Huguenot

Still funny

The Konya thing was a bit rash. I continue to find disagreeable versions of history that attribute grand social exercises to the acts of individuals. You can get fleeting acts or interests establishing significant blips on the course of mankind, but we swing towards the average. Britain's history is established by geography, not individual acts of heroism or insight. Blair's war crimes by a society in denial, Thatcher by the collapse of socialism in the face of self-interest and disavowal of community funded enterprise. Hitler to the Weimar Republic. It doesn't matter who the individual was, whoever was born to that moment would have enacted similar policies. The middle east is governed by gross external influence in the interest of energy supply - yes, water is currently the overriding concern, but resources and the unfair distribution of self determination sits at the core. The great fist of the Black Country revelations (by this I mean Coalbrookdale) has enforced the lack of tribal self-determinism that sits at the root of middle east conflict. In Europe we have nations that barely make 200 miles across, in the middle east we created vast swathes of land 1,000s of mile across by dictat that disenfranchised the right of warring nations to find their own way. They still persist, and can only function by subcontinental untouchable ghettos. The subdivision of Iraq would be the cleverest piece of politics in the present day, but strategic imperatives refuse it.

I don't accept your view on a macro scale EP. Israel's pugnacious behaviour and the creation of an immense concentration camp in Gaza is entirely a by product of its strategic importance to the US. Without that support the entire sorry tale of the middle east would have played out differently. No conversation about Israel is possible without contextualising it within that framework.

You wouldn't get a second glance at my STOP the WAR meeting with jokes like that.

There's only a few posts on here, but I can't work out anybody's opinion. Aren't the initial shots supposed to be the easy ones to call? Bizarre observation from woodrot, who posted a divisive cartoon, talked about Nazis and then exclaimed 'we don't have a fightin' licence' Really? What else did you think was likely to happen with that incendiary approach? It's a cartoon FFS. Read into it what you will, that's the idea. It's not a strategy statement from the Foreign Office, it doesn't stand up under scrutiny. He does one a day, and most of the time he's filling in the colours with his tongue sticking out. The challenge with Israel is not that it's polarised, irrational and hatred is winning. That's a given, we come across these views every day. The challenge is not that it's a corner of the world where tribal allegiances influence political solutions. The issue is that there's so much oil in the vicinity that all these pillocks get unreasonable attention and get a podium to express their pathetic opinions and guns to exact their frequently moronic solutions. If they were running for election in Nunhead they wouldn't get a comment at the pub.

The judgement was a very clear notice that the train guard knew EXACTLY what he was doing. It wasn't made by a judge, it was made by a jury. That decision was made by 12 completely normal people who are just like all of us, except that they had heard the evidence. We haven't. So with all due respect, worker, you're making a call on something you know very little about.

Apparently it's instructions on how to use a love ramp...

Apparently the plural is sudokus, but that actually doesn't make an sense at all. Sudoku means 'numbers one by one' so it seems illogical to try and create a plural of a phrase that describes an activity. It doesn't matter how many puzzles you've got, you're still putting numbers in one by one. As a Japanese word, they quite sensibly don't have plurals anyway. So if one airily decided that so far as one is concerned sudoku is a noun, you'd still end up with one sudoku, two sudoku, three sudoku...

Good heavens, a search on 'goat tree' reveals some absolute berserkers...

I get tinnitus. It's really loud - under conversation but above cats meowing. JT76 offers really good advice, you've got to chill out about it.

Never diss a good story.

You never realise how good the BBC is until you go somewhere else. Words cannot describe how shit the television is elsewhere in the world.

You can't beat the 10 page health news :)

Haha. I was howling at the moon - and at anyone who wants to turn an editorial error of judgement into a full fledged enquiry into the BBC. ;-) This image gives a very clear idea of how many senior managers had been suspended over the Savile case, which lead to a complete breakdown in the deciion making chain. The one thing that's clear is that there wasn't some sort of hypothetical over managed bureaucracy.

With you DaveR. There is something about cars, maybe the advertising, maybe the sense of achievement, maybe just a ton of fuck you, that turns you into a total twat. The idiots on here hypothecating about street nicies, are doing it behind 40 years of crumple zone and 100 years of smug. Ridiculous examples of isolated behaviour are irrelevant. Most people on a bicycle are simply scared shitless. Of twats in cars.

BBC: committed 100% creative 100% global impact 100% gives a shit 100% passingly bureaucratic 100% entwhistle salary ?450k SKY: pointless twats 100% pays footballers 100% original programming 1% here today gone tomorrow 100% who? 100% James Murdoch salary ?6m Shouldn't be even having this conversation 100% If you attack the Beeb over this ridiculous saga you really need to get some sense.

Yes, reduce your picture size. When you upload a 10MB file for a picture of your cat, that's the same thing as taking Admin's breakfast from under his nose, smashing it over his head and putting the pieces in his pocket. Whilst satisfying, it doesn't induce cooperation. Here's one, go for 600 width maximum http://www.imageoptimizer.net/Pages/Home.aspx

That bloke at school who thinks he's better than everyone else (woodrot)

Hmmm

An enquiry into what? How inexperienced temporary editors cut off from a management structure that was just finding its feet under a new DG made a mistake? What's to find out?

An enquiry into what? This Tory Paedophile ring story was being developed by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a journalistic not for profit organisation whose stories would have been widely discussed by people who didn't know the details. This isn't rumour-momgering it's just industry tattle. The BIJ don't have a political agenda - they've targeted the EU, Public Sector Pay and Iraq War chicanery, in other words both right and left wing sacred cows.

An excellent study made in the 90s* regarding the cost vs payments by sector for the UK road system made it clear that 75% of the costs of roads (in total around ?100bn at this time) are paid for by general taxation, and only 25% by motorists. In terms of wear and tear, it is motorists that create the damage - not cyclists and pedestrians, who just aren't heavy enough. General taxation isn't 'free money' of course, it's paid for by all taxpayers - including cyclists. This means that cyclists currently pay disproportionately for the upkeep of road compared with the costs they incur. Hence there is no moral or logical case to tax cyclists for road use. That aside, taxation isn't always about sharing costs, sometimes we want to incentivise particular activities. In a world suffering a resource squeeze I can see every case to incentivise people to get on two wheels, and not one to encourage people to buy more cars. *you can read it here: http://www.igreens.org.uk/great_road_transport_subsidy.htm

Quids, what I mean is that after public outrage that Newsnight had NOT publicised unsubstantiated and unproven allegations about Savile, the anti BBC mob forced the resignation of the Head of News and the Editor of Newsnight (amongst others). What's more, the rage against the supposed interference of senior BBC management in the Savile programme had created an environment where journalists were unsure whether stories such as this should be referred up the chain for approval. So now you've got stand in programme directors surrounded by stand in management reporting to a Director General not even five weeks into the job. So yes, I mean an inexperienced crew under direct fire from a delirious right wing hate mob peddling conspiracy theories demanding contradictory approaches. That's when mistakes get made. Let's be honest, the hate mob despise the BBC when they don't publish unproven allegations, and they despise them when they do. That's not a rational criticism, nor is it constructive.

Eh? Schofield's a tabloid style journalist on allow brow mid morning TV show that has a populist agenda promoting lightweight celebrity. He did exactly what he was supposed to do, and asked the question that his audiences want answering from their suburban armchairs.

I believe the complaints are about it reinforcing negative gender stereotypes.