david_carnell

The clue is in the name....hog roast. That's a whole hog. Circa 60kgs. A catering company like Suzanne James or a small supplier might work but you can't have a "small hog roast". I guess you could have suckling pig if guests didn't object.

This website is good for, as the name suggests, off-motorway stops and services and attractions. I hate souless service stations so this might be better option with a toddler. http://www.offmotorway.com/

EXACTLY! And I'm not seeing that on any front page of a newspaper or leading on the Today programme or dictate today's political agenda.

No one seems to care or be interested in this today so I'll make this my last point. Of the 100 people on the list: 3 Tory Peers 5 Tory Advisors 12 Tory Donors 1 employee of the Telegraph Rooney Anand - head of Greene King brewery who concocted a highly articificial tax avoidance scheme Richard Joseph - a convicted fraudster Lord Bamford - originally withdrew from peerage due to allegations abouthis tax affairs And that's a cursory search done by me and some folk on twitter. Never mind the links to HSBC which led to the Telegraph's chief political commentator quitting because of editorial bias. This is the shoddiest front page I've seen in an election campaign.

No Loz - but this stuff is dominating the news coverage today. And it's just my little diatribe on it.

Meanwhile the Centre for Macroeconomic Studies destroys the coalition myth about...well....everything. http://cfmsurvey.org/surveys/importance-elections-uk-economic-activity From Robert Peston: The Centre for Macroeconomics, which groups leading economists from Cambridge University, LSE, University College London (UCL), the Bank of England and the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), polled what it calls its 50 experts on whether the ?austerity policies of the coalition government have had a positive effect on aggregate economic activity (employment and GDP) in the UK?. Its result was a decisive no. Two-thirds of the 33 economists who responded disagreed or strongly disagreed with the proposition that austerity had been good for the UK. Now to be clear, this is not a scientifically robust poll of those who know best. But nor is the Telegraph?s letter - and those those who took part in the economists? survey are no less distinguished in their field than the business signatories. Among those who disagreed strongly that austerity had been a good thing, Oxford University?s Simon Wren-Lewis (never shy to express an opinion) asked if the question was ?a joke?, adding that ?the only interesting question is how much GDP has been lost as a result of austerity? (which he thinks could be as much as 10% of national income). John Van Reenen of the LSE, who also disagreed with austerity, said ?UK GDP is about 15% below where we would have expected on pre-crisis trends... Premature austerity has damaged UK welfare and, as I and others argued at the time, delaying consolidation would have left the UK in a much stronger position than it is today.?

I'd be inclined to agree to an extent but I don't think you can hold the son accountable for the sins of the father. And I'd disagree that these are lame attempts.

Today's Telegraph splash has me all kinds of hulk-angry. I link to it only for information purposes: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11507586/General-Election-2015-Labour-threatens-Britains-recovery-say-100-business-chiefs.html Now, there are so many things wrong with this I'm not even sure where to start. 1) This is a non-story. Big business and the people running/owning them support the Conservative Party. Well, blow me down with a feather and call me Shirley. How the feck is that a story. A 10 year old should be able to tell you that. Of course they do. They always have. That's who the party is meant to represent. If they were supporting Labour, that would be a story. If trade union leaders were backing Cameron, that would be a story. But this?! 2) Some of these people are already Conservatives, party members or donors. Karen Brady is pictured. She's a Tory life peer in the House of Lords. And now she's going to support the Tories at the election?! Wowzers. What next? "Miliband votes for himself in Doncaster constituency - the arrogance of the man."??? 3) It's not even true. Look at levels of foreign investment in the UK since 1997. http://www.tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/foreign-direct-investment The idea that this government has made Britain "open for business" is clearly BS. Levels of investment are at a modern low. 4) Is there anything more pathetic than a bunch of people who have more money than they could ever need or spend bleating about paying their fair share of tax while heading up companies who avoid tax, pay minimum wage (that they would have opposed in the first place) and have workers on zero-hour contracts. When was the last time you heard normal people whining like this about paying tax? As Tim Burgess has said: "When should we share the letter from all the rich people we have made richer at the expense of everyone else?" "April Fools Day?" "Cool." It'd be funny except it's true.

