KidKruger

UDT I have to confess I was programming in assembler from a very young age, practically from when I was an embryo in fact. This included coding the moves for chess pieces, of course, mainly on IBM PDP-11s. If I needed to drop some code in in straight Hex, not a problem either. By comparison your computing skills seem ordinary. Bless.

Katie1997 said: How could financial institutions provide a suitable product for the customer if it was based on incorrect or deliberately dishonest information provided to them by the customer? Or is this more about them doing sufficient checks before dishng out the products so still they are at fault? (The banks). I think Jeremy means the latter. Determining the 'suitable' products is more realistically the banks developing a portofolio of products that they believe will generate revenue from provision for the key financial events and needs the general public are likely to have. This will be a function of market research, experience and developmental products. Before the crash it was common practice for people to abuse the mortgaging facilities at banks, to obtain debt they could not afford in the pursuit of a propery portfolio they hoped to be able to cover though rent or home inprovements / renovations and resale.

won't have a bad word said against beloved VW wagons. had a Type 2 for 10 years, best vehicle ever IMO, drive it, sleep in it, cook in it, pop the roof up and you can all dance in it. Perfect hotel if you can park it near the venue. Got the 'Idiots Guide' book, by that guy from California, like a 20yr old book, told me (and my mates) how to do all jobs to keep combi alive. you learn to live with the niggles, like getting under the wagon and smacking the solenoid with a mallet when it causes a stall and what are the best thermals for driving around in winter ! Saved-up and did a full bodywork replacement and re-spray in Rover 1962 British racing green with cream top, magic. When tuned well it'd do 85mph out of it down a very steep hill, though it shook like ferk and you shat yerself. ahh, that was good - I feel better now.

Wow that's a bold pledge ! Easy to pledge things that are not yours and never will be, 'as if' they were yours. Everyone suddenly seems to know how wrong (ex-)Sir-Fred was in running the bank, a lot of experts, who weren't posting a jot about him during his successful and golden period as he grew and merged banks, but, having read the papers suddenly have a heap of after-the-fact moral guidance to spew, very evangelic, like. The guy took risks and he got knighted for his success and the good it did the country and banking industry. There's no man here who can honestly say he would have run the RBSG group any differently or 'better' than Fred Goodwin. I'm sure theres plenty EDF posters working in banking or related positions who have seen the strategies adopted by banks (domestic and international) chasing ever decreasing margins in an increasingly difficult, complex and hostile sector, ungoverned by financial and Governmental authorities. Who was Prime Minister at the time that regulations were failed to be derived and applied ? Well sack him too eh ? And if it's been a problem of flawed governance let's strip the previous 30-40 years' ex-Prime-Ministers of their Lord/Ladyships too ?! Knee-jerk pointless gesture in stripping Fred. Solves nowt, worse, allows other seniors who contributed (across the industry and Government) to step back and look on with disdain as if it was all done by one man. Seems a really pathetic gesture, one that's all too easy to jump on and shout "yeah, right that'll teach him". Farm ? New Zealand ?!! Huh ?

I hear Dobson and Norris ARE planning to appeal their convictions. Dissapointing. But positive news for a couple of the above posters perhaps.

For years as a kid any route I took when out and about with my chums had to be 're-traced' when I was on my way home, to kind of 'undo' the pattern I'd created. This meant I often returned home extremely late, and extremely tired, especially if we'd cycled say through the woods, onto the next town etc. My mates got used to me insisting on going home 'the way we came' and often some of them came along to see if I really did cover the entire route back, and I'm talking going the 'correct' way back around a lamp post, through the same park gate, even between the same trees in the woods which meant I ended up with extreme observational skills. Glad I shook that one off.

With these phone systems they recognise you by your mobile no, noally when I use them they refer to my car reg. and ask me to confirm if the pmt is for that car or an alternative car (at which point they'll ask for the teg of your alternative car). If it's windy or busy nearby sometimes you cannot hear the automated phone service, this may be your only possible defence.

Tony Martin did shoot someone in the back, the trick is to shoot them in the front. He couldn't argue he was in danger when they had their back to him. To be fair the law has changed meaning now from using 'reasonable force' to what force you think is necessary to protect your ome/family, and Tony Martin's case may have influenced that.

Victims get a hard deal, I think that's understood. And the focus does seem to be on getting the criminal 'back on track'. There's less focus on the victim rebuilding/repairing their life, a couple of follow-up visit from the police on home security doesn't nail it for many victims.

I didn't know that, it'd be interesting to see how in specific examples (like I posed above) the sentencing actually went.

And people blame banking for dragging this country into the mud, talk about the cat calling the dog 'hairy arse'. Infrastructure staff blackmail their employer just because they can and it's argued as 'proper rewards'. I'd love a job where I could get those kind of rewards, ooh boss we may get busy soon so I'm not working unless you give me more money. What's that line again ? Oh yeah, "England's Dreaming".

I hope they're showing Chisora / Klitschko contest at CPT (or whatever it's called then). KO for the Ukranian I reckon, but a game Chisora up to that point. Enouragingly Derek has faced a 6'7" fighter in Fury and similar in Helenius so the heigt at least shouldnt be a problem. That just leaves the power, technique, footwork and durability/stamina of Vitali to contend with !!!

Parkdrive I agree, as I mentioned in my first post, there's a gap in the law and what it covers. Trauma, ill-efects etc. are not covered very well. If your crime has a by-product of causing this you're not in the frame for it, the victim just gets a hard luck deal. It's a bit like murder vs attempted murder, if you shoot a guy in the head and miraculously the guy survives you get attempted murder whereas I believe if the perpetrator's actions would have killed, if successful, the it should be murder.

