Special K

Nicholas Parsons was good fun, if a little scatty, despite the fact my mate tried to grab his balls is a spate of drunken "banter". Met Damian Hurst when he was quite "refreshed", but he was very good fun to be around.

Sorry PL, don't know where you live, but if it's in Southampton, give JP Plumbing a try - http://www.checkatrade.com/JpPlumbingAndHeatingConsultants/ If it's in Pompey, then I guess a bit more water won't hurt:p

Pap's little gingerbread tower was no match for the Moderators Airfix Plane of Truth battering into it, especially with that large cargo of sugar on board. I'm sure that was just a plant though, as the Mod's employed Hypo and Batman as Verbal's henchmen to undermine Pap's fragile online persona. IMHO he had moments of utter f@@kwittery (who doesn't), but was far more interesting and likeable of late. Did seem to take little spats too far though, so i guess that's what has done for him.

'Tis true as the estates built in the post war period tend to have large gardens and good sized rooms, because space wasn't at a premium. My folks bought theirs when i was a lad and still live there today. Built quality wasn't bad at all, although avoid "prefab" structures (sounds like it's not a problem for you anyway). The estate remains quiet and decent today although a fair few of those who bought back in the 80's have passed on and the families have sold to landlords who rent out to students. The only real problems are the number of cars and vans parked up. As a general note, build quality of newer, private estates wasn't good in the late 80's and 90's, especially those churned out by the big housebuilders. Today, the Building Regulations are vastly improved and, as a general rule, build quality has improved quite a lot over the last 10 years.

Found the Seaview International camp site just outside St Austell to be a cracker. Very nice pitches, good facilities and lots to do in the surrounding area. Personally, I love the Eden Project (very close) and the Coastal walks are superb (the campsite is very close to the sea, strangely enough with a name like that!) Hemmick Beach particularly is a winner. Trip Advisor has some good reviews of the place.

It's rather narrow minded to categorise people based purely on their voting habits. For instance, I know of a few, mainly old timers, who vote Tory and are comfortably off, yet give up their free time to helping others less fortunate, with travel (using their own cars and getting nothing for it) gardening for those whose mobility is impaired and give free time working in, or fundraising for, charity shops. To suggest they are selfish doesn't really hold much water when their efforts to improve the community and the lives of others, is taken into account. Strangely enough, the smug glow of moral superiority is not solely the preserve of left leaning Labour voters!

Lol! for a "spectacularly ill informed" opinion you did quite well, hutch. Make sure you do those lottery numbers on the weekend!

Au contraire Goaty, (aspiring) Upper Middle Class, don't you know

That Russell Brand endorsement worked fecking wonders.

For an everyday slurp, Waitrose do a nice Heston Blumenthal Earl Grey and Lemon gin. Good enough.

I'm quite looking forward to exercising my prerogative in one of those private booths.

Another suggestion for non itk. itk = in the know. itc = in the clouds??

Perhaps they were naive, BTF but they were also rather silly in inviting the foxes from firms like Price Waterhouse into the chicken house that was PUK. It surprises me not that PFI schemes were seen to be completed "on time and on budget" as I guess both the programme and the price were favourable as they were being negotiated with the Employer, whose advisers just happened to belong to organisations that were part of the bidding team! It seems depressing that the NHS has never really got to grips with a lasting procurement procedure. Mainly, it has to be stressed, because of flippin' central government influence and meddling. Procure 21+ no longer offers the work opportunities it used to and is being abandoned in favour of good old fashioned competitive tendering, because that (surprise, surprise) delivers more value for money (this from the CCG's consultants - not me!). It's gone full circle and will presumably start another cycle soon!

Does it really matter? IIRC the audience was compiled of a roughly similar number of partisan voters, so if she hadn't have taken Ed to task, someone else would have. Seems laughable to me that the Labour Party are working themselves up into a frothy mess of indignation over this. Are they suggesting Ed couldn't handle an ordinary Tory voting lass from Leeds? If so, then christ knows how he'd handle a fearsome Pict from Irvine!!

Under Labour, the love in with PFI was underpinned by an unscrupulous private sector who took advantage of both the Labour zeal to embrace PFI and their shocking inability to drive a decent bargain for the taxpayer. Encouraging, at great expense, the private sector into bed under the PUK banner, they let the decision makers come from the very organisations they were supposed to be negotiating with. Result - huge fees, extortionate repayments and unworkable commitments. Totally hopeless state of affairs and a perfect example of the "jam today, sh!t tomorrow" culture of profligacy and financial mismanagement that smeared that period under Labour. Mind you, who is to say the Tories would have been much better! However Labour were responsible for that period and it is no wonder their proclamation of economic safety, should they get in next week, is taken with a truckload of salt.

