SeanMacGabhann

Totnes is Devon is lesbian couple central (and not in a "so I've heard" kind of way - just have a mooch around and you'll see) New Age trinket central as well but you can't have everything

With you on that - anything that involves more than bus + walk makes me reconsider the whole thing. I worked near mayfair for 3 years - a bus OR (not and!) train to Victoria and a walk through GreenPark - lahvley

not with your other fella giving me the skunk eye * waves at Alan Dale *

Well, I moved to England 21 years ago "just for 1 or two years - see how it goes" - and I'm still here. If you move out of London, move well out - don't go for one of the home counties within easy commuting distance. Those places are purgatory and I can't help you if you go there But there is so much of this country that is so vastly different to the South East - so many areas with different flavours. Don't rule out ever going there. I spent long spells in Yorkshire and Derbyshire near the Peak District, and 6 years in Devon. I could do it again easily if I wanted to move out of London. Which I don't

I'm off to bed - are you coming?

out of curiosity Rhinestone (and everytime I read one of your posts I'm singing Glenn Campbell for an hour!) which part of town were you headed. Across any of the bridges, it's rarely worth staying on the bus to the final stop - much better (and healthier) to get off and walk the last. Plus - you get reading done on that bus

West Dulwich and Camberwell both have forums www.westdulwichforum.co.uk http://www.se5forum.org/ London Bridge would fall under http://www.london-se1.co.uk/forum/

yep sorry to hear about the breakin VBC - good advice from Tony too

where has all ths faith in the Government come from all of a sudden? (from people who usually decry it as inept) At root, the proposals sound like they will help her. But this isn't some Ayn Rand fantasy world

I think "being occupied" is good. That's not the same as work. I just asked the woman who stocks the vending machines with her chronic back if work is "good" - she gave me a mouthful. I asked here why she didn't just take Incapacity Benefit and she said she qualifies but it is nowhere near enough... Work for work sake is just dull, life sapping and nothing to aspire to

The usual suspects hung out as a strawman. Ok - ignore us Guardian types and wander to the nearest Gypsy Camp (they are EVERYWHERE according to some people) and see how politically correct they are when you use the term

Charity is a weird one for me. The old lefty in me wonders why such obvious targets (pick your own - breast cancer awareness, children in need, etc etc) need to hold out a cap at all - collectively shouldn't we be putting more pressure on our MPs to direct (relatively small amounts) to the necessary institutions But we are where we are and they do need money so hats off to people who do their bit to help out - as Stephen Fry once said "yes it is like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound, but if you are walking past and a band-aid is all you have then it seems terribly callous to not at least try" - I might be paraphrasing there And then again - there is the self-congratulatory aspect to so much charity which I think does more harm than good (that's not a go at you benjaminty or madworld74 who recently did a run or anyone else) - I'm thinking of things such as the annual TV events where people go mental for up to a week and congratulate themselves on raising less money (shy of 20 million) than people spend on the lottery in a single week (40 million + in the Good Old Days). Something seems wrong with those figures. I would love it if Wogan adopted a Benjaminty stance at the end of a gruelling day's worth of television and instead of telling everyone how good they were to raise so much , he castigated them for giving little more than spare change. Which reminds me of this gem:

lard is new I like lard

Kel - is it YOU that rings up premium line phone ins just to choose the "Don't Know" option?

Interesting to see what exactly genocidal maniacs decide to do for a living when they need to go into hiding Please don't let ALL water have memories

Amen sister! As for the G word - it's one of those words that many people use without thought nor malice - but given that it does cause offence to so many (of actual Gyspy origin) it shouldn't matter that no harm was meant - it's surely polite to just drop it? As a Paddy, that particular word as lost much of the menace it had even 20 years ago - but when people used to be blas? about it it did rankle

Good call citizenED Did anyone see Edwyn perform backstage on BBC's Glastonbury coverage. Apart from the hell the man has been through in recent years, what a lovely song!

First thing to say that if the problem of helping ill people back to work was such a problem, measures could easily be taken as part of normal govt. business. The reason this is such a hooplah is to appear tough and macho - and innocent people will suffer because of it. But middle-Britain will feel that "something is being done" - such is mean-spiritedness Incetivising people - well as motorists know all too well, if you incentivise people they will exceed guidelines in a bid to chase targets/ money. Bad enough when it's a (non) parking offence but when you are playing with people's lives it's a different matter "I believe the government proposals are flawed and won?t achieve all their objectives but the basic premise that society (not just government) should help those in real need and weed out those who seek to exploit the system, seems a worthwhile task to me. " I basically agree with this statement - I just don't believe that weeding out those who seek to exploy the system is either the ultimate goal nor happy consequence. You and I won't benefit, scociety won't benefit, a minority of scroungers may be caught but at the expense of others. As has been discussed before, scroungers exist - always have and will. But they are a minority - nor are they living the life of Reilly. And they cost relatively puny amounts. The assumption that all 2.5 million people on IB can or should be encouraged back into employment is also slightly iffy. It means finding 2.5 million jobs for starters. And what quality or suitability of jobs will they be? Your maths also seem to jump to a very neat "scaled-up" sum. Where is the cost of implementing and maintaining this scheme?

marvellous start to the day - cheers Piers

I would argue that any service where demand exceeds capacity needs some form of control - possibly pricing, or possibly encouragement based. however I think that 10-15 years of mainstream internet use and stable economy has led people to think that switches and levers can be pulled and "hey presto" more services are onstream. I really really think traffic (people/public transport/private transport) and accommodation of same is a major problem which has yet to be addressed properly and will get worse

cheers Annasfield - I'm not sure what your occupation is (and having met you, apologies - I feel I should) or who your clients are - but if we take the letter I posted (3 posts in) above as an example, how will it make them feel? Or fare? Your post sounds very much like the "everything will be fine, nothing to worry about here" type I hear from officialdom. The criteria you allude to (eg assessments will be made to ascertain if they really need the full benefit) - what is that assessment based on?

Curmudgeon - I'm not disputing your being "narked" at all - I would feel the same as you. But .. y'know... "be aware"??? Maybe I should have expressed more sympathy - and I wouldn't wish anything bad to happen to anyone - but now that it's happened to you what practical steps can you or anyone take to stop it happening again? Another headline from the papers - "petrol getting nicked from tanks" - yep - know about that one too "if your house is empty - or even if you are in it! - people will try and rob it" - already knew that one It could go on and on...but if this forum turns into a crime noticeboard... by all means enjoy it.

touch? D&C up to a point anyway. Introducing a charge shouldn't mean immediate protest. If everyone in the world traveled everywhere on foot (currently free) I could easily see a pricing mechanism introduced to encourage people to transfer to other modes of transport (or not traveling at all) But are you seriously suggesting that all cars/bikes/bicycles should have free for all parking? Because beyond that, things start to get more complicated than you are painting (ouch) them

quirkiness personified Honaloochibie I never speak as "an arbiter of EDF" - it's just somewhere I spend a lot of time and care about. I'm happy to admit belittling the original post however. For the reason I gave. As an "open forum" I believe that too is within the rules? Why pick on my post as beyond the pale? With you on the quirkiness cringe - momentary lapse of taste. But when you say "who says..." - obviously I said. And I'm basing it on having been here relatively early. That fact conveys on me absolutely ZERO privilege or authority - nor would I want to claim any. I'm just saying. It was fun. Now it's less so. For the reasons given. Should people wish to disagree with me that's fine. As you were with the "my car got keyed" type threads ad infinitum....

ok ok - you got me. But it's on the extreme end of example I would imagine.