Huguenot

I think that misrepresents the facts. There are 78,000km of cast iron mains up to 100 years old that will reach the end of their mechanical life in the next 20 - 30 years. This means a substantial rise in pipe failure and the risk to life associated with that. This is not because of earthquakes or geological problems, it's because cast iron pipes get old and fail. They rust and decay like everything else. Pipe replacement exercises have over the last three decades reduced the major incident rate from 25 a year to 3.5 a year. Where substantial failure occurs it will also result in cutting off supplies to residential and commercial customers, possibly in winter time with the associated fatalities of at risk customers. Hence to head off this crisis, between 2,750 and 4,000 km of pipe need to be replaced EVERY year. To put that in context, over the 5 years to 2000, only 1,840km of pipe on average was replaced each year. So in order to head off this problem we already need to do more work on pipes than historically we've ever done. Politically it must be very attractive to 'put off' this work until somebody else can be blamed for the failures and deaths and spend the money on tax cuts. It is a mark of the maturity of the last two governments that they have seen the scale of the problem and have committed to the necessary work. Detail here. It's bad luck for the guys on Friern, but it's just your turn, next time it'll be someone else's turn, and it MUST be done.

So the people whop were telling me this was just about friendly chats and sharing information, the discussion is now about boycotting Le Chardon? Told you so

That's what I mean by deliberate escalation LadyD. PastaPeggy, I'm sure we could give him Night Nurse until he falls asleep?

I think you've been watching too much Hollywood PastaSue. ;-)

'Was he executed?' Oh come on, even De Menezes wasn't an execution, nobody knew who he was. It could not have been a premeditated death sentence. It was operatives in a panicked security force, in a panicked nation, operating in an extermely high stress environment with their judgment clouded, poor communications and limited information. Claiming this was an 'execution' is deliberately fuelling conflict, and action that brings no benefit to anyone.

There you go, it's that hero thing again.

Hello Dee, where have you come from? What's your interest in this?

A teddy bear juggler is a clown ;-)

That Peter Sutcliffe, a real cyclist he was. Dr. Crippen? Two-wheel demon. Or as the red road said to the blue road - "Look out for green road, he's a real psyclepath"

I found this on Nette's FB profile... http://cdn.paleothea.com/Pictures/RedHarpy.gif Let's see him try and explain that one away.

I know you guys really know what you're talking about, but despite living only a 15 minute walk from Little India I'm embarassed to say I don't. BUT, I don't remember having Dum Aloo Punjabi on a menu anywhere I've been in the UK. It's potatos in some sort of cashew nut sauce. This stuff is so good that they fight on the streets to get it! Do you guys have it in ED?

Have you not heard how dangerous bicycles are? With their bloody bells forcing people to look before crossing roads etc. etc. That's the problem with cyclists, able to do it all over you when they please. ;-)

"my indignant rage at not being able to do it all over you when I please" This is the problem isn't it, Nette? Nobody is doing this, nobody is claiming this at all. If they were, your complaint would make sense. Your pathology against smoking is so uncontrolled that in your own mind it has swollen to ridiculous proportions. You know it, so to justify it you've actually reached the point in your fantasy that you are actually inventing scenarios to justify your disproportionate wrath. There are workplace bans, there are restaurant and pub bans, but you're just not satisfied? Like some demented harpy you're pursuing smokers wherever you can find them supported by some sort of hysterical delusion. When all is said and done, your views on the fashionability of smoking are neither here nor there. So you want it banned simply because you don't like the smell. And I'm guessing you also conveniently overlooked the wreckage your private car is doing to the environment. I don't like the smell of that, nor the noise, nor the threat to my health, nor the restrictions it places on my freedom of movement. It's simply a good job that I'm more tolerant than you.

I think that was a direct lift from Max Farquar, if you're not Max (which I'm not sure you are) then you really ought to reference it and provide a link back to the original.

http://culinarygourmet.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/tulsichef_thumb.jpg?w=157&h=246

Did you know he's now 63!!!! 63!!! And he just got found guilty of assaulting a photographer during a gid in NI. Excellent work.

Too good an opportunity to miss...

*checks hair in mirror and winks at himself*

"I personally find it really antisocial, like someone farting, belching or having a strong body odour standing close by. You wouldn't put up with that, so why make others put up with your other foul habit." Actually mate, I bet you do. I certainly do. There's a social contract thaat we all indulge in where we find a compromise between our own activity and the activities of other people in the interests of rubbing along together. There's plenty of activities that other people indulge in that inflict upon my selfish desires, but I need to make compromises. There is however, a militant group of individuals who think they can break this contract when it comes to smokers. They're offensive and controlling in a way that vastly exceeds the apparent transgression. I accept that smoking inside may represent a health risk, but when you're telling people outside to stop smoking in pub gardens because you don't fancy the smell you are outrageously overstepping your rights as an individual to inflict your interests upon others. I have a close friend who is pathological about coriander - don't ask me why, but she can detect it in food when nobody else can, and she flies into a furious rage about it. This rage is nothing to do with the flavour, it's actually a manifestation of infant rage when they discover for the first time that they can't control anything and everything going on around them. It's rage generated by the painful transition from the solipsism of childhood to the concessions of adulthood. Getting enraged about smoking in pub gardens is exectly this. You've had your compromise, but it's just not enough eh? ;-)

Depends on your perception of bad I guess. From a legal perspective she's been found guilty of stealing from her employer, and from an emotional perspective she appears to have taken advantage of a vulnerable and venerable national icon ;-)

Since she saw a psychiatrist at the time for a complusive lying habit, I'd be wary of taking her at her word on that. This 'not true' internet personality of yours, does it include claiming people should keep their nose out of other people's thieving, and saying that fantasists are good people?

That's a bit harsh PashtaShoo. Loving your mum is not the same thing as pretending to like your mum to get an inheritance. We'd all agree with that. Besides which, what she did and what she said were different. She claimed her divorce loot was going to charity, but it never materialised. The feedback in media circles was that there was no smoke without fire.

It sounds a bit like those campaigns claiming wearing seat belts is dangerous. I'm pretty sure that if I was given the choice between applying a kerbstone to my head with or without a 3 inch polystyrene and fibreglass buffer, I'd go for the former and forego the vanity. The argument that asking people to be safe might put people off cycling is just baffling on so many levels.

I thought Shaky and Mike Reid were the same person? No?

That was one of those 'just shut up' kisses that only girls can give right?