bridge too far

Renal = kidneys, H. Hope your friend is OK.

I didn't start the play on words.

able

Please close this thread.

...

...

...

...

Someone should tell him he could go blind doing that.

Very good I must admit I'm ALTERNATING between playing and not playing.

I'm agreeing with you here Norway. I'm proud to say I never, ever hit / smacked my children when they were little. But I have to admit I had to walk away sometimes when the temptation was too great. One of my daughters is finding her 3 year old quite trying at the moment but accepted the wisdom of my words when I said 'if you can't win an argument with a 3 year old by reasoning and have to resort to smacking, what does that say about your intellectual powers?'

One of my old school friends is married to a Mr Baker who is a teacher.

My view FWIW is that education should be secular. No faith schools of ANY description and I'd include C of E schools in that. No religious assembly before the start of lessons either. If people want to study comparative religion then let it be a specific subject or part of philosophy. But I'm saying this as someone who doesn't have a faith. I'm sure that there are contributors on here who are devout followers of one religion or another and they'd defend their right to choose to have their children educated in a school allied to their religion.

wet 'n dry

I suppose we should be grateful that the race was at Newbury and not at......... AMPfield.

I reFUSE to contribute to this thread any more.

smoothie

I don't condone the mistreatment of children, whether at home or at school. However, I think there has been a number of cases of children (especially boys) being abused in boarding schools and especially those with a religious connection. Amplethorpe College, for example - a Catholic boarding school. So abuse isn't confined to Muslim schools.

I'm well aware of the story in the film Brokeback Mountain. I think that whoever coined the phrase with regard to the coalition was using a play on words that was mildly topical.

side

I don't know what was behind the term when it was first applied to the coalition. I always thought it was a reference to the fact that the back of the coalition is already breaking apart.

We've been watching this since it was put on Sky Atlantic. Very good. Hoping to see Black Swan soon but I think I'll have to go on my own or bribe a daughter to go with me

Shocking! My first reaction was 'OHM y god'

horse

So perhaps a mod could correct the thread title, removing the word 'Socialist' and replacing it with 'Local Government' or, more accurately, 'Tory'?