Penguin68

Lib dems over my dead body. Lucky we're not in Russia, or I'm sure it could be arranged...

Please note that this is not either a Market or a Social Research exercise. Both of these absolutely require that personal identifiers are NEVER associated with individual responses and the identity of those taking part (with some very special exceptions) is NEVER divulged to the principal commissioning the research. This is a list building exercise designed to allow Lib Dem messages to be sent to those supporting CPZs (I would guess) suggesting that the Lib Dems support such a move, whilst making sure that antis don't get that message. By all means participate in this exercise, but do not think it has anything to do with legitimate market or social research practices. It breaches the MRS code big time. Neither will it provide figures which are in any way representative of the ED population. The ED forum is a self selecting population the representativeness of which is unknown. Neither is it known (I would guess) how many forumites are now resident in the set of wards which cover ED. So it would be impossible to make any statistical interpretation of results.

Hi P68, Thanks for commenting here before giving me a chance to responds to your PM - Blimey I do have to work as well! I commented before sending you the PM, which latter was prompted by Admin. My concerns about your research design were exacerbated by the realisation that other data being collected would support identity theft. It appears that some data (i.e. year of birth) has to be input for the survey to post, according to other posters. Whilst you are entirely at liberty to undertake a list building exercise, existing and new data protection requirements are quite onerous. In order to make any response to your survey you do 'force' identity and address disclosure on your respondents. This might be classified as 'sugging' (selling under the guise of research). I suspect that your computer security is not of industrial strength (which is quite expensive to achieve) which does imply that you may well be open to hacking. With the type of data you are collecting this is a genuine concern.

PLEASE READ MY MESSAGE ABOUT YOUR CPZ SURVEY ON THE RELEVANT THREAD. I AM SHOUTING FOR A REASON

I AM SHOUTING THIS FOR A REASON DEAR MR BARBER - PLEASE WILL YOU DELETE THE SURVEY YOU HAVE POSTED - IT CONTAINS SUFFICIENT INFORMATION, IF HACKED, TO ALLOW A MAJOR IDENTITY THEFT TO TAKE PLACE, WITH NAMES, ADDRESSES, DATES OF BIRTH AND POSSIBLE E-MAIL AND PHONE NUMBERS. NORMAL COMMERCIAL SURVEYS WOULD NEVER HOLD THIS INFORMATION TOGETHER. ADDITIONALLY I SUSPECT THAT YOU HAVE NOT REGISTERED WITH THE DATA PROTECTION REGISTRAR NOR DEVELOPED ANY TYPE OF SECURITY TO HOLD THIS INFORMATION SAFE. I AM ALSO GOING TO POST ON YOUR THREAD.

I should perhaps add that a survey such as this, where the respondents are identified to the survey principals would breach the rules for commercial Market Research where survey respondent identities must be kept from principals. It would also breach the normal rules for social research undertaken within a University context for the same reason, or for research undertaken within a company about its employees. Public research requires that respondent confidentiality be preserved at all times. So, answer at your peril, understanding that unlike most surveys you will have undertaken, this one allows your identity and views to be known to those commissioning the research.

