nashoi

The greatest decade in the history of East Dulwich is over. As Presuming Ed has so consistently pointed out....we have failed to paint it black. They're selling *Bob* wigs in Poundstretcher, man. FFS

The problem I have trying to follow this thread is exactly who Us and Them actually are. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written by a UN commission made up of representatives from Australia, Belgium, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Chile, China, Cuba, Egypt, France, India, Iran, Lebanon, Panama, Philippines, United Kingdom, United States, Soviet Union, Uruguay and Yugoslavia back in 1948. Criticizing people who fail to live up to such universal standards is not western arrogance, but assuming the west is the only place they are valued is.

That implication would be ridiculous which is probably one of the many reasons why they don't make it. What they have done is compare total levels of taxation paid by decile groups in order to acertain whether the environment is regressive or progressive. Of course total tax figures have to be used here, you can't just leave some out because it disagrees with your view of the world. Having seen the lowest decile pays 46.1% and the highest 34.2% they have come to the conclusion the overall tax environment is regressive. What they have not done is suggest, in response to this, that any taxes on consumption should be changed at all. All the taxes they talk about increasing, thus making the overall environment progressive, are taxes on income. There is a good correlation between these figures and the income distribution figures on LadyM's equality thread. Lowest decile does worst, highest does best but with the intermediate deciles showing what the government would want, namely progressive taxation and redistributed income. Surely this correlation helps gives them credence or do you think it's a bizarre coincidence?

Thank you for your explanation Huguenot, I will make careful note of it ;-) However I was basing my argument on figures from the Compass report "In Place Of Cuts". Unfortunately the pdf was too big to attach. You can download it from Richard Murphy's Tax Research blog here. Apologies for not posting a link in the first place. Just for the record I'm not sure I agree with their proposals, the Lib Dem tax policies made more sense to me, just borrowing their figures.

Re: Marmora Man's question. Isn't it a symptom of the increased mechanisation of warfare throughout the last century rather than the last generation. There's plenty of similar examples from previous generations wars. I would also be interested to know if you or Santerme have come across S.L.A. Marshall. Was he given much credence in military circles? If so would that have affected modern US military training?

Thank you for answering, however In answer to question 2) Why don't we have a progressive tax system then? I would have assumed this was fundamental Labour policy but taxation has been regressive for the last 30 years, Labour have had 13 years to change this and have failed to do so.

Let's see, Macdonalds pay ?5.80ph aka the minimum wage. ?5.80 * 16 * 7 * 52= ?50k. Any chance your friend can get me a job at Goldman Sachs Mockney? I've already got one of their calculators, guaranteed to keep me out of prison.

any short cuts please???? http://resize2mail.com/

The company website doesn't mention satellites and I was under the impression the smallest pixel size available to civilian satellites is about 20-30cm, I don't think we'll be getting parking tickets from space anytime soon. Hal9000, sounds bizarrely complicated, unfortunately I'm all too familiar with the problem of being guilty until proven innocent when it comes to parking, but isn't it a case of ticking the box "Offence did not occur" then providing a copy of the Blue Badge?

I came across a Dalek checking out the times on the Top Gear Lap Times board today and thought it made a reasonably amusing photo op so snapped away. Imagine my surprise when I got home and uploaded the shot to my PC, guess which star in a reasonably priced car it appears to be pointing its cannon at? Coincidence? I don't think so!

Instructions here and somewhere quiet to practice

That's assuming that true artificial intelligence is ever going to be possible. There are those, such as Roger Penrose, who don't believe that the brains processes are completely algorithmic.

There are similarities to some of the issues on the Baby P thread here. Though I agree that it's not in the public interest, it is in the interest of the public, as LeagleEagle put it. Therefore it will come out, the days when the authorities can stop information from being published are long gone. The law that allows this to be used as a defense is going to have to be looked at, either have the subsequent cases tried without a jury (really not good imho) or just let the information be published as they do in the US, not good either but surely the least worst of the options. I'm not holding the US up as an example of jurisprudential excellence but they haven't descended into anarchy just yet.

