nashoi

The Electoral Reform Society website gives good explanations of the various different systems and their pros and cons. Not too surprisingly they back a yes vote, but their system of choice would be STV which manages to achieve a greater degree of proportionality whilst maintaining the link to constituencies. Rather ironically, if it wasn't for the House of Lords, we would have had STV in this country even before women had the vote.

Isn't the average distance that lottery winners move less than 2 miles? For me it would be anywhere you have easy access to both the beach and ski slopes.

I've been genuinely quite shocked at the language journalists have been using, particularly in contrast to the sober tones of the scientists often quoted on the same page. Yesterdays Indy being a good example, straightforward scientific analysis and an article finishing with talk of frankenstein machines sitting next to each other. There was an interesting discussion about the science behind it on R4's Material World this afternoon.

Does that mean we'll be able to go downhill water skiing uphill then?

So glad the Italians won that, brilliant stuff

I agree about the rudeness, but I don't see how it prevents anyone from taking part. They can just reply by pm as some of the original requests have suggested.

Yes this is early days, but unless you can see a time in the future when the big nations and their client states are willing to sign up to it in a meaningful way, and I can't, there is a serious danger of it backfiring. The interviews I've read with arabic commentators in the last few days keep bringing it back to Israel and these certainly aren't supporters of Gaddafi. My view is that nations acting to enforce the rule of law domestically will be more effective. Towards the end of its last term Labour introduced the 2010 Bribery Act rigorous enforcement of this would achieve far more. Unfortunately the cynic in me wonders if this will just end up giving opposition backbenchers a few windmills at which to tilt, but surely it's easier to enforce British law in British courts against British citizens. The ICC has so far spent 100s of millions of dollars and convicted no-one, I can't help but think this would be better spent aiding the justice systems in the countries involved.

Apologies MP my post has obviously caused personal offence which I certainly didn't mean it to and I assure you I wasn't trying to patronise you. You're clearly very knowledgeable on these areas and you're the forumite whose related posts I find most interesting to read. In my defence I would just say my point about how the ICC's operating at the moment wasn't really meant for your benefit, but I was assuming (perhaps wrongly) that not everybody reading this thread would know that. I mentioned Fukuyama because in the past you have described your support for the idea of transnational justice and I have been meaning to bring this up for a while as it's an interesting area, this was obviously not the right time though.

Unfortunately Mockney, you and Fukuyama may have several centuries to wait (that's assuming you're right of course and I have serious doubts). The role of the PICC, in particular, has so far shown the limitations of internationalism. They announce Gaddafi is to be investigated. Unsurprisingly Libya doesn't recognise the court. Not a problem as the security council can vote to force compliance. Fine then, except that China, Russia and the US don't recognise it either. So you have a situation in which countries which don't recognise a court, vote to send the leader of a country which also doesn't recognise it to be tried in it. Hmm. In the meantime the announcement limits any negotiating position the opposition may have had (admittedly Gaddafi doesn't seem like the surrendering type though).

I can recommend a leisurely stroll along the seafront to Hove for Sunday lunch in the Ginger Pig on Hove St.

I know you said you weren't interested in building your own, but how about a custom build? I got mine from these guys years ago. All brand name components assembled to your spec and excellent customer service (at least it was when I bought). Dell are an easy option, but they do seem to have slipped in customer surveys of late and anecdotally speaking, two members of my family have had component failure problems with them on three different computers.

I thought facebook did have a facility for turning pages into memorials, I've also heard it recommended that people list passwords for these sights in their wills.

I'm confused, are you saying Gillian Mackeith should be Prime Minister?

I was talking to someone in The Tea Palace recently who told me they get a lot of Japanese and even German tourists who insist on trying to buy British tea, none of that Chinese or Indian stuff it has to be British. You could point out to your friend that they now sell their products through the Isetan department stores in Japan.

Surely the real worry stemming from this example is that while Silverfox is still trying to work out how AV works, Brendan annexes his one voter (the new girl Gosia). Seduced by his revolutionary rhetoric of "The rest are all just cunts" she follows him in a storming of the milk monitors room in a classic coup d'ecole. Groovily anarchic at first his policy of collectivized milk production eventually fails and the curtain descends. The school doors are nailed shut and the milk monitors room is renamed the White Lubyanka. Back to the topic though, if we are moving into a post idealogical age (and I pray to God everyday that we are) all that's left for the political parties is to play tug-of-war around the centre ground until consensus is reached. Any system that encourages this pragmatic, evidence based policy making over its adversarial, idealogical alternative is to be preferred.

