Huguenot

Good heavens, a 6 foot 5 inch submariner? I like little fences.

I think it's population that demands intensive farming, not capitalism. We should really by thanking our lucky stars that capitalism provides the investment and incentive to develop appropriate solutions. Regardless, I'm rather staggered that anyone would imagine that the best solution for a law and order issue is to riot.

This is excellent! Better than Columbo.

Ah, pigs eh? I thought swine referred to unattractive men who embezzle the profits at jam factories and make off with plump receptionists. The swine.

I'm not sure where you're coming from with the link Declan? Things like Phorm and behavioral targeting have nothing to do with your modem, they're about using datalogs from your ISP. You could log in with a plastic cup and a piece of string, and they'd still have the log of which websites you visit. It works like this: you ask them to take you to a URL (a 'written' website name), they look this up in a telephone directory (Domain Name Server)to find the physical location of the website data, they go to the server and download the website code which they send to you. They make a note. No 'special' modem required, or foil on head. They will always make a note, it's like a postie doing his rounds, he needs to make notes. Privacy is whether they share this note, or attach it to other information they have about you. There's nothing wrong with Phorm in practice, they share no data about you as an individual. They just try and tailor your junk mail to the things you're interested in. They don't care who you are, and don't share your private details. However, 'in principle' people wonder whether Phorm is the thin end of the wedge, and someone is going to tell your neighbour that you looked up 'chlamydia' on t'interweb. Regarding contracts, I guess you just need to read it.

I'd like to see a vigilante group, not vengeful, but allowing people to make their lawful way as they please.

Stocks? I'm being flippant, but they were very effective...

Helpful? Likely to benefit society?

Insightful?

Clever perhaps?

So AFN doesn't think that's good?

Why is that good?

ClareC's nailed it. There's no requirement for a new modem to track your activity, all datalogs will be recorded as a matter of course any way. It's just good network management so you can address issues if they arise. The privacy issue is whether they link the logs to your identity and distribute them; no additional hardware is required for that, just a switch to be flicked at the ISP. You can use proxy servers / encryption (as SKS recommends), but then if they flicked the switch you'd still be tracked. The best solution is democratic lobbying and using an ISP subject to UK law. Please go ahead and use the new modem without fear that this will impact on your privacy. It's more likely to speed up traffic, update quicker, or allow greater bandwidth on existing services. It might just be cheaper for the ISP (which means cheaper for you in the long run).

Candj's probably more up-to-date than me, but I would recommend spending a few quid on one of the 'speaking' phrasebooks. They're about the size of pocket calculators, and made it very easy for me to get on. Shanghainese have their own dialect, but Mandarin is pretty widely spoken. Most shops and upscale bars have a bit of English spoken. I think you'll find plenty nearby for Shanghai to fill ten days without flying again, but do bear in mind it's a city, and manic is a great description. It's not a place for sitting by the pool. Bejing flights are at least hourly, and seats can be bought at short notice. I used to do business trips (the opposite direction) in the same day, so if you've never been there it might be worth earmarking two days there for the Forbidden City and the Great Wall. You need a whole day for the Great Wall and an early morning start. You could do morning flight to BJ, Forbidden City afternoon & night market, stay overnight, private rental to Great Wall am next day, and flight late 7pm back to SH. Suzhou is worth seeing, lots of pretty gardens. Take some history books, as the communist party was born in SH, and you can walk around all the original buildings.

They do have machines Ted.

Sure thang, what do you need to know?

Quite right Quids, more than that I get cross about all their blinking sanctimony. My Dad thinks I work in a shocking industry (online marketing) compared with his previous profession (headmaster). I have to highlight to the bugger that in order to get his current pension, I'd have to save 1m pounds by retirement. I can no longer do this in teaching, so I have to get this 'shocking' job in hope that I'll have enough in the future to pay for rice in my dotage.