Gwilym Davies stall in Whitecross St Market and Monmouth St which I always find better then their Borough Market shop for some reason.

How do you reconcile a pro-european stance with the belief that our current way of life is environmentally unsustainable? The Green Party policy used to be one of leaving the EU, but now, as far as I can see, it is about staying within the EU and reversing the policy on free trade/single market thus leaving us with just the political convergence. The problem with this, is that it's the single market which is used to sell the European idea, and without it it's just dead in the water isn't it?

I can really recommend these people, the orthotics are amazingly comfortable. Profeet

Discovering I'm now older than Mrs Robinson.

I do wish people would be less cynical about crime on this forum. Over the last couple of months I have become a victim of a clever scam whilst out shopping. Don't be naive enough to think it couldn't happen to you. Here's how the scam works: Two seriously good-looking voluptuous 20-21 year-old eastern european girls come over to your car as you are packing your shopping into the boot. They both start cleaning your windscreen, their breasts almost falling out of their skimpy tops in a most lascivious fashion. When you thank them and offer them a tip, they'll say 'No' and instead ask you for a lift to another supermarket , in my case Sainsburys on Dog Kennel Hill. You agree and they both get in the backseat. On the way, they start undressing, and both get completely naked. Then, when you pull over to remonstrate, one of them climbs over into the front seat and starts crawling all over your lap, kissing you, touching you intimately, and thrusting herself against you, in the meantime the other one steals your wallet! I've now had my wallet stolen on October 4th, 9th, 10th, twice on the 15th, 17th, 20th, 24th, and 29th. Also November 1st, 4th, 6th, 10th, 14th, 17th and twice yesterday. I fear this will just keep happening unless the police can stop them soon. Edited to say them stop them, not me

A few years ago a university concerned at the amount of flaming on its internal networks insisted on everybody using their real names to sign on. They found the problem actually got worse as a result.

Well isn't the world getting smaller every day PGC. I grew up in Leeds and my parents still live there, hence the article being scanned from the parish magazine. My drinking career started in The George in the mid-late 80's when Fabio was still very much in charge. It's still busy but nowhere near as entertaing as in its heyday.

You're not alone Keef

As I've posted a link to this on another thread I ought to declare an interest, namely Pat is an old friend of mine, but it's really good honest!

Top of the economic ladder - yes Bottom of the ladder - yes Most rungs in between - not so much Some interesting stuff here though if you have the time.The Corner House I've no idea how accurate the following figures are but I did smile when I heard them some years ago, apparently 50% of aid to the developing world is stolen by corrupt officials, and 50% of the World Bank aid budget goes to consultants.

The media blackout was to prevent the jury in the second trial, the rape of a two year old, being aware of their role in the death of Peter. Even reporting the existence of the second trial was banned and in a legal first they were tried under false names. Despite this their real identities and phtotos were posted on many websites. The defence tried to have the case thrown out because of this, specifically naming Facebook where groups naming them apparently had close to a million members. As the internet cannot be gagged in the way the rest of the media can it looks as though the law will have to change. As for the future, I'm not a lawyer but from what I've read its unlikely they'll ever come out so no new identities will be needed. The rest of her children will probably need and get new id's, certainly if I was one of them I'd want a new name. As for naming social workers I'm with Keef on this one.

Interesting reference Santerme, I had to give myself a quick wiki lesson on that. To quote from wikipedia though "The League never became a closely-managed formal organisation. Assemblies of the Hanseatic towns met irregularly in L?beck for a Hansetag (‘Hanseatic Diet’), from 1356 onwards, but many towns chose not to send representatives and decisions were not binding on individual cities." I don't take issue with the idea of international cooperation, the treaties and protocols that are a necessary part of that. The UN does obviously do valuable work around the world in some of its many guises. However is the UN a fit body to decide one way or the other on the "legality" of the actions of sovereign states. Edited to add: If the UN was born out of enlightened self-interest and now you have doubts about its efficacy where do you think its gone wrong?