????

...my sudden, unexplicable but intense flirtation with Depeche Mode. For years there's not even been a flicker.

France 2.62 (or 5 for Grand Slam) btw Mick/Declan

Oddschecker Decent site for checking prices movement etc on most sports (and other) markets

How long did that go on for?

Yeah...thanks for Beetroot day Rosie

Too early for a repeat?

Sorry, next week is actually cabbage. I've a slot the week after.

I do. PM me with what you want for next week.

First of all it?s a massive and great topic LadyM and I have several random thoughts 1) What a poor piece of journalism. He rambles on about several strands without really getting across his point? at all?. other than ?don?t vote Tory? (it is the Guardian after all). I also laughed at the rather typical assumption of the metropolitan elite that the ?middle class? are the rather small band of metropolitans who he meets on the school run in Hampstead or whatever and it?s thus ?the middle classes who have tied up the establishment? yes, quite?.not the huge amount of relatively averagely paid, white collar workers, largely outside of London who actually are the real ?middle class? . Seriously, no wonder people outside of London do despair a bit about our media. I think a comment on the blog summed it up nicely (and to be fair most slagged the article off) - ?So what you are saying is that Labour should say yes, we are a shameful bunch of liars who pretend to be concerned with social inequalities while expanding the gap between wealth and poor, but you should still vote for us because the other lot will be even worse? Anyway 2) What actually is so good about equality anyway? I quote George Bernard Shaw ? ?The problem with socialism is that we can?t all live on Richmond Hill? Equality of opportunity YES PLEASE but equality itself? Why? and How? It?s another catch all phrase that politicians on the ?progressive? side love so much. An ?equal? society..well what actually is that? We all get the same housing, education, wages, inheritance??got me perplexed. 3) Measures of poverty The official methods of measuring poverty are based on differences against the mean rather than absolute - so in reality the bottom decile (poorest 10% of households) are actually better off that in 1997 in real terms but the top decile are even more better off i.e. their standard of living has improved more (and by miles) ? this may be wrong and I tend to think that it is BUT there has been improvement in the bottom deciles standard of living rather than them slipping into real poverty. However as child poverty is measured as a comparison to the mean then child poverty is higher. So it?s a bit meaningless in some ways ? if Warren Buffet and Bill Gates move to London tomorrow child poverty rises in fact we?d all poorer by how ?poverty? measured. Makes a good headline though. The gap between rich and poor has grown massively under Labour, real poverty has not?..are the two correlated? I dunno, but I know that much dogma from the left says there?s no ?trickle down?, I?m less convinced. Not sure that huge inequalities are a good thing for society but that?s a different issue. 4) We?re on Education ? as he points out this is the key to social fluidity. Good. Agree. The Left and Labour politicians lecture us and try and impose on us socialist values on education that they just simply DO not apply to themselves. It?s a disgrace in my opinion huge horrible middle class we know what?s best for you plebs crap. I?ve quoted these before but Tony Blair?s kids going to a school 12 miles YES Twelve miles from the fantastic Islington comprehensives his party created for us. Don?t even ask Harriet Harman where her kids went to school as she believes in keeping her personal life private?mmmmm that?s handy Harriet?..I presume it wasn?t Peckham Academy? David Milliband?.bought up among the upper middle class elites of Hampstead,,,gets to Oxford with terrible A level grades on a scheme aimed at under-privileged inner-city youths. And lectures us on equality and opportunity. I could go on (and on) but it?s boring as well as disgusting. I just feel that actually a reasonable rump of the modern labour party are pretty privileged middleclass and some upper class (?Hi Harriet *waves at baronets daughter*) who are just itching to impose their drive for lowest common denominator equality on the plebby working class ? whilst using their own privileged positions to snake out of the mess their social engineering has created. They know what?s good for my kids ?.but hey funnily enough it?s not good enough for theirs. (Also see ? Post-war council housing/Town planning; comprehensive education, etc etc). God Cameron may be a wealthy, Etonian toff, but I think he?s more honest than the privileged hypocrites of the Labour party. 5) Finally, and most cynically, there?s a bit of me that thinks that actually this is really about how increase in wealth of the past 10 years has effected the metropolitan middle class who don?t work in the city. Massive increases in personal wealth has pushed the poor darlings out of their taken for granted neighbourhoods and lifestyles?you know, a bit of journalism, vaguely left wing politics, the money from gramps and some work in the bookshop you could still have a nice little bolt hole off Sloane Square. These previously privileged metropolitans can?t have a place in Kensington anymore (or a bolthole in Cornwall) had to move to Battersea or even East Dulwich (yug) and a cynical bit of me thinks that is what has underpinned the moaning about the super rich (many of whom are absolute oiks) rather than any REAL concern for the poor! Yes I?ve been on the sauce

Well...Emperor's new clothes Wegner's Arsenal...thoroughly outplayed and outfought. They have to beat Chelsea now or that's it.

I dunno..call me old fashioned, but I think the captain of England should have standards of behaviour that appear beyond John Terry, I think eyebrows were raised when he was chosen...even in Barking. I do believe him and his family are a bunch of unpleasant wrong'uns if I'm honest.

Stop that now Rosie

They just said it was minus 7 in Bournemouth last night on the BBC

his mother is a stealer. his daddy is a dealer, his brother is a feeler, the Terry family

Are you going to update us on the strippers?

Use brawn

Their sites absoulte crap like their marketing techniques - spam really works well

Several threads on most areas of the forum promoting their website...would be terrible if a whole load of us went over there and started buggering about on it...NO we musn't do that.

STOP SHOUTING WITH YOUR SPAM

Yeah...and going to City used to be a piece of cake. Millwall were scabs at the General Strike doncha know.....

PR/TJ I notice no comments against the americans put down on dull gentility etc.... You inverted snobs you

Thatcher - who I never voted for - was never Regan's poodle Ratty...you resolutely stick with Labour I know but they've been a disgrace and as I've said before I've never voted anyone else in a Generl Election. Not this year.

I agree entirely he has caused terrible damage throgh poor science, distorted evidence and having an alternative agenda and a terryfying almost 'god given' belief in the righteousness of his cause.....not dissimilar to Tony Blair I was thinking Huguenot

Marrs

Huguenot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think Blair's making fair comment. > > If you believe he had an alternative agenda, what > was it? And is it realistic? *looks at worm on hook, swims away*