Cuts.... Quids and MM have highlighted the need for cuts in the budget, which they didn't feel were apparent. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (a big academic but politically neutral research group), said there were massive cuts in the budget. Perhaps they were there, but the chancellor didn't want to talk about them?... The chancellor avoided mention of spending cuts in his budget speech, concentrating on a 0.7% a year increase in spending from 2011, which excludes investment in key areas such as schools and hospitals. But the IFS pointed to the 17% annual cuts in investment spending from 2011-12 which will see it halve in three years, concluding that this will mean total spending will fall by 0.1% a year over that period. Once the effect of the 8% annual growth in debt interest payments and rising spending on unemployment benefit are stripped out, spending across government departments will have to fall by an average of 2.3% a year in real terms, said IFS economist Gemma Tetlow. Cuts of this order were last seen in the 70s. She added that with the government pledged to continue increasing spending on overseas aid, it was likely that all other departments would face spending cuts. "Health, education, law and order would all experience real cuts." Chote said it looked likely that the bulk of the savings required over the coming eight years would mainly come from spending cuts rather than new taxes. "The main burden of the looming tightening - at least over the next few years - is likely to fall on the users of public services," he said. So does that mean you actually got what you wanted? I'm guessing you'd disagree with the final statement, as you'd see the main burden of the cuts falling on pointless administrators?

I'm not sure that it's the public sector who make demands like this particular one. In TV, the H&S demands are set by (private) insurance companies. They stipulate the premiums alongside the precautions. It's often cheaper to pay for the additional person that it is to pay for the additional premium, or go uncovered. You can blame that on the mighty US of A, with their litigious culture and (private) lawyers etc. That in turn is down to the extraordinary charges made by their (private) healthcare system.

Fair comments, Quids, but no need to make it personal old thing. If London was a country in isolation, then you'd be paying no income tax at all (I average around 7%), it's one of the benefits of city states - all that corporation tax (18%). I didn't come here for tax issues, so much as for a progressive socially minded environment that had a good industrial infrastructure and market opportunity. Strictly speaking I'm a Blairite socialist, I don't believe in redistribution of wealth, I believe in equality of opportunity and meritocratic rewards. I'm not saying that public sector isn't bloated, I'm just observing that you don't suddenly turn it over in one budget. Marmora Man's ideas are desirable and workable in principle (although I can't guarantee that private companies don't have similar levels of administration). I don't know how easy it is in practice. Both teachers and healthcare workers have seen above inflation rises in recent years, but both are threatening to strike unless that continues. The latest NUT conference are balloting to strike unless they get what amounts to a 15% rise on average. A budget that fixes expenditure may well be perceived to be either reducing pay in real terms, or shutting hospitals or schools. You may get a strike which damages the economy more than the benefits accrued (don't forget public sector is 45% of GDP). I continue to argue in the main that governments have very little control over the 'big budget' elements, which is why we get so excited over nominal issues like quangos and MP's expenses.

Is it the casual sex that's vile, or the euphemisms? ;-)

This seems to be useful: personal budget calculator If I'd have stayed in the UK I'd be up 700 quid a year under this budget. :)

I'm not sure Quids. 'Y' is normally appended to nouns to turn them into adjectives. The consequent word means 'having the condition or quality' of the original noun. Hence a 'groupy' person, would be a person with the quality of a group. Not quite this context. In 'groupie', I believe that the 'ie' is to signify a dimunitive (reductive) quality - as in 'one part of a group, not the whole'. Same dimmunitive quality found in laddie, lassie, hoodie, mountie, junkie, oldie, aussie, commie, goalie etc. If all else fails, go for common usage. 'Groupy' won't find any references to Groupies, as the word was first used in the lates 60s in pop literature, and was spelt groupie.

Where would the massive cuts in public sector spending come from? Figures are billions of pounds National/Local (Total) Pensions 106.7/0 (106.7) Health Care 110.8/0.4 (111.2) Education 28.1/52.6 (80.7) Defence 37.4/0.1 (37.5) Welfare 51.6/42.6 (94.2) Protection 15.8/16.8 (32.6) Transport 10.2/9.7 (19.9) General Government 13.4/13.5 (26.9) Other Spending 49.8/34.9 (84.6) Interest 30.3/0.8 (31.1) Balance 7.0 0.0 -5.4 1.6 Total Spending 461.1/165.9 (627.0) What would a massive cut be? 25%? Perhaps we should close all the hospitals and schools - that would be 25%? Or maybe stop paying pensions and close the welfare state - that would be about 25%? Or maybe stop quantitative easing (although it would make no difference this year, it'll be paid back in another decade), in the meantime we can eat our own words for nourishment, because the entire nation would shut down. Nothing else is going to make any difference. Please don't say 'increase efficiencies and cut management and administration', as that might be a great idea, but it would need to be a 15 year plan against vested industries on whom we rely and are already militant.

Josh, you can find crime data at the met police here. ED is less than average. In violent crimes such as robbery and assault it's less than half the average.