An interesting insight, Canela - was that primary or secondary level? I suspect your situation was exacerabted by Brighton's geography which doesn't lend itself to covering even short distances particularly easily. In zone 2 though, that's not really the case. In the scenario envisaged above, all of those schools are walkable in about 30mins. That seems reasonable enough.

landsberger Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The sad thing is that hysterical parents demand 'the best' for > their child, they do not want their child > educating with low achievers/E2Lers/BME people, or > people (gasp) from a different social group. So > they will go to inordinate lengths - under the > name of "doing the best for their child" - to > effect this. ^THIS x 100

No-one would literally do the draw - a computer program would do so. It would vary around the country according to geography. Here in SE London, say you lived on Goose Green Roundabout (for eg) then secondary schools in Peckham, ED, New Cross, Forest Hill and Dulwich Village/Herne Hill would all be a reasonable distance. If you lived, say, at the southern boudary with Lewisham then you could extend the catchment area across borough lines but would discount stuff in the north of Southwark i.e. Borough, Bermondsey etc. There is no need for academic criteria to even be entered. You simply go to the school you are selected for. Within three years the mix of every school would be completely diverse across socio-economic and academic lines that no one school would have any advantage over another. Teachers could get on with teaching rather than panicking about minor league table increases and parents could focus on more important things than measuring maps with compass points to determine crow-flies distances to school entrances.

Help-Ma-Boab Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Is there a standard ratio when eating nuts and > raisins? Only just started eating this combination > foodstuff (replaces my Crunchie as a mid afternoon > pick me up) and not sure I have it right. > Currently I?m more loaded with nuts than raisins > on any given handful. 1 raison and approx. 4 nuts > is the mix I?m at. Is this about right? You've changed man! Been married for how long? And now look at you.... ;-)

Make it a lottery. Names go into a hat. School no 1 - pull name out. School no 2 - pull name out. And so on and so on until all schools are full and all pupils have a school. You do within a "reasonable" distance so people aren't having to cross the whole borough but otherwise it's the only fair way. I think Brighton did it a while back - I'd be interested to know the outcome.

I don't know if she's working or has the time but co-operative shops allow members to purchase very cheap, fresh food. To become a member you have to work some shifts in the store but not many. One or two a week I think. If the kids are in school it might be feasible.

Mid-Devon. Am currently trying to persuade the misses.

Quite. I don't think many south of the border understand the pure, venomous hatred that exists between Labour and the Nats in Scotland. The idea that they'd then be in coalition nationwide would make John Smith turn in his grave.

What about Malcolm Rifkind?

I predict no government will be formed. Like Belgium, we'll carry on for a year and perform much better with no government than with one.

Well I'm sure that coalition would be happy to work with the SDLP!

Swathes of England vote Labour. Barely anyone votes Tory in Scotland or Wales. Therefore a coalition of Labour/SNP/PC would be the most representative of the UK.

Louisa Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > JohnL Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > > > Plaid Cymru have about 3 :) > > God can you imagine the stick Milliband would get > if he went into an informal agreement with not > just one but TWO nationalist parties? I guess he's > always got that solitary Green MP for support. > > Louisa. Yes heaven forbid we should have a government representing ALL of the UK rather than a Tory government with about 3 MPs outside of England.

I'd second Dumplings Legend. They have a big glass screen behind which sit legions of Chinese chefs making the dumplings. It's fascinating for adults and kids alike. The ubiquitous fish tank also helps keep the little ones amused.

I think you mean emmigrate.... Although more immigrants would help....boost that income tax take.

apbremer Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Just another sanctimonious and patronising > champagne socialist. Because all socialists have to dress in sack cloth and live in a cave? Pillock.

Think you might have missed the point Youngrach - it's nonsense. It doesn't work. At all. Nadda. Nothing. So the people who continue to sell it are now either idiots or scam artists or both. And dangerous.