bridge too far

This, on opinion polls re AV, is interesting: http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/

Really? I AM surprised! But I imagine ALL the guys on here who would 'turn down' a chubby woman are svelte, hirsute and handsome and I bet the slim, pretty intelligent women beat paths to their doors.

We've got 3 games in hand over Boopey = potentially 9 points = us 57 points, Boopey 56.

It does depend on the makeup of the council to some extent. My local council is Tory through and through and I don't realistically see that changing in the forseeable future (having said that, a Labour councillor was elected recently - the first one in donkey's years!) But just down the road, Oxford City Council 'changes hands' quite regularly and this shows in the policies adopted. Think too of councils like Westminster and Wandsworth where they have comparatively poor local services and relatively low council tax.

And chubby men?

^ Well, I've worked on public sector construction contracts too and I can tell you that even a big metropolitan council would not have 50 people solely working on a single contract. Their project managers often have 3 or 4 projects on the go at any one time and a large Manchester council I worked with had only 3 project managers that I can remember plus about the same number of surveryors. Yes they would have had support staff, such as project accountants and clerical staff but these too would be working on a number of projects as would support staff in the private sector. When I worked on a £200m project for the NHS, we had one project manager, a shared project accountant, two project assistants and a project director who was also responsible for another £150m project at the same time.

This. Apart from the inherent risks of having hung parliaments, why should, say, my 5th vote count (presumably along with my 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th), when someone in a neighbouring constituency only has their 1st vote count. However, I'm still undecided and I need to read a lot more before I make up my mind.

Did you hear me stamp my tiny foot as well?

Deppo

Interesting piece in the Guardian today, with the views of two politicians who are going against their respective party lines: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/feb/19/the-conversation-alternative-vote

I haven't decided yet - I'll wait to see the 'manifestos' for each side of the argument. I've always been of the view that a strong government is better than a coalition. You rightly say that a government with a strong majority can push stuff through but what we're seeing with this current coalition is a whole series of policy announcements that are then hurriedly amended / withdrawn. Also, with the current coalition, the Liberal element of it has a hugely disproportionate amount of influence compared to the votes cast for that party in the last election. That's hardly democratic IMO. But I'm open to persuasion

PARK Ji-Sung

This is when I love the Arsenal, when they play like this.

(Darren) Bent

That's a noun, not a verb. Seriously (I've googled but I can't find it) wasn't there a Dutch footballer called Stamp or Van Stamp?

^^ And I think there have been a couple of cases where a young lad (say 16) had sex with his girlfriend who was just under the age of consent. He would be put on the Sex Offenders List too. All they would have is the right to request that their names be removed. Not an automatic right to be removed. There will be legal ways to get round this legislation and this has already been pointed out to the government.

I couldn't watch beyond the first 30 seconds

Well surely the FL can't say this on the one hand: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/football-league/league-chief-issues-club-debt-warning-2215953.html and then turn a blind eye on the other, can they? Oh, rhetorical question alert!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/9398824.stm

When is his court case - I've forgotten.

My parents never smacked me but, I tell you, I was so scared of what it WOULD be like if my father walloped me that I was actually well behaved!

lord

stealth

inheritance

Don't they harbour Legionnaires and other such viral nasties?