Huguenot

I'd like to illustrate how 20mph limit will speed up your journey. Please do concentrate Silverfox. I'ts not unusual for a 3 mile journey at rush hour in Central London to take 30 minutes. It's confusing, because at 30mph a 3 mile journey should only take 6 minutes. This is because total journey time is 'link time' (moving down the road) plus 'junction time' (changing traffic streams). So in the rush hour journey total 30 mins = 6 mins link + 24 mins junctions. So at 20mph the 'link time' would be 9 mins as you're going slower. Hence with a 20mph limit and the same junction time, total journey time is only 9 mins + 24 mins = 33 mins (in practice you won't possibly notice this because of daily variation). However, with a traffic speed of 20 mph, cars can pull out of junctions more frequently into smaller spaces because the traffic isn't moving so quickly on the destination road. This means that 'junction time' is drastically reduced. In some cases as much as 50%. Hence at 20 mph, 'link time is 9 mins, 'junction time' is 12mins - overall journey time is 21 mins - a 30% drop in overall journey time. Not only that, but it also saves lives. There really is no more intelligent solution. I appreciate you don't want to believe that, but that's because people time and again make decisions that are demonstrably against their best interests.

I find it infuriating to listen to politicians who claim they're going to fund projects through cutting waste. It sounds like a bloke who buys a pub and says he'll make it a sure fire winner by being extra careful and not spilling as much as the previous chap. Ridiculous. How stupid do these young apparatchiks think we are? If you're just going to try and cut waste, then you're simply not doing anything. All council tenders should go to best value bidders as a matter of course, if they don't it's a criminal issue. If however by 'waste' you mean things you don't like, them please be more specific and tell us in absolute terms what your budget looks like, what services are lost, and what benefits are gained? Guys: whether you like it or not, the world is moving into one where the electorate demands much greater transparency and accountability. Not keeping us informed isn't clever, it's smug. Show us your business plan, or 'fess up you don't have one. (I'm a traditional labour voter by the way, always have been).

Magpie I think you're taking an absolutist position that isn't appropriate. Politics is about the art of compromise - some of the benefits of a united Europe outweigh benefits solely in the national interest. Many compromises were made by countries involved in Europe because they perceived the overall benefits of free trade, a global negotiating bloc and movement of labour to exceed the 'national interest' benefits of old fashion protectionism, restrictive labour practices and locally flexible taxation. A single market cannot exist without consistent legislation. Consistent legislation can't happen without political convergence.

Rhedd, you misunderstand 'informed consent'. The only accurate information possible about homeopathy is that it does not work. Hence properly informed consent de facto does not exist for homeopathy. You talk about people for whom 'homeopathy works for them'. It doesn't. They are simply confusing an improvement in their health with the effects of sugar tablets. This is understandable, but wrong. Most people get better most of the time irrespective of treatment. To be a doctor entails taking an oath based on ethical behaviour. In this sense a 'homeopathic doctor' is a contradiction in terms. The correct term is a 'homeopathic fraudster'.

Tony Hart -

Can you see what it is yet?

30 miles of unspoilt beach in Borneo, apart from my wife and three close friends not another soul as far as the eye can see.

It is impressive and moving. I'm also concerned that this girl is quite young and should really be looking to the future rather than getting bogged down in the past.

Ah, Narnia, I'm sorry you're grumpy. If you recall, the Pevensies entered the wardrobe, annexed fur coats on essentially socialist principles of greater need, and then emerged as old queens.

Would you like it more if you had more places to live there???

I'll bet he looks great in mink, the old queen... ;-)

I've posted a response on this issue on your deceitful response on another thread. I note that you make the same manipulative attempt to cover up your financial interest on this thread as well. In short, through decpetion (such as you've already demonstrated) homeopaths commit several acts of villainy: By misinterpreting or misrepresenting the outcome of clinical trials regarding homeopathic treatments, practitioners declare themselves incompetent. By deceiving them about the effectiveness of treatments, homeopaths break moral codes of obtaining informed consent from patients and allowing them autonomy on treatment. Independent research demonstrates its routine for homepaths to undermine evidence based medecine on subjects as varied as MMR, malaria and AIDS leaving the public exposed to fatal diseases. Through demanding misplaced trust from patients, practitioners overlook symptoms of serious diseases and risk patients lives. They undermine public faith in medecine, threatening the lives of thousands of people who they don't directly treat. That enough for you? I think the lies and manipulations of homeopaths are an abolute outrage. You should be social pariahs.

