El Pibe

God what a bunch of grumps you are. THe smell of barbecue is a happy smell, it means the weather is nice at last!!!

"There is no equivalent of Croatia to arm and train to end the conflict" Actually the Kurds could fulfil that role (Assad has been very careful to keep them out of the conflict thus far, and they in turn seem to be sitting on the fence), especially given their more or less autonomous status over the border in Iraq, but the pay off would almost certainly be the setting up of a defacto Kurdistan with an eye to making it official, something Turkey would never allow.

Marc Lynch did a couple of artikces in the run up to and aftermath of the elections that are worth a quick peruse. As for Syria, that's a bit unfair Huguenot. I wouldn't say its driven by that. It's driven by a murderous intransigent regime and a deepening sectarian conflict that has already spilled its borders. THe international community are not making things better. It feels more and more like Bosnia everyday in fact, especially given that the recent massacre was according to one survivor committed by a militia consisting of Alawites from nearby villages. Britain's publical insistence in refusing to [allow anybody to] consider any form of intervention in Bosnia certainly gave the Serbs a green light to continue their murderous policies and kept the conflict going longer than it needed to. I guess this time it's, as you say, a lack of any decent options. There is no equivalent of Croatia to arm and train to end the conflict which ironically is the role Syria played in finally ending the conflict in Lebanon, swings and roundabouts eh. What would you suggest? I hoped that dialogue might work and an Egyptian rocky road to Democracy could happen, but there is no turning back without a coup sooner rather than later. Sadly I can just see a replaying of the Iraq civil war 2005-8, or worse still given the multi ethnic, religious and sectarian nature of Syria, a replay of the Lebanon conflict.

I have to say I'm having a little trouble pinning down what you're arguing Chippy. I think I stand with you but hard to tell on the shifting sands. You say that the ukuncut protest must be legitimate because there were no arrests, which whilst possibly true in this case is not a great measure of things given that police someties allow laws to be broken for public order interests, using evidence gathered to arrest further down the line. I mean remeber the riots, they often sat back and watched wholesale theft and vandalism in a bid not to escalate the violence. From what I've read there are actually few arrests at EDL events, these mostly for public disorder offences. The EDL have been very careful about their positioning in terms of incitement to racial hatred and largely stayed on the right side of the law, meaning your opposition comes from your instincts and feelings that this is posturing and deep down inside they are racists who would like to incite violence. Whilst I largely agree that this is probably true of many of its supporters it is extremely shaky ground when banning an organisation in a democracy. Conversely you suspect that ukuncut's heart is in the right place so don't feel inclined to do anything about them, when actuyally there might well be a case to be made under harassment laws. It's an interesting question you pose about context, but I guess the strict answer is that there is no issue with either of your examples. The more realistic answer is that there's no way your hypothetical group, let's call them Better Rights For Pederasts, would be granted licence for such a protest, almost certainly with their own safety in mind as a lynch mob would turn up. While no fan of Islam4UK (see also Al-Muhajiroun and its various incarnations), I think they're a bunch of idiots, I think that protesting military action in Afghanistan in the light of the apathy and stifled debate around the deployment is a very healthy thing to do, and doing it in Tunbridge Wells on a wet wednesday probably won't get the cause much publicity, so why not doing it in an emotive context?

"mature sensible people with important abilities and vital skills [in] politics" Sadly that ship has sailed. No we get political science students, researchers, fleet street's less principled hacks, McKinsey consultants and PR experts.

quite enjoyed this analysis of BFS & west ham's season (I guess this should be in the *other* thread, so I'm jumping the gun a tad) http://jlmd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/road-to-pomotion.html

Terrible news from Syria. Aside from the truly evil details of the massacre itself, it underlines that the cautious optimism was misplaced. THis is drawing a line in the sand, getting the shabiha AND the army complicit in these massacres is ensuring that those shoring up the regime are intrinsically implicated in the crimes of the state, making this from here on in an existential fight for them. THe Russsian statement saying the rebels are partly responsible is one part 'duh', 9 parts an abusive husband blaming his wife for her beatings. THe one silver lining is that international opinion is hardening and consolidating and the Russians have gone public in stating that it's not Assad himself they're backing, perhaps giving a nod and wink to any potential coup plotters. Or perhaps I'm just unable to let go my hope that this wont descend into a vicious and protracted civil war.

