bridge too far

I'll check out the short sleeved shirts

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/27/jon-snow-gaza-israel-video-children-_n_5624934.html?1406484374

Good grief! Are we in a time warp or something - back in the 1950s? Jeez!

Potentially another nail in the coffin of Tesco at FP? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-28495631

Remind me, who selected Cameron? Not wealthy businessmen and Russian oligarchs, surely?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28459474

Is that question for me? He'd make a darned sight better PM than the present incumbent. He's not arrogant for a start and, whilst not experiencing life as most of us know it, he's far more in touch with the lifeblood of this country - the 'average' man.

What a shame you didn't catch his speech this morning. He was making the point that politicians should be judged on what they say and not on what they look like. Sadly it's an indictment of society that it judges on appearances alone. But he's still better looking than old Condom chops.

A bit like the Tories and their leader then

He's been on BBC News all morning. Sorry to burst your bubble.

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/25/george-osborne-uk-economy-gdp-recession_n_5617204.html?clearcache=1

I think you're probably right - I knew it was around the time I had one of my children and one was born in 71 so that makes sense.

I'm old enough to have seen them at Southampton Guildhall - must have been late 60s? Also saw Curved Air and Hawkwind there - but Floyd still the best band EVER in my mind.

Hearing the news about Tesco this morning (boss resigning, poor profits and sales) left me wondering if Tesco were to pull out of the deal, where would that leave the club / HNW / 'shareholders' etc.

How do you see that as a conspiracy brigade publication? It is quite sensibly and rationally pointing out questions that need answering. FWIW I don't believe any government any more.

Only if they were smart enough to have a clause entitling them to a percentage of uplift in value (overage). So no.............................

Lord D - it just doesn't work to have Grammar Schools alongside comprehensive. The whole point of comprehensive education was to provide teaching across the spectrum. If you take out the 'clever' kids, the comprehensive's results are bound to fall. Simple logic. And you miss the point about grammar schools (in my area at least) being academies. It used to be the case that if a child scored 123 (not sure what that actually means) then they go to the gr'ammar school. Here, many children have achieved 123 but, it seems, because they're not from private schools in the county and in Middlesex and Hertfordshire then they're not admitted. When these schools were accountable to the local electorate there would have been an outcry. But there's sod all that can be done about this blatant unfairness. Incidentally, there's a secondary academy very close to me that also picks and chooses its pupils. So it's not even a local school anymore. And the town gets totally clogged up morning and afternoon with buses criss-crossing kids to school. Crazy! The ironic thing is that some of the grammar school pupils really struggle because they've been coached to pass the test but then can't cope with the real academic work. BTW I went to a grammar school (back in the day when children WERE admitted on merit) and all my children did too. My grandson has been selected for a grammar school to start in September and, unusually, he went to a state primary and had no extra tuition. But he's an exception.

Is land for housing worth more than land for a supermarket?

This is the case in Buckinghamshire too. The grammar schools are disproportionately filled with children from private schools and from out of county. The test was changed to exclude cramming but as the grammar schools are all academies they're accountable to no-one except themselves about their admissions policies. Buckinghamshire is thought to be an affluent county but the percentage of children falling below standard at GCSE level is the worst in the country even though the number of primary school children exceeding standards at age 11 is higher than average. The number of grammar school children in receipt of free school meals has fallen dramatically since the schools became academies. The County Council commissioned a report to look at the low achievement levels at age 16 but report was highly critical of the system in place and the Council sat on it.

We were very concerned about the long term effects too. More often than not, anorexic girls stop having periods and sometimes this can affect their ability to have children later in life. Thankfully this didn't happen to my daughter but it was a concern for a while. One thing she did eat obsessively was Polo mints because that stopped her stomach hurting The knock-on effect of this has been a lot of dental trouble even though she is meticulous about dental hygiene.

It was awesome here in Buckinghamshire too. Who needs the Northern Lights?

Some Brits on board apparently

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2132065-mesut-ozil-used-his-world-cup-money-to-pay-for-23-surgeries-for-brazilian-kids

And in his confusion he nearly voted AGAINST the government! Not bad for a Chief Whip eh http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/17/michael-gove-got-stuck-in-a-toilet_n_5594598.html?1405598858

Yes please do - even if it's just to chat about it.