Brendan

Mamma Mia Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > When you hold the door for someone and they walk > straight through without thanking you and then a > whole stream of people following behind do the > same like you are invisible. You try to let the > door go but nobody attempts to hold it. Then you > get a dirty look from someone who thinks you are > rude for letting the door go in their face. > Grrrr > > Edited to say "mild irritation" rather than > "irrational rage" The the lack of common decency and acknowledgement towards ones fellow man which is endemic in society is not a small thing. It is a very big thing indeed. It bothers me all the time because it forces me to have to draw the conclusion that most people are essentially cunts which is something I really, really, really, don?t want to have to believe.

DaveR Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Plus what the hell has banking regulation got to > do with allocation of resources? In a capitalist system money is how resources are allocated. In the type of capitalism that has been promoted and is widely practiced in Britain especially with privatisation, Private Funding Initiatives etc. the banks are responsible for a large part of the money supply.* When the banks are essentially funding your infrastructure, social services and commerce not having proper regulation is just insane. The way I see it banking regulation really has quite a lot to do with the allocation of resources. Anyway ze Germans are all for proper regulation to secure future stability and they are considerably smarter than the English.** *At a cost to the public, especially future generations, that is will end up higher than traditional public financing through taxation. But that is another argument. **This is what is known as tongue-in-cheek antagonism.

No.

Ask me if I'm an orange.

If you read the reports apparently where this and some other incidents occurred was in areas where the cops had confined the protesters to cordons and were stopping them from marching.

Really? He must have been the Rolls Royce mechanic. Everyone knows if your roller breaks down you can?t touch it until they have sent their guy around.

DaveR Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- but its such a lazy > assumption that you can wave a magic wand and come > up with a system for allocating resources that > operates fairly, democratically and without being > driven by profit. Nobody is suggesting a move away from the capitalist system just that banks are institutions of law and that therefore they should be subject to laws that properly protect the consumer and the economy. (If the tv I buy is broken I have a legal right take it back and get another one. Apparently this won't work with my pension) Not allowing institutions to lend if they don?t have the liquidity to back it up would be a good start. The financial services industry is important but it needs to be kept in perspective. Money has to come from somewhere and yes you can make a lot of it from moving it around in interesting ways, skimming off the top and charging for the service but you can?t just magic it from nowhere. Unless someone somewhere in the world is producing food, digging up coal, making clothes, programming computers, building roads etc. you can do as many clever things with money as you want but it?s going to be worth bugger all.

I don?t think the issue is Banks vs Protesters. Apart from in the minds of a few nut jobs, the popular media and everyone who can?t think for themselves. (So admitted a majority of the population then) I see it as trying to get the government to take this opportunity to set up a proper framework in which the industry will be run in future. You say, ?the success of the banks is critical to the success of the country?. This is very true of the uk?s current situation and precisely why they have to be held to account by the government and instructed on how to proceed. We are talking about institutions that are run singularly on the basis of making profit for shareholders and the damaged caused be dammed. If they are so integral to the success of the nation/world surely they need to be kept in check by those who (supposedly) represent the people.

67% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Yes there are a lot of unhappy people at the moment but it has been brewing for some time. These people have every right to have their voice heard. What is often spun as 'stifling regulation' is merely protection for individuals from corporate greed and happens all over the world to varying degrees. Every bank is not going to pull out of London and move to Guernsey.

Stick a pickled herring down your trousers, lick your armpit backwards and call Nicaragua in the morning.

Le Hash Rawk It?s French for stoner metal.

Mick Mac Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I agree with Mr Ben - some of us work hard for a > humble enough existence. Seems we are all being > treated as being guilty of something. That is exactly the type of thought the right wing press would like to hatch in people's minds. Create an, us and them feeling. 99.9% of the people protesting are not protesting against individuals who happen to work in the city. The agenda are variously: calling for the protection of people?s savings and pensions and putting a stop to exploitative practices in financial services, calling for political action on the use of fossil fuels, calling for an end to military action oversees and calling for domestic policies of job creation and social stability. It is not, ?We the crusty unwashed seek the blood of the sanctimoniously suited.? That is just what they (yes them again) want you to feel.

Will this system apply on April 1st?

Anyone get taken in by Stephen Fry?s discovery of a shark-whale on the BBC?

Fantastic. Now if only we could scrap licensing fees all our news could be written with such an objective non-political agenda.

I for one whole heartedly support peoples? right to protest legitimately against a system which is exploiting them. It is irresponsible of the press to whip up this hysteria about psychotic, blood crazed hippies on the war path to abuse pregnant city workers and whatever other bollocks they have been spewing. Granted there may be radical elements that are looking for trouble but I?m sure the legions of heavily armed police I walked past this morning will quickly put a stop to this. In a free society people have the right to make a visible show of their concerns. If there are enough people to bring a city to a standstill well then surely it means that there is a problem that those in power should rightly listen to. I?m also in pin stripes and polished brogues today. Do you think that if I explain nicely that I work to expose corruption and amicably resolve disputes it will stop the soap dodging, pond life, baby killer, Marxist, cannibal, evil hippies bent of the destruction of our democratic right to exploit the weak from flaying the skin from my commie sympathising bones?

I kind of agree with mockney, oxymoronic (which sounds like acme cream for the mentally challenged). So if I go to the Bishop on Friday do I have to join in the hideously short skirt and floral undies wearing or can I go just as a spectator? What about the pit bulls? I normally don?t mind them but they are in my bad books at the moment after some shmuck?s feral mutt tried to take a chunk out of me down the Brixton beach 2 weekends back. But that is another story the telling of which is for another time and involves builders, pirates and a monkey. One more thing: Does this Prince Albert business Big Phil is promoting have something to do with men wearing hideously short skirts? If I use my imagination I can see the practical application. Although it has left me a little disturbed.

Moos Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Who doesn't have something from > TopShop in their wardrobe? Me. Well I'm pretty certain I don't.

I have been served bad pints before in local pubs but the staff have always been happy to replace them. The only time what you describe has happened to me was in a pub in Westminster. I just handed the pint to the little gobshite manager, said, ?You drink it then.? and walked out.

Well in that case the only sane play at this juncture is Shoreditch.

If Cliff Fort?s Extensions Principle applies: Canons Park If not: Bank (obviously)

Well I was told it would all be beer and skittles. 5 years I?ve been living here and I?ve not seen a single skittle yet.

Still it?s nice to, a)not get woken up by the sunshine at 4am. b)have longer evenings in the summertime.

Cannon Street