El Pibe

Never got the Taytos thing I must say. Or Barrys, just more shit tea, see also Yorkshire/PG Tips etc. White pudding, now that's another thing altogether

boyus are doing better than girls, as opposed to the last 9 years where girls are doing better than boys, in 2 years I reckon girls will be doing better than boys, worth a front page in the face of massively repressive violence.

in case you're wondering it tops the news on the beeb, the indy and the guardian, el pais (spanish left wing), el mundo (spanish right wing), le monde, I mst say the Djiboutian national press is conspicuous by its unwillingness to even mention it, you can find it in the Tehran times but it's a minor struggle. Well done Murdoch and co, the sun website is something about a biscuit apparently....

Sharpeville Massacre (69) - turned world opinion, isolated regime Bloody Sunday (26) - transformed conflict in NI Black Friday (88) - forced Shah to leave Iran Tianneman Square (300 - 2000) - rattled leadership, ushered in new age of mercantilistic freedom 7 -7 (52) - pointlessly killed innocent people from pretty much everywhere Egypt (200 - 2000) - reaction by the right wing press == depressing

Buza in Dubrovnik is pretty special, nestled amongst the bastion rocks under the medieval walls of that stunning city.

We just took a van from Dulwich to Wexford. ?700 + vat for half a van load (about 9 of 18 sqm) If you don't use the whole van we might be interested in taking some more over. It was a chap called Darren, 07595 155332.

I'm loving it, but it is very very tiring isnt it. I am hoping that Ireland will be a change of pace, allowing more of nettie's behaviour. My big fear is that I'll end up commuting 4 hours a day :(

I think you may need a day off ots. Personally I'm hoping it all gets a lot easier once they're 4 & 6 respectively, just 2 and a half years to go.......

Can we get a scots v angles night in one of the pubs? what chance snorky?

seeing lots of bekilted chaps checking out the sights of the Sq Mile at lunchtime. All of them rather grizzled old fellas who'd have enjoyed the old Home Internationals (no offence Jah). Am wondering if the lack of youngsters is because that generation are losing interest or because they're all in terrible west end pubs getting smashed?

slightly off topic, but I caught The Fighter the other day. Though it occassionally slipped into the odd post Rocky/Raging Bull cliches, it was largely understated, sympathetic warts'n'all portrayals of Micky Ward and Dicky Eklund. Worth a watch for boxing fans.

I think somewhere my point was instead of faffing at the edges, get direct government infrastructure investment so that it's all workable without incessant price hikes, for at least 20 years anyway. Sadly we're stuck with those awful PFI deals whereby the taxpayer basically pays the capital investment whilst the shareholders reap the rewards; extricating ourselves would be even more costly...thanks Gordon!!

I did odd things twice, but I doubt they can be called cheating, more daft experiments. I used a 0-2 random number generator once, the results were poor. And once because I had no time to think, I inverted maxxi's on the theory that he was so bad the opposite must be better, I think that was my worst week ever.

The point being that said Spaniards are both employable and showing willing. Wasabi is a british company, I've almost never seen a Brit working in there...how comes? Doesn't take so very much on your cv to do the job so why the high youth unemployment, the Spaniards (and indians, japanese, koreans, italians, poles etc etc) aren't taking those jobs, they are filling the deserately needed vacancies. Like I say, cultural!!

wot SJ said. Things have got so desperate in Spain that they're finally getting off their arses and leaving the country, something utterly unkonwn prior to this (unless you were fleeing Franco). My local Wasabi is practically a Spanish enclave (their manageress showing typical spanish parochialism by hiring every spaniard who wanders her way), and having spoken to them these are well educated, often experienced professionals serving up suhi as they try to find work. Would that Brits were as willing to get on their proverbial bikes. Plus, isn't this what the freedom of movement of labour was all about that people scoffed saying language would be a barrier to this? Perhaps language is another failing of our education system......

I work in a sector that has really rather handsome rewards even for quite lowly support roles and as I cast my eyes round the office I can see at a glance 7 brits, a froggy, 3 saffas, 4 aussies, a kiwi, an Iranian, 2 Indians and a half breed spanish/caribbean type thingy. I totally agree it about being the best candidate for the role, but if it's a general political goal (that certainly seems to chime a chord with the voters) to get the British economy working for the british then this must be deemed a faliure of education at the least, and perhaps even a more general failure of PR to persuade British youth that it's well within their grasp*. Of course it might be that all the best candidates from Britain are working in New York, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Dubai etc etc etc..... *the best programmer I ever worked with used to fix helicopters in the army, never went to university and now heads up a decent sized international IT department for a very big american company.

I can't see why people seem to view people who are willing to move way out of their comfort zone, live in uncomfortable conditions and work hard just for the diginity of working for a living as somehow a bad thing. It's partly an issue of people failed by the education system but just as much an endemic cultural issue of failing to attempt to work, whether whole estates in a multi-generational cycle of opting out of the society, but bloody media studies graduates deeming anything but their chosen career beneath them, whilst not doing a damn thing about stepping on the ladder to their goal rather than waiting for the economy to deliver it on to their laps. Hmm, I'm ranting again ........ I blame the monkey tree.

It is interesting that infrastructure projects such as cross rail and S2, that cost quite alot and will be paid for in the form of borrowing (and doubtless passed on to the direct consumer once some weird half baked privatisation thingy goes through) for a long time, are lauded by government as key to growth, but fixing the desperately inefficient, overcrowded and expensive commuter infrastructure to London (key generator of wealth for UK plc) doesn't merit a mention as privatised companies risk our lives by cutting maintenance costs, impose higher than inflation price increases and funnel the profits to shareholders, instead of just fixing the fucking problem. somewhere in there is a point, I think, better expressed as 'wot daveR said'

wow, ?35m loss in just those two deals. Good work, if Liverpool can just get Bale for ?100m and sell him to us for a fiver then we'll be done I reckon!!

sorry i never managed the onine app, I literally never had even five minutes to sit down and do it (i reckon it would have taken a day or two). Joining up as we speak anyhow.... ....done weirdly you add a username and a nick name and it still uses your first & last names to identify yopu in the mini league. have now changed them to el and pibe respectively!!!

I think 'destroys argument' is rather hyperbolic, but some good points well said. My main issue is that it so fundamentally detracts from any efforts to do anything about carbon reduction. It's spectacularly expensive in carbon to produce, leave alone the fact that we suddenly have hundreds of years more reserves of carbon fuel, the impending peak of which was doing much to focus attention on alternatives. This without the more conventional environmental damage it wreaks http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/11/texas-tragedy-ample-oil-no-water

didn't t-mobile always piggy back off orange? EE is deutsche telekom and france telecom buying t-mobile and orange (and what with O2 being spanish, soon womanofdulwiuch is going to struggle to sign up to anyone!!), they've certainly the resources ot invest in the infrastruture as we head to 4g. I've recently swtiched from O2 to vodafone and am pretty unimpressed with data on both. I don't know if this is less to do with specific providers and more that 3g is creaking under the amount of data usage following the smart phone revolution. Just make sure your new mobile is 4g compatible I reckon.

Judge has issues with the name Messiah, but no problem with him living in Cocke county?!? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-23665106

fwiw my alter ego somehow managed to fix the old thread; quite spectacular destruction by D_C, he even managed to demolish the moderator controls. Luckily his post was a reply to gingerbeer's allowing me to hide it by hiding hers, then reinstating hers. Anyway, we have a shiny new thread so academic really.

Aagh, I keep doing that!