david_carnell

I would have arrested you as well! A pony tail? Dear oh dear.

The Beard - On an entirely anecdotal basis (i.e. a worthless one): B, C, D and F Now what....?

Keep your friends close etc etc....

Those are my middle names. Stranger things and all that.... ...although our poor Ma would have suffered with a 30 year gap between us. Unless it was a mutual father... That d----d Army Brigadier! Bloody cad.

He's a very soft Tory. He's young for the role of Speaker (at 46) and seems to have a good agenda. He has a rather odd manner about him that some take against. He is also loathed by factions of his own party who view him almost as the opposition. I think he deserves a fair crack of the whip.

BREAKING NEWS - John Bercow has been elected as the new Speaker of the House of Commons.

I'm yet to watch the programme (it's not yet on 4OD) but as "Industrial Relations in Britain 1979-90" was the title of my university dissertation I shall await with interest. As an aside, there was an interesting article with Bob Crowe in the Guardian on Saturday.

I'm invoking Godwin's Law. If you're bringing the Third Reich in to support your argument, I'm out. Let's get back to finding Michael's marbles.

Canberra? Shit, I thought it was Melbourne! Look, Brendan, you know what I'm getting at so don't obfuscate with semantics. You know as well as I do the dangers of following the herd mentality that Atila is advocating. Whilst I'm not suggesting there should be some intellectual elite that governs a society's moral compass it is silly to suggest we should have the opposite.

Brendan - morality is not defined simply by the view of the majority either, surely?

Ever heard of tyranny of the majority Atila? Why is my response childish? Or rubbish? You haven't answered why majority views aren't always correct. For hundreds of years the majority view was the the earth was flat. Those that said it was round were often branded as heretics. It didn't make that majority any less wrong however. Not always. Just sometimes. It would be good if you could at least acknowledge that. I don't expect you to agree on the issue, and this isn't the place to drag up that argument again (you could PM if you really want to do so properly), but just to admit that being in the majority doesn't always make you right.

Just to briefly address AR's point - if the majority of respondents in a poll thought Sydney was the capital of Australia, would that make it so? Ergo, just because your view may be more commonplace doesn't necessarily make it the correct one. As for the marbles, I'm with Michael P on page1. They're ours. Mitts off. And the Egyptians can't have any of their stuff back either.

???? you could join me in a bankruptcy thread. I hear the upton park coffers are emptier than General Motor's!

Oh cock. Mea culpa. Tony, the mysteries of spread betting continue to elude me. Probably to the benefit of my bank balance!

And he makes a living betting?! Anyway hopefully Leeds will finally go up this season. But it'll have to be via the automatic promotion places. We can't win in the play offs seemingly. Holding on to Beckford looks possible mind you. Greedy little bugger.

Without wishing to put words in his mouth, Sean (and a few others on here inc. myself) are probably more anti-authoritarian than anti-police per se. The idea that a tougher and tougher law&order programme can solve everything from anti-social behaviour to murder seems overly simplistic. This isn't Guardianista, liberal-pinko wishy-washy, give-them-all-a-hug advocacy - merely a feeling that there are deeper issues at the root of this that police brutality, stop-and-search, capital punishment et al do not solve by themselves (or in some cases, at all). No-one is pro-crime or pro-criminal (at least not that I've seen) but the ultra-hardline responses that some have posited as an answer to modern social issues I find occasionally frightening.

TeD mAX: Ignore the icon on the far right. That's for the juniors section. dC: WHAT are you trying to say Ted, mon cherie? that WE are far-right??? In FACT in the 45 years i've lived in sweet ol' london town all them juniors mix with THEIR OWN KIND OF FORMATTING - innit. :-S

This is the most recent statistical report I can find, from the Indy. A summary: The figures show that, since the operation [see below] started in May 2008, the number of youths suffering serious stabbing injuries in London has fallen by 30 per cent, from 221 to 155, while overall knife crime, which includes any offence where a blade has been used, has fallen by 11.5 per cent ? from 13,874 incidents to 12,279. Youth victims of violence have also fallen by 9.8 per cent. And, while knife-related youth murders stood at 14 this time last year, eight people under the age of 19 have been killed with a knife so far this year. Operation Blunt 2 begun last year after the number of young people being murdered in the capital increased, with the favoured weapon being a knife. The operation widened the already operational Blunt and involved the use of random stop and search tactics and knife arches at Tube and train stations. As there has been discussion on community relations regarding stop and search, from the same article: Acting Deputy Commissioner Tim Godwin said that the use of stop and search tactics in non-terrorism operations had increased by 40 per cent and admitted that it can be contentious. "If you are being stopped 10 times or five times you are going to get fed up," he said. "Every now and again the community will challenge us and that is where we have to be able to argue the reasons for doing it and generally we get support. We have maintained community support in a very sensitive area. It is not about harassing young people. It is about making a hostile environment for people carrying knives and getting weapons off the street. And in response, someone on 'the ground': Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of the youth charity Kids Company, added: "I am not saying these figures are not to be believed, but I would not consider them an absolute presentation of the whole picture. I know from working at street level that a vast number of stabbings never get reported to the police. The real figures rest in hospital accident and emergency figures. "But, considering the intensity of stop and search and random knife arches, it shows that if you put the work in you can bring your figures down. I do think that stop and search and knife arches do make young people think twice about carrying a knife. If the police consider it progress then that is good enough for me. Any progress is good."

That's numberwang!

Err, Tony, did you not read Pier's post?

I'm up for the other test matches but my sister get's married on Saturday and on this occasion rugby comes a close second. In the words of Duncan Banatyne: I'm ooot. COME ON THE LIONS!!!!

Joseph?

A few friends and I watched a film last night. This quote seemed quite apt given the current topic. Excuse the pop-philosophy nature: It is said that what is called the Spirit of an Age is something to which one cannot return. That this spirit gradually dissipates is due to the world's coming to an end. In the same way, a single year does not have just spring or summer. A single day, too, is the same. For this reason, although one would like to change today's world back to the spirit of one hundred years or more ago, it cannot be done. Thus it is important to make the best out of every generation.

Buster Keaton?

Really? Again? Couldn't you have just tacked this on the end of your last Jack Bauer wank-a-thon.