As a matter of fact, by providing this information with your address etc., you are authorising them to contact you for the purposes of electioneering etc. on phone and e-mail. This transcends their rights to send postal material or to leaflet at the door step. The key 'dangerous' assumption made here is that the ED forum members are in any way a representative sample of ED residents. I have seen no evidence of this. Additionally opt-in surveys such as this almost inevitably attract polarised views - so forum members without axes to grind will tend to ignore such a questionnaire. The survey will most likely simply tell the Lib Dems whether the Forum has more partizan pro or anti CPZ-ers without giving a representative view of ED members, let-alone ED residents. Such surveys run by the council are focused on those who are actually and currently being threatened (or excited) by such a proposal. That sense of immediacy is not inherent in this survey. The survey fails to ask whether the respondent already lives in a CPZ (and of course does not then check whether they are happy to do so). I am not sure that any analysis would be done to exclude those in CPZs from the survey results, or to separate their responses. One simple question would have allowed that analysis to be easily undertaken. Nor does it ask, for current non CPZ residents whether they have lived in a CPZ in the past, to inform their responses. The survey also fails to ask whether the respondent already has off-street parking (I have, for 3-4 vehicles at a pinch) which again will influence any response. The fee question in the survey does not indicate that these fees may change, and indeed that there is no legislation to cap or control such fees in the future. The questionnaire fails to ask about disability or any other issue (care) which might influence responses. It asks nothing about life stage (there is an age question but, in itself, this gives no valuable information). The questionnaire fails to ask which ward now, and after May, the respondent will live in. Although this is derivable from the address, it again is awkward to do so and would have been far more easily uncovered directly by the survey itself. This is relevant as regards informing relevant future ward councillors as to views within their wards. If you want to complete this questionnaire then I suggest under Q9 (other comments) you add I do not want to be contacted by phone or e-mail by the Liberal Democrats if that is your wish. This will/ should obviate the list building element of the questionnaire - your name and postal address being available already to political parties. I have not tried the questionnaire myself yet to know if you can submit if you don't complete the phone and e-mail sections, which would be another way of achieving this. I write as a former member of the Market Research Society (MRS) who in a past life both commissioned ?10s of millions of market research annually and later taught marketing at a University.

However, as the car was observed to be driving dangerously, recklessly or in a threatening manner that can be immediately reported to the police; the tax, MOT and Insurance issues are secondary - icing on the cake when and if a case comes to court.

Surely the problem here is context. I think it it right (appropriate) for a person to be able to determine which gender (or none) they would like to be treated as by the world in general - if I want to identify as a woman I would like that on my passport and I don't want people telling me I'm not because I carry certain DNA markers. But if I went mad and said I wanted to carry a child and wanted expensive fertility treatment I think that a doctor pointing out that I am genetically a man is entirely appropriate, as it would be if I fell sick and was diagnosed with prostate cancer, or was refused a cervical screen, despite being identified as a 'woman' on documents. Changing rooms, single-sex events etc. fall into the context when being an intact male (or in intact female, although that is historically far less of an issue) may be relevant in determining access. As is the actual intact state of an individual involved with intimate examinations etc. when the person being examined cares what 'sex' (not gender) they are being examined by. I think that government moves on easing gender identification and change (as a general issue) should not be overtaken by companies or authorities moving to a reductio ad absurdum position of giving access everywhere to anyone claiming to be anything. And when it comes to monitoring 'sexism' and the way that women are, or aren't, treated fairly, to blur what being a 'woman' means is to make future analysis far less meaningful. There are always people who will game situations. 'All women' shortlists make sense when we are talking about sex, much less so when talking about gender. Of course it can be argued that the actual proportion of people who would wish to really change gender identity (permanently or on occasion) is vanishingly small (well under 1% of the general population) - but if that is so why are we opening the floodgates to predatory people (where the number is certainly much larger) to game the situation?

Everyone knows me here - Going back over previous posts (in this name) of yours you appear to be an electrician, with a van, prepared to do ironing and with an interest in items to sell or buy - most of your posts are not however in this section, or the Lounge, so an ability to judge you for what you are and believe in the main rests on this thread - which people have been doing. You are certainly however not hiding; you have included a name, mobile number and post-code in your various posts. You have an absolute right to express an opinion (assuming that expression does not itself break the law, as appears to be the case for those responsible for the poster we are discussing) - but others have a similar right to comment on it.

Mark is very contentious Conscientious? Or spoiling for a fight?

