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.

Back in the late 70s, when the IRA bombs were going off all over England, I used to work as a trainee TV engineer. Being the mere minion/tea-boy that I was back then, part of my job was to carry my boss' briefcase. We had just completed some work in the West End of London at a customer's flat and we were heading back to his car. He opened the passenger door to let me in and we drove off normally. When we got back to the workshop, I couldn't find my manager's briefcase in the car. We looked all over the car. It wasn't around. Suddenly, the receptionist came running out stating that the Police were on the line. They had just completed a mini-controlled-explosion on a briefcase they had found on the pavement where we had been parked because they thought it might have contained a bomb, and amongst the remaining debris they had found my manager's details. The lesson that we both learnt from this was that it is always best to carry your own briefcase!

Just remember that my listening ear is close by. xxx

The one thing that gets me with the banks currently is that part of the reason they are making all this money is because of the government stimulus package that each one of us will pay for. So banks should have a special tax levied on them because of this. I don't normally agree with David Cameron but the Tories' new idea of levying a special tax on the banks finds favour with me.

Some time ago, when the Stock Market was doing extremely well, I bought some iShares in the Footsie 100. These have nose-dived into the English Channel. I was thinking of moving what pitiful amount I have left to the Chinese market - maybe something like the FXC. Has this market had its day? Or should I spend it down the pub?

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > DC - to an earlier point...if your binman stopped > collecting your rubbish you could deal with it > yourself but open heart surgery.... ????, how would you deal with clearing your own rubbish then? Stick it in next door's garden?;-)

HAL9000 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I read somewhere that the Simpsons were designed > with only three fingers and a thumb as a > cost-saving measure because it is cheaper and > quicker for the animators to draw the cartoons > that way. Apparently, that decision has saved the > producers a fortune over the years. HAL9000 I can't believe for one moment that the producers would have sacrificed a finger from each hand of the Simpsons merely to save a few cents. I know that businesses are always looking for cost-saving measures, but to chop a finger off each hand from each of the characters would, to my mind, be too painful to even contemplate.;-) > Or, perhaps, it's God's way of encouraging us to > adopt a base-10 maths system for some reason we > have yet to fathom? As for the base-10 theory, this could have some Android logic behind it as you would no doubt appreciate.

Lately I've been thinking really deeply, mulling over a question in my mind. For the sake of this debate we will categorise the thumb as a finger (no doubt there are some that will take issue with this point). But the question is, why is it that we have 5 fingers and the Simpsons have four and this appears to be perfectly adequate?

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Global finance is highly competitive and er > global...it's about, er, horrible word but 'brand' > London in that highly competitive market for the > employees and big financial institutions and high > value smaller businesses like Hedge funds. One > year WILL push and has pushed some of the high > value traders and funds away and they won't come > back once they've moved. Either we have a share of > this 'obscenity' or we don't but without it we'll > be significantly poorer - country, government > individuals.Fine if that's what we want... With a name like ???? I'm wondering if you are a banker? ;-)

karter: thanks for your response Mogs: thanks for PM, I'll be in touch Tony.

Mogs Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > You could always join us for Badminton at Harris > every Saturday 9 - 12, all levels welcome. Hi Mogs, Do you have full details please? I.e. cost, location, full address etc. I would be very interested. Tony.