Genuine question as you obviously have a lot more contact with first time voters than I do - I understand that young voters can be apathetic to anything outside their sphere of interest (iirc, alcohol, music, friendship, opposite sex, etc) but are they any more apathetic than previous generations? Is there a risk of an older generation confusing something the kids find genuinely uninteresting and dressing it up as a problem, calling it "disengagement" and accusing all the politicos of not taking the young seriously, when in fact, some of the young couldn't care less. I don't want to sound flippant, but IMHO, there is far more availability of political knowledge and ability to debate than there ever has been, certainly from when I was a first time voter. Although I really don't like the word, it seems to me that the young can be "engaged" with politics if they choose too. Some do and can seek it out and become actively or passively involved, but i suspect there are a fair few who just don't want to as they are more interested in other things and no matter how many older people tell them they should, they just couldn't give a monkeys? Certainly there were more cultural influences for me when I was young. Take music for instance, the charts were full of Red Wedge, Billy Bragg, UB40, etc, all penning anti establishment lyrics, questioning the way things were and influencing young minds to think about how to change things. Angry young men and women who wanted to say something. A quick look at the charts today shows that spirit has gone. Now, i'm not suggesting that music has a duty to do this, it was just the way things were back then. Whilst it might not happen now, there is a lot more available information now - we didn't have social media, political debates, access to university campus to see organised debates from all the candidates for the local constituency, that sort of thing. Politicians and their message has never been more available, so I cannot understand why young people feel disengaged from the political arena.

Which is what i was getting at - lazy stereotyping adds nothing, especially when it is tinged with the slightly pious drive for self-promotion. btw, you are too soft on your cats. They need to demonstrate they at least trying to catch mice and birds in order to get more than value range food.

I can think of a good number of left-wing Labour voters i know who wouldn't even consider associating with those who live in some of the poorer estates of Southampton. Doesn't stop them bloody preaching though.

I see what you did there! IMHO, a Mansion Tax would be a good policy, but instead of making it a one off blitz against the very, very few it will affect and to protect the poor old Mrs Bufton-Tufton types who supposedly bought their gaff years ago, have but a few coppers under their matress and are going to be penalised by rampant Bolsheviks, then surely introducing it only on property transactions from now on would be a fairer method of implementation? The high end London markets will still be buoyant as those individuals have more money than they care about. And it would presumably protect Her Maj from having to dive into the the grandchildrens diamond fund too.

Good point. Labour are going into this election against a weak Conservative party that has a mixed record with their last government and whose manifesto sets out policies, some of which are baffling and ill-conceived. They should be odds on for a win and indeed they would be, if only they had a decent campaign, a strong shadow cabinet and a statesmanlike leader. None of which they appear to have in full. Credit to Miliband, he has improved as the campaign has progressed, but will he be able to do enough leading up to polling day to pull off a majority? The Conservative Party seem to be doing their level best to dissuade voters with their negativity and poorly managed campaign.

Food banks have also risen in number largely due to the worst economic recession in over 80 years, which, of course, is not the fault of any political party at all, ahem. IMHO, whoever was in power over the last five years would have overseen a rise in the number of food banks.

Housing Association stock is not state owned, it is owned by the HA who are not-for-profit organisations designed to provide the housing needs for those with a need for low cost housing. HA's are private / public enterprises that have to borrow money in order to build dwellings. Some of their finance comes from Central Government, but this has been reduced over the years and their business model shows they borrow an increasing proportion (traditionally from banks) to finance their operation. This debt is long term debt and it is expected that rent paid by tenants, even through benefits, will pay off the borrowing over time. There will also be the capital asset of the property, but if this is being sold off at below market rate, then they will have to seriously reappraise the value of their asset base and this, in turn, will result in a reduced ability for them to operate. Incidentally, the pledge by the Tories to sell "one for one" to part finance this has about as much chance of success as I have of a two's up with Kylie and Danni Minogue.

The Coalition relaxed the planning laws on converting vacant offices to residential accommodation a few years ago, but the uptake was quite low as, generally, only flats and maybe ground floor maisonettes can realistically be built. There is more of a demand for traditional 3 up, 2 downs and not 1 and 2 bed flats in most areas. Not all, granted, but there are generally enough new build flats from private developers to service the demand. This made propositions to developers less attractive, as returns would be much lower. It also had the wholly unexpected (not) result of suddenly raising the landlords expected value of the existing office block and accompanying land - that wasn't an obvious one at all, no way - putting off a number of interested developers. On a wider note, there are two main reasons the country is not building what is required, either in terms of number of units or type of units. First is finance availability - still difficult, even for HA's (who will find their ability to borrow even more reduced after the announcement yesterday) and secondly is the archaic, convoluted, expensive and obstructive planning approval system we have in this country. Simply, it is not fit for purpose and not able to serve the demands of the Country. IMHO, if the political message during this election was one of overhauling the planning system, it would make far more sense than simply flogging off a few HA units for a discount as a quick vote winner.

They are so middle ground, they can't quite make up their mind if they are "small c" Conservatives or Liberal Democrats. Whether or not anyone thinks they are "large C's", depends on your point of view i guess.