DJKillaQueen: When you were caught for an offence KK.....were you given any other kind of intervention or mentoring? Was there any effort to make you think about what you had done and why? When I was caught it was whilst raiding a gemstone shop on the South coast, when the manager saw us we made a dash but as I delayed our departure to grab a few more onyx eggs my accomplice held the door ajar and shouted "Quickly, KidKruger !!". (my real name substituted here obviosuly) My name is unusual and within a few hours people who knew me were being contacted by police. By the time I returned from a town 10 miles away where we'd since been having another spree, the police were waiting in my area. Obviously I wished I'd been named Bill or George, and cussed my accomplice bigstyle. I was cautioned. The police finger printed me. A few hours in a cell to try scare me. My Dad turned up and did me over pretty good, part in the cell and the rest in the car park on the way out. Police turned the other way. I denied any other crimes, so they only had the gem shop job on us. They hadn't even touched the tip of it. A few months later I was in a store and saw some stuff I wanted, I was dead against it in principle but I just had to demonstrate to myself that I still had the technique. I stole some stuff it was easy. That was last time I stole anything. After that I've never even taken a toilet roll or pen from a place of work, nothing. When I was cautioned there was no effort from authorities to make me think what I'd done and why. But I knew what I had done, stolen stuff (more than they could know). And I knew why, for the thrill and for the cash, as by then I was stealing to order. I look back and think bad mainly about the burglary stuff, never sentimental stuff, only cash. Never trashed a dwelling, that would have been totally out of order in my paradoxical set of 'principles'.

British boxers... Ricky Burns still had his world title last time I checked, so that's at least 2x British boxing word titles we hold.

Not quite Rock n Roll but Joe Jackson's autobiography was well written. Obviously not the 'sex n drugs' kinda story but interesting nevertheless since it traces his development from new-wave angst band leader to composer.

My initial impulse is to jail burglars straight-off whether first offence or not, scumbags that they are, for the invasive nature of the crimes they commit. However, when I reflect on my own teenage years, I realise that would mean I'd have been locked up for (what started-out as) impulse burglaries which led, due to their success and my increased confidence, to break-in burglaries. Hugeunot pointed out that impulse burglaries committed by teenagers in machismo mode shouldn't necessarily result in custodial punishment. I understand that view but on reflection if I'd received a custodial for the initial, opportunistic burglaries, I'd never have progressed to the burglaries requiring tools. I guess it could be argued that custodial time would have meant I mixed with more experienced criminals and learned additional skills ready for use on my release, so would have progressed to more significant crimes anyway. So perhaps there's an argument for preventative benefits of early custodial sentences ? I do think the effect on the victim should be included in the asssessment of a sentence and this should include emotional damage and impact on the victim's sense of security and peace of mind. I don't think the argument that a burglar is not accountable for anything other than the crime they commit is fair to the victim, if a victim suffers trauma, they suffer trauma, regardless of what the burglar 'intended'. I was never caught, though I was apprehended for other crimes. The gall of some of my burglaries still startles me, there was a sense of being untouchable once you'd got away safely and on occasions even during the chase before you were even safe. Perhaps that's the 'machismo' aspect of the crime.

I don't think I'm particularly cynical in thinking some people, especially with access to a union, will milk this to death. So there will be a busy couple of weeks this summer, big deal. Milk it while you can...

Duke McKenzie's brother put out a book called Boxing Fitness. It has some solid exercises which may not be fun early on but they'll fitten you up.

KidKruger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > There used to be a taxidermist in Islington called > Get Stuffed. Moos: It's still there. They have some hardcore stuff - giraffe head and necks, elephant heads, whole hippos... and an Arkful of smaller animals. I asked them how much to stuff my cat, it was a few years ago, they wanted ?600. I told them to Get S.... True story.

There used to be a taxidermist in Islington called Get Stuffed.

Sounds like an untapped gold mine. Sorted for 99' cones, hot dogs, organic veg, olives, posh breads, weed and pills.

It was on Whateley Rd, junction with Cyrena Rd I think. It's converted to a house now. Bloke would try feel you up as he 'fitted' your jeans and make pseudo-homosexual small talk in hope of giving you a semi-on. You were invited to glance at the magazines out back while changing. Like you've popped-in to buy some jeans but fancy a bit of porn while at it - hmmm right. Can't remember his name/name of his shop but it's mentioned on another thread about old shops back in the 90s.

I think it's a disgrace that what was a standard question when I was a kid would now be a question with no reply - "where's the nearest public loo ?". They were everywhere and they were free. Nowadays I guess businesses take up the bulk of the burden, I don't think the huge numbers that used public loos just stopped peeing because the loos vanished ! It's an outrage, esp in early hours when nowhere's open. Maybe it partially explains the 'orliquid'squid' thread (the filling of bottles, not the dumping..). Naive comment from Maxxi, have a few kids and try traipsing round shops and cafes after dragging your kids away from the swingpark looking for a loo that'll fit you and all the kids in while you attend to the child that wanted a pee 15 mins ago.

Watch the gangster film Going Off Big Time for the classic scene where the ice cream van selling pills gets hassled for free ice creams by cops investigating who is selling the class A around that council estate. The ice cream van geezer tells his assistant to give the 4x free ice creams fully loaded....