SeanMacGabhann

Isner looks dead on his feet and yet still plays the shots when needed. All kinds if awe and respect to both of them

It's scaring me now.

Beer - that's another thing. Everytime a budget goes "3p on a price of beer" I think "hang on, cost of a pint since the last budget has gone up several times, and all by more than 3p So in conclusion - budget shmudget

What options are available for neutering? (genuinely interested as I can't see how that's possible) I'm not suggesting a cull for any noise related reasons btw. The noise they make doesn't bother me. But any vermin which gets above a certain level constitutes a problem. I'm not even saying we are at that level where we need a cull yet But there aren't a bazillion mice-related threads on here discussing how people and mice can co-exist. Have you ever seen anywhere overrun with vermin??

skidmarks - fair point. It's just all I heard at the time was a big "meh". I would have liked more stories like your mum's Jeremy - I think you are missing something. read your last sentence again. Person on say 200k a year spends a shed load on luxury goods. They now have a lot of luxury goods and plenty left over for essentials Someone on say 22k a year buys a few things with increased VAT on them - less to play with all of a sudden

Another point about VAT - from a consumer and a retailer perspective - is that I recall the drop to 15% from 17.5% being met with derision from all quarters - "What good is a few pennies off to me" or "Biggest impact to me will be changing all my menu prices" type thing. And now we have VAT going up to 20% it's going to be the ruin of us all? I think not..

Very well put sir But I'd still like to see the agencies be judged themselves. They aren't truly independant are they - don't they have ties to a couple of the major banks?

Nothing to add to the comments made by others on the budget (quids makes some good points) but one thing that really irks me is craveness to the credit-rating agencies. Who f***ing died and made them so powerful. It's not like they actually know what they are talking about all the time is it? I know what the impact of a downgrade would be, but surely democratic countries have a right to say "thaks for your OPINION and everything but..."

Textbook Matthew, textbook

Not sure I follow you vince. I'm naive how exactly? You seem to be saying I "comment on not drilling because we don't understand all the risks" It's not a binary world. Risk needs to be assessed all the time. It's not a case of "there is some risk so we shouldn't do it". It should be a case of risk probability - eg the risk of something going wrong here exceeeds 90% (or whatever) based on the reports available to us. We are going to go ahead anyway but here are mitigation plans a, b and c that isn't naievety - that's good planning and seperates succesful companies from ones that break (Enron, Northern Rock, BP?) Not only did BP not do this (from where I'm standing) but when it did go horribly wrong their attitude was complacent to the point of criminality. They could have been transparent and said here is what we expected to do in this eventuality but because it's x times the size of our forecasts we need to call on anyone who can help to join forces. Instead they did a "nothing to see here, move along" job.

Maybe it?s a surprise Keef, you all go into a meeting room with glum faces and ? ?ta da!!!!?

I quite fancy this but am not around. Have one for me

well there is THAT of course - but factually I can't fault anything I read in the article But I don't get the US v UK angle on this. If something similar happened here in 2010, the British government would be equally agitated. No government can manage every company to the level of "would you allow someone to drill, virtually unchecked for oil, knowing that a mistake could lead to environmental disaster?" The US government are culpable for a whole shedload of things but if they want to get antsy with a company about this then they have every right to. And would they have gotten so antsy if back in the early days of the leak, BP weren't so busy telling everyone it was all under control. We even had people on this thread saying on page 1 "To put the current oil spill into perspective, during the Gulf War in 1991 a much larger quantity of the same light sweet crude spilled into the Persian Gulf where the temperature of the sea is similar to that in the Gulf of Mexico. Most of that oil dispersed naturally causing minimal long-term environmental damage. See Gulf War oil spill. According to CNN this morning, by Wednesday BP hopes to have up to 85% of the gusher confined within a spill capture dome presently under construction." This isn't REALLY the US governments fault. Monbiot and a whole bunch of others would say we are all to blame with our dependence on oil and there is something in that, but in the day to day operations of this thing there is a clear smoking gun. That area could be drilled in due course if warnings were heeded. If you want to risk it, then don't say it's anyone elses fault if it goes tits up. If you don't have a plan B, tell people before you drill

Foxes don't HAVE to do anything because of the countryside - they live in the cities because people throw food away by the tonne. Easy living for them. That's all Not bothered about the noise (gruesome as it is) but yeah they probably are getting too numerous. I wouldn't object to a cull

what absolute poppycock vince - not drilling until you are sure is a method of avoiding. But if you are publishing how proud of risk taking you are, chickens will come home to roost BP are responsible - end of

Irish people around the world giving France the skunk-eye mutters..... shoulda been us Go on SA!

After similar troubles I gave in and registered my oyster online and with auto top up. I subsequently lost my card but because all details were online I lost no cash and any station can check your details. Which might worry those allergic to big-brother but is very very handy

Capello is no genius but talk of the lions share of the problem being with him fill me with despair. This is the last chance for several players of "this" golden generation to perform and once again they don't. You couldn't get more disparate managers than the last several English managers and yet the bloated egos of the players is overlooked for the quick fix of a new manager when viera was angling for a move in the late 90s early 2000s from arsenal, saying they hadn't won enough, hill davies said "well you are the one out on the pitch" which is, in the forum vernacular, exactly right

Cathal coughlan to play the gorgeous bush hall in sept. Pennydreadful is probably with me, anyone else?

Oh legal I didn't mean you or even that there is anything wrong with a 4th generation copy of the drawing room. Just on the back of the posts made by Huguenot on this thread it might seem ill fitting. Comment away... It's just having read the thread my thoughts were less "I hope everyone makes up" and more "he has a point". Diluting that point seems....counter to what he's saying

Depeche mode. Cork. 1982 last gig was depeche mode royal albert hall 2010. But I have only seen them 4 times ever so that's a coincidence but they rock now. Didn't in 1982 mind, but on the other hand very very very few people played cork back then so I felt I should go.

My guess is Huguenot likes the support but probably thinks this thread descending into a 4th generation copy of the drawing room rather proves his point I read (and took part in) the original thread and whilst some people might think I might automatically side with Huguenot, it really is not the case. I just happen to think he is bang on the nail with this one. I found the whole thing genuinely troublesome.

Good points katie. Although I'm not bothered about Facebook privacy. Its the fact that Jen said they were Friends who she enlisted. So she engaged on this forum and outside facebook jurisdiction. Does anyone think these friends are real in the sense that they are the people they claim to be on their profile?

It's not the same thing as the good poisoning thread at all we can safely assume no restaurant deliberately sets out to poison a customer in the orca case we have a number of people sent a deliberate invite with no mention of their bsiness. The ids used are beyond coincidentally similar. And when called on it the person involved could hbe owned up to it. They haven't. So they are still misleading people. Deliberately. If I am wrong then I would be happy to discuss with the people who asked me to be a friend on facebook why they were willing to help jr out. Of course that won't happen will it?

what about those of us who were spammed by the fake ID in question - do we not get a say? If I had a facebook invite from ORCA I'd probably have accepted it - to have it from some unknown woman and to have that unknown woman make no mention of the business reason behind the invite and the to hide behind "mates" IS dishonest If I were a local business I would have regrets about signing up to someone who uses such dishonest practices It is NOT the thread that has the adverse effect on JR or Orca, it is her actions Her attitude when questioned has not helped endear her either.