Huguenot

Yes it seems so - if you can't consider intent then Warburton never had a hope of staying on.

Petit Shabby

As with any other music fan (because there is rhythm in circuit boards) I used to be a fan of Apple until they became popular with people I considered to be less discerning. At that point the only viable route is categoric rejection. See those people outside the Apple Store? They're all listening to the Lighthouse Family.

I think that's very unfair. UDT already works very hard on his rooftop terrace* welcoming in the apocalypse. *This is a graceful term to describe a Weetabix box full of missing tiles and a large number of unregulated antennas.

Eh what? I agree with the sentiment, but tax efficiency isn't false profit. Look it up. Neither is it non-productive unless the money isn't reinvested. Unemployment benefit is non-productive. I think you're trying to get cheap plaudits on an anti-business platform there DaveR. I don't even pay myself a salary in my own business, because every snotting jot goes to pay my guys who all want a regular salary and perks that I can't even give myself. SMEs are over 50% of UK GDP, so a bit of support wouldn't go amiss.

Me? No, don't disturb me.... I'm looking for the black neo-nazis. I don't think it's possible to invoke such a powerful symbol without all the paperwork that comes with it. Finger wagging hoity toity claims that it wasn't what you meant are a bit pointless.

So only DaveR passed? Some of you will have to bring sleeping bags.

Where are you originally from Pickle?

It's the real thing. All the answers are in 'Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship' Handbook. So I guess to pass, you need to memorise it.

With a pathetic 14 out of 24, there seems to be good reason why I've been exiled to Singapore. Take the test, and see if you'll be obliged to join me shortly. I'll tidy the spare room. ;-) Nette, there aren't any picture questions, so you may struggle. Try to look at the shape of the letters, and see if you can remember them from the pictures on the walls?

I love it when Zeban gets on her high horse about rent - it's like she's had an entitlement stolen from her. You claimed that 'everyone you know rents', but you've just trotted out 2 ex boyfriends who are milking the system. What's it to be? Little bit inconsistent? ;-) Sounds like you have a bit of a mix actually? If I remember correctly, 'everyone you know rents' because you're about 28. Everyone I knew rented when they were 28. If I also recall correctly, you're a sometime charity shop worker and current hair stylist. This would sit in a box called 'subsistence worker' - or 'hand to mouth' if you wish. You do this out of choice, and you look down your nose at people who have to do proper jobs to pay proper salaries that you just don't fancy. So really that boils down to a 28 year old who tells porkies, and gets mad because she can't have her cake and eat it.

I genuinely don't think so. I think the UK is being whipped into a hysteria over these issues, but realistically the World Plc. doesn't want to see a meltdown, Europe doesn't want to see a meltdown and the UK doesn't want to see a meltdown. After the last crisis banks no longer work in ivory towers. The bigotry of Slovakian pensioners (currently living off the tax revenues of German children) is unlikely to be an overriding concern. Thinking of campaigning to have the vote taken away from silver surfers in favour of 14 year olds. Suspect it would go a long way to righting the ills of the world.

I'm not saying it's dead silverfox, I'm saying it's an outdated idea celebrated by geriatrics clinging on to a sense of identity generated by thugs better suited to slapping your forehead whilst they shag your wife. You choose. Slovakia may moan - bit since they're a hundredfold beneficiary of Euro largesse, I suspect they're doing it for small minded limping village autocrats rather than with any intent. For you to wave it like a flag of support (really silverfox? foreigners?) speakers more to your naivety rather than your insight. I note, rather resignedly, that as predicted Dexia is rescued and all is well in the world - apart from tedious bullshitters claiming it's the end of everything. I have little doubt it will continue to be the same thing for the next x years. Move along Madam, nothing to see here.

Sounds like there's something else going on - maybe something you don't know about?

Absolutely, nobody can prove them guilty, and hence they are legally innocent. Doesn't mean they didn't do it, and in the real world (as opposed to the courtroom) circumstantial evidence carries a lot more weight. I don't accept that they both were suffering simultaneously from complex personality disorders that conveniently allow them to justify their fabrications. The rest of the backstory has been generated by a public who were quite happy to invent a plausible scenario of kids under pressure on their behalf. Knox said she was with Sollecito, Sollecito said she wasn't. They couldn't even get their own story straight. So much for two students getting stoned together.

