bargain approach doesnt really work on long haul.

Welcome to the world of cheap carriers. The flights are cheap (as long as you book in advance) but any and all additional services or changes are expensive. Thats their business model. It can be annoying when plans change BUT most of the time they dont, so most of the time you get from A to B at a cheap price. The alternative are the main line carriers. BA fly to Glasgow, having booked, you can make changes and amendments at a smaller or no fee. You will have probably paid more for your ticket though. Easyjet do at least treat you as a human being. Ryanair dont.

I wonder whether the right to free speech is being being confused with the right to stop something I dont like? The former is fine, you made your point. The latter? No. You have no right to try and stop something you dont like as it is legal.

Soooo - who do I go with? I am going to assume that La Beagle is indeed a Bad Mother, in the NYC street slang kind of way you understand. Therefore I am assuming that the Beagle-Brum ensemble will be in attendance. I think.