Huguenot

I see your point on Balham Gimme, but... ...thinking about Balham Hight Street, I don't remember it for being a LL? I remember a Wetherspoons, an amusement arcade, a Woolworths, a McDonalds, a Boots, a WH Smith, a Greggs, (an M&S Simply Food), a Carphone Warehouse... In a short, a bit of a dump. Is this proposal for a store actually on LL with a carpark adjacent to the store that could benefit other independent retailers? I can't think of a large brownfield site that meets that requirement (as there was in Balham - I lived there when they built it)

No ratty, I can't accept that kind of polemic. For an attack there needs to be an attacker and hostile intent. I can see neither in this situation. The point about poor buying luxuries is a timeless political one. It's an argument that has more to do with Marxian abilities and needs than about the current situation. We currently live in a capitalist society where individuals are rewarded according to the ability to generate wealth surely? If you feel the government is the attacker with hostile intent against the poor then really it's just another example of class war propoganda. The poor are certainly victims of circumstance, but it doesn't make it an attack.

BTW did you just compare me to a foetus? Is that like trying to insist that your banal foggy-minded self-important claptrap is somehow the output of an elevated evolved thinker? I make no claim that I can see all there is to know, I'm just highlighting that your grandiose assertions have no better foundation than a snake-oil salesman, Scientology or the Branch Davidian.

Ha ha! Excellent. However, you haven't worked it through. It's more like you saying that there's a place, but you're not going to tell us where it is, or what it offers, or what one does there, you have no evidence that it exists (that knowledge is only available to 'believers'), in fact we just have to 'trust you' - the only thing you assert is that it will make us indefineably 'better' to experience it. There's a catch though: In order to get there we have to follow you, stick to your dogma, copy your behaviour, and of course get other people to follow us on the same principle. It's likely that your dogma entails us engaging in military action that slaughter anyone who points out the failings in our argument, and murders hundreds of thousands of innocent bystanders. When eventually we highlight to you that you don't seem to be leading us anywhere, you say it's because either we haven't tried hard enough or we don't understand. Rather than admit to your rip-off, you insist (as above) that you won't talk to us anymore because we're boring, and you'll only talk to people who 'believe'. In short, a con. There's nothing good that religion can give anyone that can't be obtained through philosophy, rationalism, ethics and secularism. There is a substantial amount of baggage that comes with religion that involves sacrificing your individuality to tyrants. What's to discuss?

The most important thing is to try and get a holistic picture of the outcome of a further supermarket on LL. It doesn't open in isolation, it has a knock-on effect on surrounding stores. The evidence from Stalham seems incontrovertible - if you open another supermarket you'll damage the other shops - a 55% drop in footfall would be difficult to cover by most local smallholders. Hence wanting an M&S or a Wiatrose is one thing, but do you want it so much that you want to see the other stores close? It really is an either/or situation. For those who don't think the forum is a good place to have this discussion, plese remember that it's read by 15,000 regular users, the majority from the local area. The 'opionated' commentators on the EDF are also most like to be highly energetic in campaigning for or against another supermarket opening. It's manifestly the right place for a discussion.

The thing about note writing is that you only got as many as you sent. 16 year old girls were very keen on reciprocation when I was at school - can't think they've changed much. I got loads of cutsie notes when I was at school, and sent just as many. What a rosy world! It wouldn't surprise me if we discovered that young girls are preoccupied by their phones in public places because they're used as a barrier to keep away the unwanted attentions of sexually aggressive men.

Tbnhg getting it wrong again. If you bothered to read the thread you would discover that 'yes' currently sits just under 25%. Think before engaging keyboard mate.

I think it's ridiculous to assume that the police and the press are ignoring this because they're racist (as the article states). It is far more likely that there is more to this than meets the eye. An estimated 150,000 kids under the age of 18 go missing every year, a very large proportion of these in London. Before committing large amounts of resource police will look closely at the history, the circumstances, the events leading up to the disappearance and the reports of key witnesses. Whilst this isn't failsafe, it's the only sensible way of dealing with this problem. A woman in a happy relationship who leaves keys, wallet, mobile phone and coat at home in sub zero temperatures will attract more concern than a girl who takes a packed bag, a mobile, is unhappy at home, tells her mates she's off with a boyfriend or any one of a myriad other situations. Please be aware that there are sometimes very good reasons why the police and the social services do not identify the location of missing children to their parents before appropriate investigations have taken place.

I don't think that's funny I think that's offensive and puerile. It corrupts the innocent fun of children with the bizarre sexual hang ups of poorly adjusted adults. It's the equivalent of stocking graphic pornography next to the Bash Street Kids. You could only fail to see this if you were struggling to see beyond your own pretty reflection in the mirror.