Why is Declan posting as Narnia - have I missed something? Silverfonz you seem to be conflating multiple issues to tease out a silly answer. The first thing to note is that urban traffic speeds are governed more by traffic weights not speed limits. The average London speed of 10mph is slower than any speed limit and so independent of them. Secondly, grannies don't push trollies past traffic lights on main trunk roads or motorways. So this complaint could only be referring to 30mph or 20mph limits on non-trunk, suburban or residential roads. At 30mph pedestrian fatality rates are around 50%, at 20mph they're around 5%, so these speed limits are set for safety not traffic flow. To contest this to to essentially say that you don't care who dies if it means 1 minute longer for you to reach your destination, an assertion that (as demonstrated) is falsely attributed to speed limits and entirely antisocial. Regarding the M25, which was the original debate, this is about traffic flow not safety. The lower limits at heavily congested periods resulted directly in less erratic driving (heavy acceleration and braking), less differential in traffic speeds by lane, smoother flowing traffic, fewer minor accidents and consequently lower average journey times. So it's a simple fact, lower peak speeds in highly congested periods shorten journies and make you faster overall. On another thread I was challenged on why I think so many people to be daft. Silverfox, but your ill-informed obsession with higher speed limits despite their negative impact on your journey time and threat to the health of others is a great example of this. Or perhaps you just have a schoolboy crush on Jeremy Clarkson? Besides, if it's a conspiracy, what's the real desired outcome?

Rhedd you get paid for practising homeopathy on home visits - that's about as big a financial interest as you can get. Since homeopathy demonstrably doesn't work, the only conclusion is that you're either dense (in which case you shouldn't be performing home treatment), or you're deliberately misrepresenting homeopathy and defrauding your clients (in which case you should go to prison). It doesn't start well, does it? The fact that you've denied an interest and been proven to have one will suggest to our community that you fall in the latter camp. There are two key elements to health treatment that are a moral imperative: that you should obtain informed consent and that the patients rights should be respected. Homeopaths break both these rules in promoting wilfully insubstantiated arguments for the effectiveness of treatments. It gets pretty bad doesn't it? Worse still, when independently researched, homeopaths are shown to wilfully denigrate evidence based medicine in favour of quack remedies. This applies to everything from MMR, through malaria treatment to allowing real diseases to go undiagnosed because they are not sufficiently informed for the level of trust they demand from patients. That's almost killing people isn't it. Finally, the confusion and outrageous claims made by homepathy serves to undermine the public faith in the entire medical industry, threatening to reap widespread and devastating harm. Rhedd, your denial of a financial interest in promoting homeopathy has already exposed you as a bullshitter. Change your life.

I think there's a thread on conspiracy theories in the Lounge, puzzled. You would feel at home.

So far as I can tell any decision that takes place to which HAL9000 is not party is a conspiracy. It doesn't even matter whether it's proven in a court of law - because HAL9000 wouldn't believe it anyway.

It's very likely they were Chinese Lanterns. Saturday night was a traditional formal birthday celebration for many Chinese - a bit like the Queen's 'official' birthday being different to the real one.

:))

If any question why we died, Tell them, because our fathers lied. Rudyard Kipling, Epitaphs of the War I think you've got problems if you can't see the difference between this truism, Easties EL, and the claim of a massive organised conspiracy between 9/11 and the New World Order.

Ah my mistake, I didn't realise that Navy Seal Baddasses had such a reputation for rhetorical barbs.

You really are a bit peculiar Easties EL. Your measure of 'truth' now appears to be how violent a man becomes if you disagree with him. You like violence? Does this go hand in hand with the messiah thing? You like to imagine yourself swinging a sword and saving the village whilst fair maidens fall at your feet? ;-)

If there aren't GPS systems in council controlled vehicles, there should be. The right for councils to park illegally is understandable, but shouldn't also cover parking unsafely.

I don't reckon my view counts as I'm out on loan from ED to Singapore at the moment. I've said it before, but I'd like to see something really visionary for ED which prioritises the rights of the pedestrian over the motorist, and brings back a real sense of community. I'd like to see the end of parking on LL and widening of the pavements. Cafes, bars and shops should be encouraged to make use of the extra space. I'd like to see controlled parking around LL, with P&D spaces reserved for short term shoppers to the Lane. I'd like to see North Cross Road paved, with no vehicular access on Sat and Sun for a market. I'd like to see Sainsbury Car Park increase parking spaces through a subterranean car park with 24/7 security and quality landscaping. The pedestrian route to the Lane from here should have rasied pedestrian crossings at each junction on the route. I'd like to see much more regular 'tented' festivals on GG covering the arts - art & sculpture, books, film and so on. For me bins and recycling are 'hygeine' issues - not manifesto commmitments. It should be the obligation of a council to provide these services that gets no applause. It's not difficult.

Fuel duty and vehicle excise duty in the UK are not hypothecated taxation - in other words the tax revenue isn't for spending on the road. Hence the obligation on the authorities to take reasonable care of the roads has nothing to do with whether you've paid motoring taxes or not. As it happens only trunk roads are funded directly be central government (who are the recipients of motoring taxes) so this particular hole has nothing to do with whether the victim's paid motoring taxes at all.

I think you'll have to work a bit harder than that Oliver, any party can ask locals what they see as the issues. The voting decision will be made on the basis of your intentions to prioritise and your potential ability to do anything about them. So what do you currently see as your objectives in Council? What's your manifesto? BTW I don't know if there's something weird going on with your blog? It redirected me to status.blogspot so I couldn't see it.