If you want a smart phone they all tie you in for two years now! Unless you buy it yourself I guess, then you'll get very good rates, it'd cheaper in the end. In fact I really should take my own advice sometimes.....

I guess if you deeply care it could be alarming. In my experience the majority of England fan's level of concern has withered from deep to marginal over the last 18 years or so. Baffling is better, par for the course though so perhaps 'meh' would more accurately sum up reactions to the game.

Given the dearth of English talent in the top teams it's harldy surprising to be dipping into the mediocre ones for a squad of 22. Funny that it's liverpool causing such chagrin despite your pleas that you don't have an unhealthy obsession with them, you could have commented on the goalie having spent the whole season in the championship for instance!!

I think it's quite difficult to get a message across if you don't annoy anyone. On the wider, philosophical point, I guess the limits of protests are defined by and appropraite to that which you are protesting against. I would say for instance that the Syrian use of violence agasint those who refused to listen and responded with repression is entirely appropriate, whereas blowing up Nick Clegg is probably overkill (though I'm sure Allfornun would approve!!). Given government intransigence on austerity, but a backdrop of social cohesion and rule of law, I don't think a street party is particularly excessive. *edited for unforgivable splleging errors*

Isn't 'lappy' a banned term, like 'mobe'?

Probably just reflects the ability of the English public for optimistic self-delusion.

Stepehn Fry? "A stupid person's idea of what a clever person should be" One of my favourite forum quotes* of all time, if only I could remember who said that..... *I perhaps paraphrase

They tried that in the final of the world cup. If they'd played football they'd have won it.

I think you'd have to pulp them, add some chemicals and then evaporate the remains. If we start getting hyperinflation it may well end up being an unorthodox approach to monetary policy.

Yep agreed (ooh we can be in this thread huh?), faubert hit and miss (baddam-tish) but will be sad to see him go. There are Cole rumours? Cool, prodigal etc, always said he'd be back. "keep playing until someone scores or they drop" after 120 minutes do we start randomly dropping differnet weapons on to the pitch, starting with pugil sticks and escalting to RPG-7s?

So far torn between the two proposals. The latter is complicated by some sort of score rating on the lady in question, not to mention the potential for financially corrupt *ahem* incentives.

Hiustory says Spain can't possibly do 3-in-a-row, though obviously heart says otherwise. On paper still the best side by a country mile, but negative nancy chelsea shows how dour determination coupled with shit football can win a tournament. So ENgland to win it then.... ...only joking. I reckon Germany too as trite and cliched as that prediction is.

I'm sure it's been discussed before, but seeing as everybody's favourite fotball bigwig Sepp has brought up the subject... Penalties, what else? Personally I love them precisely because the arbitrary and cruel nature makes for such great drama. I don't like that one-on one dribble thing, rubbish. Kick boxing?

With a computer as an intermediate stage it should be no problem, but no you can't just plug the two together and hope for the best.

Kool aid supplies 'dangerously low

Quids is being a bit harsh. It's been a bit of a weird one this year, Winter finished this monday, spring is normally pretty fabulous followed by a slightly grey but warm summer with the odd heat wave whereupon EVERYONE goes to London's amazing parks in a bid to see who can get the most disturbing sunburn and get botchelism from raw/burnt sausages on barbecues. Seriously though London's climate is pretty good, it's in the high eighties (for you non-metric types) with beautiful blue skies and salmon skin today.

Don't joke, I spent an afternoon tallying wheel numbers of buggies with retired poster Sean McGabhann once on a very sunny weekday afternoon outside the EDT. After an initial; flurry of three wheelers it turned out that your common-or-garden 4 wheel buggies outnumbered the loathed three-wheelers by about four to one. Once again, I'll get my coat....

By the way i wasn't suggesting that Victoria used to poison her subjects by sitting on the royal watercloset dispensing hams with her fecal covered fingers or anything. Oh, and thanks, I'm sure he'll be on show in pub near ye soon :)