nashoi

A couple of months ago there was an interesting R4 doc which consisted of a series of interviews with half a dozen or so of the worlds leading economists. Unfortunately I can't find a link to it, but they all pretty much said the same thing, which roughly speaking was: A cunning plan has solved the problem of banks being too big to fail. We spent all our money on the last bailout and so there is none left if Pete Tong makes an encore. In other words the banks that were once too big to fail are now too big to save. This is a particular problem given that one effect of the credit crunch is to exacerbate the conditions which caused it in the first place. In response to this the UK and US governments have done nothing substantive in terms of regulation at all. One of the biggest lies being told about the banking crisis is that no-one saw it coming. At a G10 meeting the finanace ministers of three countries (pretty sure it was Sweden, Australia and I can't remember the third) called for urgent regulation of the banks. Under pressure from their respective banking lobbies, who assured them nothing was wrong, the governments of the UK and US got all talk of regulation stricken from the records of this meeting. This was in 2007 Ooops.

www.neilwilliams.co.uk Do you mean him?

DJKQ Before you write off the importance of manufacturing altogether can I just point out that even in 2007 it contributed 50% more to the treasury than the financial services sector and its profitability continues to grow. Though it is right that the number of people it employs is shrinking.

Huguenot Been reading Schumacher by any chance? Was it the cannabis thread bringing back hazy memories of student days reading Small is Beautiful?

Come off it MacGabhan, everybody really knows the Irish hate Christmas trees and have started many wars over it. It's just not a subject we can openly discuss in PC gone mad broken Britain.

Obviously it depends on your priorities but you can get a swimming only membership for ?18 a month then just go back to the full membership when the gym opens.

Several early posters pointed out that the UK's population density was not that different to many comparable countries eg Germany. This is quite true, but if you look at the figures for England, as opposed to the UK, then we are the most densely populated country in Europe, quite recently overtaking Holland. I think making this distinction is justified, as a disproportionate amount of any future population increase is likely to occur in England, rather than the rest of the UK. It also highlights the problem of population distribution rather than over population. Internal migration as well as immigration are going to put huge pressure on the south east infrastructure in particular as well as increasing the north south divide. This process is inevitable and so the government is going to have to make some tough decisions on projects such as Heathrow's third runway and the Kent International Gateway, both bitterly opposed. Sticking your head in the sand and pretending this country isn't densely populated isn't going to help.

I can't believe how short some peoples memory can be. In 1997 after their biggest defeat in over a century there were plenty of people suggesting the Tories were finished and would never again regain power, the progressive cenrte left had apparently won the argument. The fact is people are devout capitalists when it comes to paying taxes and staunch socialists when it comes to receiving government largesse. After 13 years of over spending on the country's credit cards the bill has landed on the mat and people are proclaiming the left is dead. Give it 5 or 10 years of cuts though and the country will be full of born again socialists, no matter who the Labour Party has in charge.

Excellent stuff *Bob*. Google's old office on Sutton Row used to have a big screen behind the reception desk, showing a randomly selected sample of searches being carried out on the UK site, which gave a similar insight. "When d.." gives a good result. And "why oh why....line dancing" couldn't agree more. Hal9000 are you sure? My results are the same as *bob*'s which would be a strange coincidence.

The last time I was in a Spoons it was the one next to the theatre in Wimbledon, Pamela Anderson walked in accompanied by Vivienne Westwood, attended by large entourage and paps. I'm not sure we should be encouraging that sort to East Dulwich.

I've found this site to be the simplest solution resize2mail

HonaloochieB and Jeremy Call yourself forum regulars, that was quoted recently by ruffers, here in the business rec thread where it's all happening.

Tom Waits Ian Dury and no-one else rating Nick Drake?

Keef I quite deliberately used the phrase "seems to suggest" in order to imply this was how I had interpreted the last sentence of your post. Clearly as this is just my interpretation it is open to correction. If you feel I have misrepresented your post, I apologise and by all means put me right, but please don't accuse me of "putting words in your mouth" when I haven't.

I often cross the road if I find myself following a lone woman at night. It's a simple consideration that takes virtually no effort on my part and I find the idea that it somehow impinges on my rights as a man, as Keef seems to suggest, rather odd.

Not the worst thing I've heard said about a place. In a recent interview Tracy Emin described Margate as "the Las Vegas of Thanet".

Can't say it did much for me bumpy, but thanks for the tip, as a result of following Youtubes suggestions down the side I am now a subscriber to Fitness - Beat the meat suit

I hope I don't spoil anybodies memories but, Margaret Thatcher chose Two Little Boys as her all time favourite song on Desert Island Discs. Can anyone see her shedding a tear or two as she sang along after a skinfull?

Middle-aged bald man disappears from local forum. Middle-aged bald man appears in Big Brother house. More tattoos than I'd pictured but definitely him.

Clearly you've never eaten in there. Though I wouldn't recommend attempting to eat in there, an old flatmate of mine once fell asleep face down in one of Rock Steady's breakfasts after a particularly enthusiastic session. Claimed it made a very comforting pillow.

Don't you think it is important for the institutions of state to be not just democratic, but seen to be democratic? It doesn't matter if it's your MP or not, but if there is no-one in Parliament who you feel is representative of your "tribe" a sense of alienation and disenfranchisement will surely grow. It's also easy to underestimate the influence of role models if you're a white, middle class male. As for the supplementary, if you think a society has a moral obligation to try and rid itself of prejudice then positive discrimination is the only thing that works. Market forces clearly don't work as prejudice and free markets have happily co-existed since the invention of markets.

One estimate

People who press both buttons when calling a lift. Drives me mad every time, how long does it take to learn how to call a lift?

Just to be a pedant, this sounds like a parking attendant not a traffic warden. Parking attendants work for private contractors and like any other private enterprise their motive is profit. Traffic wardens work for the Met Police and would have spoken to the driver.

Are occasional posters welcome? I had been thinking of creating a one man click of my own and calling it a cl1ck and then I remembered I've just turned 40 and that sort of thing really, really isn't acceptable.