tonyw3

Try parking that in East Dulwich.

Thanks everyone for the responses. After a long hard think and reading all of the posts I have decided not to go. Instead, I've opted to go to Kabul because, at least there, I will have armed guards all of the time. Money OK.;-)

First of all thanks everyone for your responses to this one. It truly actually helps. Flights home would be every 3 months - with 2 weeks off. No I am not in the oil industry (IT) which probably has equally smelly armpits. MrBen, do you by any chance have the formula for the risk/reward maths?;-) And I would jump at any job which offered me either Singapore or California. Has anyone on this forum ever worked in Lagos?

If you were offered a year's contract working in Lagos, Nigeria, would you take it? Salary OK, accommodation provided, chauffeur driven to work, and armed escorts home when you leave the office late. Wife doesn't want to go and would not visit.

Huguenot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- >The problem seems to me that these selection > committees are essentially undemocratic? They skew > the system? I agree with with what you are saying Huguenot that the selection committee themselves are not democratically selected. But I suppose the other problem is, we the public, are not sure how many ethnic minority candidates actually put themselves forward in the first place.

Loz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Harman's equality bill called more for all-women > shortlists. Stuffing Parliament with more > middle-class, Oxbridge-educated lawyers - male or > female - will hardly improve things. > > I would suggest that more 'non-lawyer' and > 'non-Oxbridge' lists would lead to more equality > in Parliament. Possibly even the occasional > 'working-class only' shortlist wouldn't go astray, > either. Loz, I am not in favour of quotas although at times they do have their place. But I agree with you that "Stuffing Parliament with more middle-class, Oxbridge" types - i.e., one could say clones, is not reflective of the country in general. I do think that we need a Parliament that reflects the country's diversity.

The press seem to believe in their powers of persuasion.

No I haven't just twigged, but sadly you are correct. When I was in New Zealand I used to listen to the Al Jazeera channel: they seemed pretty neutral.

Wouldn't it be nice if the press didn't take party sides and reported the election as it is? I.e. the facts, without the spin for supporting one party or another. This has been hammered home to me watching Sky News. Normally I watch a variety of news channels where possible but am away from home at the moment and Sky is the only "choice". Sky have come out clearly in support of the Conservative Party by its biased reporting. Rupert Murdoch has been true to his words.

Matthew123, quite obviously for you to have scored last night's debate as what you have done means that you had one too many pints watching the football. ;-)

Despite Brown looking haggard and tired I thought that his performance today was good. He looked a bit ragged as though he had his heart, soul and sleep into this final push. How do people rank the various leaders in tonight's debate? I rank them: Brown: 9/10 Clegg: 8/10 Cameron: 6/10 Not sure how many of you would agree.

Jenny Jones of the Greens herself came a knocking on our door. But no reds, blues or yellows yet.

Citizen Smith seems like a very good starting point.

...or has East Dulwich gone all yellow?

Thanks for laying this on for us. Brilliant job. Tony.