Several things to check - (1) if you have a number of appliances does it trip at the same time on all? - check to see if it's kit or application specific. If some things (i.e. phones) still have broadband access then it is more likely to be something in your home or set-up. (2) Are you accessing through WiFi? There are numbers of problems with WiFi being interrupted by other things, including 'smart meters'. If you can, access via ethernet and see if your signal isn't interrupted. Again, this would be an internal problem. (3) Is the light on your router indicating a broadband drop-out? If it is, then it may be an external problem. Have you tried re-booting your router? Sometimes this will clear the router cache. BT is probably right that there are more things that can go wrong in your home than in the external network back through to the line card and rack, particularly if you have fibre where there are fewer flexibility points - most of which can be checked remotely. Intermittent problems are a b*stard of course. I had a machine where the broadband was constantly dropping out (but not on other machines and phones) - but far fewer problems on ethernet than WiFi. So it goes.

Surely the confusion and problem here lies (almost) in semantics. I have no problem with anyone choosing, even in a temporary fashion, which gender, or none, they wish to be 'known' as. Transvestites choose temporary genders, transexuals may choose to go to an extreme of surgical alteration, others may happily flit from one gender, or none, to another. However, gender and sex are not the same thing, and certain spaces (changing rooms, lavatories) are understood to be set aside for specific sexes, not specific genders. 'Single sex' is NOT the same thing as 'single gender'. We are, perhaps, in the West too focused on people being either one sex/ gender or another (indeed on people being one or the other, but not neither, or both) - but that is our cultural inheritance. However just as an individual can choose to be 'identified' as something they do not carry the DNA for, so, surely can someone else choose still not to identify them against their obvious genetic truth. If it is my right to self identify as a woman, for instance (which I'm not, genetically) then surely someone meeting me has the right not to identify me as such. Particularly in circumstances when they would very much not want to meet an intact male (sex) whatever gender that intact male is channeling. What we need is 'spaces' or 'events' where the criterion for membership/ attendance is not gender but sex. With special consideration for those individuals who have surgically altered their outward appearance such that in all normal circumstances they would 'pass' as the relevant sex. Which does not stop the creation of unisex events or spaces, where those people not concerned or worried can go. As the swimming pool at Dulwich normally is.

'Limp-wristed' used, like 'confirmed bachelor' to be a shorthand for 'homosexual'. The latter was used more in obituaries, the former in insults. It isn't a nice term. It goes with 'pansy' and 'nancy-boy'. Not to mention 'fairy'. It only goes with 'Liberal Democrat' if you belong to the far right, in general. Amended to add - or, curiously, the hard left, although in my experience it is the Marxist-Leninist/ Stalinist tendency rather than the Trots who exhibit most puritanical homophobia.

The only bumble bee you will see at the moment is an overwintering queen - workers and drones die off in autumn. The average nest size is around 50-100 when fully operational (so much smaller than honeybee communities). Bumble bees can fly when temperatures reach around 7C (45F) - normal temperatures at this time of year, though not sadly now. Giving a sugar water solution and leaving them in a sheltered position may be the best option for survival - they may well have come in from outside to escape freezing conditions. Normally they over-winter somewhere sheltered, and can survive, but not fly in, quite cold conditions - i.e. below freezing.

I don't think the protesters are complaining about men-only swim sessions, just using these as a platform for making a point about 'self identification'. And a very successful one in publicity terms.

The moth traps attract the males.

It should be remembered that Neo Nazis share the vile nationalist and racialist ideas of the National Socialist German Workers' Party - but not its original socialist ideals, nor its commitment to 'workers'. Initially indeed Nazi political strategy was focused on anti-big business, anti-bourgeois and anti-capitalist rhetoric - so just a touch of the Jeremy's there - it was a far more complex entity than its weak-minded modern copy-cats. The fact is that these morons know nothing of either political or economic arguments - when the German people supported the Nazis (as very many did) they were not (just) supporting something vile, but something which did speak to real economic and political sensibilities. What these were allied to, of course, were disgusting, but at least at the start it was possible to look at the economic and 'socialist' issues whilst ignoring the nationalist and racist, at least in its most disgusting guises. Amended to note that the point I am making is that to call these people 'Neo Nazis' is almost to over-praise them. The real and original Nazis at least had a programme (bits of a programme) which was attractive to many Germans who weren't inherently vile - whereas these people have evidenced time and again that they have no appeal to anyone (well, hardly anyone) - and certainly no one who isn't nationalist (rather than patriotic) and racist. Germans may only have found out, too late, what they had brought on themselves, but these people have no excuse. The history is clearly there.