Absolutely Mike, it's not a crime - and both of them are liberated. However, neither of them habitually had their phones run out of juice simultaneously, and neither of them habitually came up with different conflicting stories that they later amended to justify their activities. You can generate as many arguments as you like as to why they're not proven guilty - the court would agree. But in the final analysis, nobody knows what either of them were up to that night, both lied a lot, and one of them confessed. Even the judge said they were liberated on the basis of 'truth created in court'.

Except that's not what they claimed - they made that story up days after they'd run through half a dozen competing claims regarding what they were up to. There's no evidence for that either.

Has someone been feeling dogs again?

Yes and no Damian. Whatever your views on false testimony, there's still a big fat missing 14 hours from 2 people on the night in question. Legally, and appropriately, innocent until proven guilty. Personally, Find me those 14 hours.

These cunts are raping society, and we've got their number. Roll on ECB and take this joke out of the hands of short termers. Society should be in the hands of elected representatives, not dickwads with a C at O level.

You're joking right?? Here's the latest... "Moody's has downgraded the credit rating of 12 UK financial firms including Lloyds TSB, RBS, Nationwide and Santander UK. "The ratings agency said it now believed the government was less likely to support firms that got into trouble." Lloyds and RBS? You think UK Plc is ever going to let those two go? There is no difference in the threat to those two banks today compared with yesterday. Those two should be UK rated. All they've done by changing the rating is to rape them in interest. This is a fucking joke. If you want to see that as 'sensible', pull your skirt down.

So far as I can tell the chief reason for the acquittal was the lack of sufficient robust evidence. Which seems reasonable. The chief reason for the frustrations of the prosecution was the lack of evidence that they were innocent: neither of the accused could give any truthful alibi, and Knox confessed to being present - her claims of being under duress didn't stack up with the situation. The stories of both of them turned out to be a bucket full of horseshit. Legally there's a presumption of innocence, but for the average chap on the street, there's even less evidence that they were innocent than there was that they were guilty. There was a whole warehouse full of unusual behaviour by both parties that night, it's not surprising the Kercher family thinks there are more questions to be answered. Personally I haven't got a clue - and I certainly didn't find her guilty by reason of being American as Moos commented earlier - I just commented on the weird speech on the courthouse steps.

Really? I was mulling it over today and thinking how surprisingly well it works at many levels.

Let's put it another way, to remove all doubt about my views. We create a system where there is no punishment for rape, principally because those who might commit the crime promise that they won't do it. Then a banker walks into a bookies and asks what the odds are on Joe Bloggs getting raped tomorrow - 20:1 says the bookie, as it's never happened before. Great, says the banker, and puts down $1m. The banker's mates realise something is up, and they all put down $1m too. The bookie slashes the odds, to protect his business, so everyone says that Joe Bloggs is more likely to get raped tomorrow, even though Joe Bloggs is no different between today and tomorrow. Joe Bloggs is suddenly forced to make promises to be especially careful (which onlookers say is 'proof' he's going to get raped). This creates a massive incentive on all those people who have money on Joe Bloggs getting raped to make sure it happens. Now Joe Blogg's mates rally round and say they're going to protect him. In response the bankers (let's now be honest, and call them rapists) put down money on 5 people to get raped tomorrow. There, they say, see if you can protect all 5? Your response to this, DaveR, is to say 'Drop your trousers Joe Bloggs, you deserve it and rapists should have freedom of expression'. My response to this is to either cut off their cocks or shackle their legs. Either way, the rapists shouldn't benefit. I certainly don't blame Joe Bloggs for staying out late, or blame our society for allowing people to walk down dark alleys.

You got it the wrong way round DaveR, again. You called me a fanatic first, an observation I found to be rooted in xenophobia - do you get it? You started throwing the abuse first. Incidentally - I notice that Italy's debt has been downgraded by Moody's due to 'market sentiment'. In other words it's been downgraded because everybody talked it down. As a result of that their cost of borrowing has gone up, making it more difficult to make their payments. I have little doubt that the same institutions that have put their cost of borrowing up are now betting against them recovering - making it an incentive to continue to talk the market down, raise the rates and eventially trash Italy. Do you get it DaveR? You're on their side. This is what the EB were worried about with Greece - not the Greece economy, but that once the finance companies have rolled Greece, that they'll be on to the next one. Financiers make money faster by fuelling national crashes and misery than they do through incremental small percentage point growth. We need to stop financial organisations winning these bets - we need to make them pay for trying to trash Europe.