Brendan

I'm not sure but I think you can call a new player up. Any cricket geeks out there able to set us straight? Warne playing again would be great. Screw practicality. I bet his agent must be loving all of this though.

Although it still isn't really a valid argument to the original point.

???? Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > lol...yup unlike Greeces (a bit) and Irelands Now your point has some merit.

De Gaulle was right the British nation should never have been let into the EEC (EU) as it is politically and socially incongruous with the founding European states. Its presence devalues and destabilises the community.

Bullshit a thousand times over. (except for Mockney) Transparency isn?t about giving the public a direct say in diplomatic negotiations but about making those engaged public work accountable for their actions. Work on transparency initiatives in all spheres of public funded life are quite well developed. The UK and the World Bank will soon be expecting adherence to a formal transparency agreements in the procurement (basically the negotiating) phases of infrastructure projects they are funding in other countries. The UK is actually politically quite up for imposing transparency processes onto smaller nations. Not too keen on doing them themselves, although that?s perhaps just another predictably disappointing reflection of your national character. These sorts of things are administrative process which enforce a way of working and could not be applied without modification to ?diplomacy? or politics in general but the precedent is there and they are workable. There is nothing unreasonable or unworkable about expecting public officials to behave within the law and be honest and open. Nobody is suggesting putting every decision they make up to an X-factor style public vote even if it would make good television. If you think that you are a realist, a grownup who knows how the world really works and realises that certain things have to be done sometimes etc. you are unfortunately not cleverer or more insightful than the idealistic child you so scorn. The fact is you have just bought a bigger lie and gulped down every chunk. I won?t even go into the general unpleasantness of the sentiment it expresses. Anyway from my obviously naive and uniformed point of view the higher the stakes and the greater the public is at risk from dishonest or downright malevolent officials the greater the need for accountability. As the points I raised in my previous point demonstrate very clearly.

I?m going to stop approaching this from the point of view of someone who has worked intimately with governments on anti-corruption and transparency initiatives as my cynicism at the bald faced hypocrisy of the British government may eschew from the issue of why Joe Public should be interested in what has come to light. So as the Public, Joe Public I have right clicked on wikipedia and copied the summaries of the specific revelations about the UK which have come out of this whole business and, the rights and wrongs of press freedom and government transparency aside, these are the questions I would like to ask my representatives, the government, about them. "U.K. Foreign Office officials misled the public over Diego Garcia, and privately admitted no regret over the eviction of the Chagos islanders (Chagossians)." So public servants misled the public. Am I still paying these people?s salaries? If so why? Secondly, why are people who do not care about the human cost of their actions allowed into public office? Allowing someone of such temperament anywhere near government at all beggars belief. "U.K. Foreign Office officials concealed from Parliament a loophole in the ban on use and storage of cluster bombs, allowing the U.S. to store the munitions on U.K. territory." So they used a loophole in a piece of legislation to allow a military ally to store arms which would normally be considered illegal. Ok I can see how in certain circumstances this may have been necessary but they intentionally deceived the House in order to do so. Isn?t there some sort of law against that? There isn?t? Really? Well there bloody well should be. No, to be quite honest I don?t give a dam if every MP from the last few decades has to face criminal charges because of it. "The U.K. Ministry of Defence's director general for security policy told Ellen Tauscher, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, that the U.K. government had "put measures in place to protect your interests during the UK inquiry into the causes of the Iraq war"." So these ?independent inquiries? are just a smokescreen to appease me, Joe Public. I?m not sure which I am angrier about, the fact that you obviously hold me, your employer, in such contempt or the fact that you?re wasting my own fucking money on deceiving me. "Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was noted as saying "The Americans don?t understand geography. Never have. In the UK, we have the best geography teachers in the world!" " So a member of the royal family is rude, pompous and by all accounts a bit of an idiot. This isn?t really a revelation but please explain to me why this prat is actually engaged in serious diplomatic work? "Secretary of State David Miliband directed much of his attention to the final stages of Sri Lankan Civil War in order to win the votes of Tamils in the UK." That?s nothing, I bought my lunch off him at last years Notting Hill carnival. He was blacked-up and running a jerk chicken stall to show his solidarity. He even called me brother. If only he knew. "The U.S. dismissed U.K. concerns about the use of RAF Akrotiri to stage U-2 spy plane flights." I share your concerns about U2 and feel that despite U.S. pressure we must do everything in our power to keep Bono in America. "The British government secretly supported the early release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, who was convicted of carrying out the Lockerbie bombing. The British government had previously stated that the release, authorised by the Scottish government, was "a mistake" which it regretted." I suspected as much all along. The depressing thing is I?m so used to being lied to by you it doesn?t even surprise me.

Yes it is. And don't call me Shirley.

eh?

Consensually or not?

Balls, balls, balls, balls, balls, balls, balls! Why can?t there be complete transparency? We?ll just have to adjust to a different way of thinking and doing things. The problem with an accepted system of secrecy is that it is right there slap bang in the middle of the people we can trust the least to use it properly.

Well they can fuck off too.

Dear Mr Diplotician. Hi my name is Public, Joe Public. How are you? I am fine. If there is any information regarding international diplomacy, internal affairs and/or the X Factor which you think I should not be privy to I will remind you that you run this fucking country on my behalf and I expect you to do so with the same level of integrity and accountability and adhering to the same moral principles as I do in the conduct my day-to-day business. As my representative you will go about your work openly, honestly and in good faith and I will be the one to decide what I need to know, thank you very much you condescending prick.

Keef Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > , but anyone who thinks Joe public should > know EVERYTHING that is going on, is a bit of an > idiot quite frankly. There is so much wrong with that sentiment I don't even know where to start.

I?m actually pretty happy that that petulant little shit Broad is out of the series.

Yeah I know, I was trying to wind you up.

Loz Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- I don't want to sound like the 'well if you like > it so much...' brigade, Well you've just managed to do quite a good job of it.

They?ll get one session in tomorrow which will be enough for England to bowl Australia out without having to bat again. Pietersen finishing with bowling figures of 5 for 20 and the furrow between Ponting?s eyes reaching a critical point where it exceeds the external pressure of his head causing his entire noggin to collapse in on itself and form a singularity of seething rage a few inches above his shoulders.

There was some nonsense recently about wine and beer not being purchased on our department cost code anymore. Disgraceful!

I'm not spending the morning naked in a Wetherspoons. Again.

Polaris has always been shit in my opinion.

I wouldn't like to be the one to try.

Duckworth Lewis is only used in one day matches mostly because it takes a further 5 days after a D/L decision for everyone to figure out what the hell just happened and why. The sport of cricket, or indeed the international membership of mensa, does not posses the necessary intellectual capacity to apply it to 5 day matches.

I just double checked with my wife and he is definitely a boy.

not sure about any daughters but my son has been sleeping through quite disgracefully. So much so that his dad felt confident enough to go pub last night. He had a whole 3 pints, stumbled home and slept for 15 hours himself. All very disgraceful. Why, is there some sort of cricket match going on?

Just because you?re allowed to do something doesn?t make it ok to do so. If you can?t conceptualise that then you may as well just give up and become a conservative religious fanatic like Tony Blair.