In many cases women who choose to use 'women only' facilities do so because they have had bad experiences with mixed facilities - or with men in general. There is a significant difference in many people's minds between those transexuals who have moved their entire life-styles into a role different from that they were born to or have the DNA for (outwith any alterations to their plumbing) and those 'choosing to identify' - perhaps not full-time - with a different sex. It is an unfortunate clash between 2 sets of freedoms. It is worthwhile however considering that, in sheer numbers, many more women have been the victims of male abuse than there are transexuals. If I had to legislate to protect the 'rights' of just one group it is the (far) larger group I would wish to protect. [Protecting one group does not in any way imply abusing or slighting another]. I am not happy with 'choosing to identify' men seeking to be on women only short-lists, either (although a post-op transexual is a much mooter point here].

Clearly commutter (sic) cars But maybe of people commuting in to serve and service the area you live in, nurses, teachers, shop assistants etc. Why assume that all people who travel to where you live and want to park are out to 'steal' space from you. Maybe they're there to serve your needs and those of your neighbours. Of course they've vanished now you've nimby'd them away. Let's hope you'll never need them. Let's hope if shops etc. close around you you didn't want to shop in them, or eat in the cafes that these people worked in. Let's hope you don't mind if your hospitals and schools can't find people to work in them.

There may not be the space for a portaloo (which needs roadside access to service). And these cost money. Of course the builder should be addressing this, if at fault, but is there the capacity or will to pursue them? Southern doesn't need customers to make money. And not paying staff just increases their profits. What's their incentive? You going to give up going to work are you? Or just continue to struggle through? Whatever sh1t they pour on you?

Have you lost voice and data services together? If just voice then it is unlikely to be a general outtage (most normally caused by cut cables) - but more likely a problem with your own equipment, or with the external wiring between yourself and the exchange. At one time 20% of faults in the local network were caused by work being undertaken in roadside cabinets etc. inadvertently causing another fault (disconnecting an adjacent wire). If you have just lost data that may be a system fault and it is worthwhile checking with your supplier if there are known faults in the area. If you have lost both voice and data then again it may be a problem in your local network which is specific to you. If you have lost voice then I assume you have no dial tone. Have you another phone you could plug in to check that it is not a fault in your equipment? What happens when you call your number (dead, or 'this number isn't recognised', engaged; ring tone no reply?) RTNR might suggest a problem within your equipment/ house. Engaged may be a handset problem. But contact your supplier. Unless it is Virgin your network is most likely provided by BT Openreach (whom you will not be able to contact directly) who have a multiple of diagnostics then can use to check for problems.

Also we noticed some small screwdriver type scratches and notches around our key hole Now these are concerning.

Ditto Southwark. It would be more meaningful if figures could be given for smaller areas within the borough. The problem then rises (for small samples) with the mix of housing sold. If in one period it's all houses, and the next mainly one bedroom flats, the 'average' per transaction will appear to plummet, although underlying prices may not have changed. That's why large sample pools are chosen, so that, on average, the mix of housing sold stays broadly stable. What you need is analysis by size of property and by location - but then, period on period, the sample (even the population) sizes are likely to be far too small for any real trends to be identified. For the vast majority of people at any one time these figures are going to be academic. They are neither buyers nor sellers. It is only when mortgage interest rates rise savagely and prices fall such that there is a danger of negative equity (and unaffordable mortgages) that house price movements are of genuine concern to most.

If you are worried about markings, most likely children I would guess, rub them out. Urban myth has such markings as being related to burglars casing the joint, or to beggars (in some versions travellers) leaving messages about easy touches etc. As notes the most likely sign-makers (in the street) are those responsible for street and utility repair. Your doorstep would not be a chosen location for them.