I'm not aware they have any more experience of 'god' at all. The only things shared in common for the miracles they encounter, is that they always take place elsewhere, they are only ever witnessed by those with an interest in sustaining their existence, and that there is a law of omert? regarding the mystical laws that lead to their creation. Lots in common with Santa Claus. I don't doubt the physical and psychological effects of meditation. They're also employed my Jonny Wilkinson and public speakers. So far as I'm aware 'wanting' some thing to be true, doesn't make it true - so wanting there to be a deeper meaning doesn't mean there is. I'm not trying to pick holes here. I believe religion to be a con perpetrated on the gullible and weak. I don't believe that it should be given a free reign to promote it's particular brand of snake oil without right to reply. The question 'is there a god' does not restrict answers only to those who insist there is.

Food (apart from luxury foods) is zero rated, and the discounted rate on heating I though was unaffected by the VAT rise this time around? Hence changes in prices are nothing to do with government and couldn't be considered an 'attack on the poor'. Imported foods are affected by exchange rates in addition to global commodity prices. Exchange rates are a complicated mix of many factors including government control over import and export objectives and investor confidence. Hence neither of those could be considered an attack on the poor either. If you're worried about either of these elements then try and focus on buying locally sourced seasonal vegantables. That's not an attack on the poor either - it just makes sense ecologically. Here in Singapore I only eat Sprouts once a year as they're 50p each. That's not racism or an attack on me for not being rich enough, it's because they only grow in tempreatures of less than 22 degrees and that's an expensive habit in a tropical climate.

All she wants is a room somewhere.

Singapore are plastic bag happy, and offer next to no recycling services for anything else either. When you go to Cold Storage (Waitrose) they'll put each item in its own plastic bag, and then put all the plastic bags into another couple of plastic bags for good measure. When I rock up with my eco-friendly jute carrier they look at me as if I'm insane.

Good heavens! Italy have banned plastic shopping bags! But what is disturbing is the revelation that pre-ban, Italy was responsible for 20% of the whole EU plastic bag consumption... Anyone who's been to the beach recently will tell you that plastic bag-related waste isn't just a CO2 issue. People who push back on plastic bag restrictions try and make it just about CO2 because it's an argument they think they can win.

Tarot you do make me chuckle :) I forecast that despite Quids' best efforts, the Euro will be alive and well in 12 months time ;-) I propose that lobotomy should be reconsidered as a treatment for those living in elevated climes.

I once had my leg blown off rescuing starving children from a catastrophic house fire. Under pressure from their desperate and weakening screams I carelessly pulled up outside Sainsbury's Local and didn't give a shit about anyone else whilst I bought 20 Benson's. As I hauled myself back across the pavement by the fingertips trying to save the unborn child of a charity worker a warden stamped on my balls and urinated on my face. Whilst he wrote the ticket I left blood trails down the paintwork as my broken hand sought to open the car door. Can anyone explain that?

Higgins.....

Eating babies?

Am I right in saying that the parents weren't even the legal guardians of Madeleine at the time because she was caught up in some dispute?

"The depreciation of Sterling and the rise in commodity and fuel prices are what we have to worry about for inflation 2.5 on VAT will have a minimal-effect on this." Correctamundo - didn't want to say it because it would have confused the issue. However, it does make UK exports cheaper, which keeps people in jobs, which... etc.

After wrecking England's chances to gain the World Cup, are the BBC now trying to wreck our chances of winning the series? An unattributed slag fest... I hope it'll get edited, the fact that it was posted at 23 minutes after midnight suggests that it'll be up for a while first. If it does get edited, the original headline ran.. "Pietersen takes credit for Ashes triumph'.

Can you tell us where and when in the ED area? It doesn't make sense to scare people unnecessarily if it's just a general rumour.

That's an interesting experience JohnL, where/when did you have it? Retail pricing is based on maximising gross profit, which is in turn reliant upon an intricate relationship between margin and volume. Whilst a VAT rise is likely to impact upon margin if the retail price is kept constant, it may be that an increase in the retail price damages the volume of sales more dramatically that the 2.1% drop in revenue. The reason why the VAT reduction had little or no impact on retail price was because retailers knew it wouldn't affect volume - so they just maximised their margins. For this reason there'll be a range of effects across the retail market, but probably very few significant ones, and you'll be guaranteed to remember only the isolated ones you didn't like. Please remember that the vast majority of consumer necessities are zero rated, so as Crimewatch says, 'don't have nightmares'!!!

The 'technical' retirement age is 65 for men, but I quoted the 'real' figures some time ago, which is significantly younger - with a very large proportion not working from 55 onwards. Whether it's government pensions or private pensions the cash to fund it only comes from the individual. Even though parents and taxpayers pay for children's upkeep, this expense gets transferred as the child has kids of their own. Hence the simple way to calculate is to imagine every individual as a self-contained financial unit: during their productive years they must pay for a childhood and a retirement, in addition to their existing living expenses. It's easy to see that 35 years of income is not going to pay for 25 years of childhood and higher education, alongside 35 years of retirement. For the next 20 years our generation is additionally going to be paying through the nose until the baby-boomer population crisis smooths itself out.

Be interesting to see how we're going to pay for that with retirement at 60. Not a chance in hell with the current system.