arriety

If equality of opportunity is a good thing, and all children should be given the same chances in life, how can private education be a good thing? it seems to me that the more engaged parents would be better off sticking with the state schools and helping to bring the standards up for all. Best thing that could happen to this country is the abolition of any private education, and an increase in the standards and provision of state education. Saying that though i completely understand why parents choose private schools, because it is after all impossible not to put your own children's needs as a priority. Complicated issue.

That's great you do so well, but it doesn't logically follow that all people can be as successful as you in being so organised. The sad thing about this thread is the complete lack of ability to understand or accept others' needs or restrictions or trials. To me that is much more worrying than bad parking on a bad day.

All I am saying is that tolerance seems to be an underrated value in communities. Of course parents, can and should keep other children safe when dropping their own at school, they should also get up earlier if that helps, there are many 'shoulds' in everyone's lives, not just parents. What struck me on this thread was the idea that parents are simply being 'selfish'. Some probably are, but i suspec the overriding cause of their parking behaviour is the stress behind keeping to tight schedules with unruly toddlers and children with little sense of time.

perhaps the parents have got small children, probably reluctant to do anything on time particularly on a cold morning. They are in a rush to remember school bags, coats, hats, homework, breakfast - hopefully in the right order. And then to hurry them out of the house in time to drop them off at school at appointed school time so that they don't get a telling off from the teachers. And that is all before they rush to catch the train/bus etc to work so they can be on time there and not get victimised in the workplace for having extra curricular responsibilities to manage. Parents aren't special but they do have special logistics and timetables to manage that would perhaps be made easier if the communities they lived in were a little more forgiving of their particular stresses. Just a thought.

Does anyone know where in east dulwich or peckham i could take my laptop to be repaired? the usb port doesn't seem to be working. Thanks

I love the lights because they are interesting and creative and show spirit. Imagine what we would have ended up with if there had been a consultation, bog standard street lights that appealed to everyone and broke no rules probably. yawn. There are so many things to worry about in the world i am genuinely surprised that anyone could be upset by harmless and quirky street lamps. Really. England used to celebrate eccentricity, now its homogeneity and bland all the way, probably a result of too many consultations and too many people getting upset by new design.

we yummy mummys just love annoying you scummy working class non mothers, so lets bring on as many prams to northcross road as possible and drink lots more tea, because you really are fantastically easy to annoy. hooray.

Its not just child benefit you should be worrying about. Apparently working tax credits for single mothers don't take into account any maintenance paid. So the absent father can ask the mother to claim tax credits on her lower income, thereby reducing the amount he needs to pay her monthly, whatever his income level. So the state could end up subsidising maintenance payments of a rich and errant father. Interesting.

I just don't understand the obsession with stereotyping mothers? replace the word mother with anything and the whole thing looks like the nonsense it is. We have come a long way in terms of removing prejudice and stereotype and racism and so on, but for some reason one of the few places its really ok to completely slag off a group is when women become mothers. Prams exist, pavements are narrow, people (not just mothers) have good days and bad days, get over it. Why would a group of any kind care to notice a bloke out on his own having a coffee!?

Hi I've just had someone knock at my door saying they are from a company called spencers and want to talk to me about fish and meat. He was young and seemed nervous and said he wasn't selling anything was just a student trying to gain confidence talking about good food for Spencers. Has anyone else had this? and does anyone know what its all about?

if there is a god, he/she/it is not very nice if there is meaning outside of our own making i haven't discovered it so probably a good discussion here would be, 'what matters to existence and why?'

Just been in touch with the bank and cancelled my card. It's a cloning and they have my pin number, how i don't know!

That's a good point. I don't really know. Have discovered more fraud on the card, Somerfield in Mitcham and so on. So, you probably right, its the user not the service station that is at fault. Nightmare.

I've just discovered that Murco Service Station, the one near the Tesco Metro at the top of Goose Green, has been taking money from my card. No idea how they have done it. But be warned about that petrol station!