PeckhamRose Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > People who put junk mail in your door do not read > or can not read signs saying no junk mail. > Collect it up then send it to the NF courtesy of > their freepost address which is > > British Heritage > FREEPOST > That's all you need to write. Are you sure this still an active campaign PR? As it started in 2009 the BNP are likely to have cancelled that freepost address and the only people you'll now be costing money are the Royal Mail.

Well just speaking for myself, I think so. So just to try and clarify, my point was that there is nothing new in a lot of Cameron's rhetoric. Politicians are forever promising to hand power back to the people, it sounds great on tv, it's just that they very rarely get around to doing it. British politicians have a great track record in making fine speeches then not actually doing very much. Under normal circumstances all this could just be safely ignored, unfortunately these aren't normal circumstances Cameron is going to cut services in a way Thatcher never did. As far as I'm aware though Cameron hasn't said the Big Society should replace the NHS or unemployment benefit and ..er neither have I.

In the last 12 months I can only remember losing service once and with a 10Mb service the speed has never dropped below 8.5. That's on Melbourne Grove, but when I lived on Marsden Rd the speed was a lot slower even though I was paying for a 20 Mb service. It does seem to be strangely patchy.

The interview that quote was taken from: There's no such thing as society Apart from the idiotic headline quote much of that interview could have come from Major/Blair/Brown/Cameron, take your pick, there's nothing new hear. Balancing rights and responsibilities wasn't Thatchers idea or even from the right at all. All governments like to devolve responsibility for cuts and centralise credit for spending. Although decentralisation should really be Tory territory, with the devolution of Scotland and Wales Labour achieved more than Thatcher ever did, but when it comes to the big departments of Health and Education they just can't help themselves. The only reason this policy might actually have any significance is because Cameron's hand is being forced. I think Miliband's acceptance speech was telling, plenty of talk of a new generation and new faces, but none of new ideas, because there won't be any just new packaging.

Don't bother learning to read Mick Mac, it's a waste of time. When I picked up the keys to my new transit I got a free CD of Ross Kemp reading Sun Tzu, the only 'book' you'll ever need. For those that will insist on wasting their time reading, current political events reminded me of a book I was given a couple of years ago called Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir. The author's father was a moroccan general and the king's closest aide. She was brought up within the King's family, as a kind of official companion to his daughter, until in 1972 her father was accused of plotting to overthrow the King, leading to his execution and the imprisonment of his family (including the author) for the next 20+ years in a desert gaol before finally escaping. A fascinating incite into how events can change lives so radically so quickly. Apparently, not that I've bothered reading it of course, waste of time.

Though there have been widespread allegations of fraud regarding the 2009 Iranian elections, none of them have been substantiated have they? The result matched pre-election polls and I remember even commentators such as Robert Fisk stated that some liberals inside Iran admitted Ahmadinejad may actually have won regardless of the vote rigging. Legitimate winner or not, millions of Iranians do seem to have voted for a ruthless conservative nutter. This is worrying when considering Egypt as the Iranians are significantly wealthier, significantly more literate and far more urbanized than their Egyptian counterparts. On the one hand, there is no Ayatollah Khomeini figure waiting in the wings, on the other all of the above. Things look pretty grim to me. @Mockney Piers Nice work getting Hitler in there, but to win Forum bingo you need to get the MIC, the Catholic Church and the Nazis all into the same post. If you get killer sharks in there as well you win a job on satellite television. Given that Mubarak is now in Sharm el Sheikh I reckon it should be doable. Looking back those attacks before Christmas were clearly a CIA shark assassin gone rogue.

There has already been a couple of similar threads this season with some good advice on them, try checking here and here I would definitely 2nd the recommendation for booking equipment in advance, it will save you a lot. I've used Snowpack-plus a couple of times, but shop around.

Dear Mrs Curtain, I note with interest your delicious sounding recipe for roast pigeon. I was wondering whether you had considered compiling a book of such culinary delights. If so, might you consider the following? Roast Troll

Dartford Library will probably have the local papers on micro film, if they haven't got them they'll know who has.

Sorry, but are you being deliberately obtuse Mick Mac? Attempting to restrict the money supply in order to control inflation was the basis of Tory economic policy in the early 80's, called the MTFS it failed and manipulating interest rates eventually became the main method used.