bridge too far

OMG I remember going to the Park - and to the one on the Pier. Jeez!

Good stuff This has been great, Johnny - really interesting! Although I'm disappointed to find I'm apparently not as left wing and libertarian as I like to think I am

I'm not clever enough to post my graph but I am: Third down from the top of the green square and one third in from the left. OK Johnny?

That's the one. Gustav's used to be a butcher's shop beforehand because the barber's was originally at the bottom of St Monica's Road near the Brickyard. I didn't know Sholing Sports Ground was houses! Shows you how long since I've been up that road. Blimey!

I wonder if any of you originate in Sholing. There used to be a little general store on the corner of South East Road and Kathleen Road, opposite Spikes Corner. The lady who owned it had a glass eye. I can remember as kids we used to crack up, deciding who she was actually looking at. Kids are so cruel!

So what is it now? Just empty?

No, not really - but you were BOYS. However, the Tauntons boys were better looking!

Oh I remember the Eye Hospital! I was a patient there twice when I was a very little girl. The nurses were nuns in those days (well, I think they were - they looked liked nuns to this 6 year old ) There was a great Italian restaurant opposite I seem to recall - had live lobsters in a tank.

Great thread! My dear old dad used to run off a list of cinemas the city used to have. I can remember the Odeon, ABC, Classic, Gaumont, Plaza (on Northam Bridge). There used to be two in Woolston too I think and one in Bitterne although I can't remember the names. I can remember the great coffee shop near Plummers and the Tudor Coffee Bar. Also the Checkpoint at the Bargate and the Lonesome Pine in Woolston! See how old I am I also remember Edwin Jones and Mays (near the Bargate). I can remember eyeing up the King Edward's boys on the bus (I was at the Girls' Grammar School). Oh happy days

I believe the NHS carries negligence insurance. If you or I claimed on insurance and then 'found' our stolen goods, we'd have to repay the insurance company. I think the imperative for her to repay our NHS is greater actually.

A pic of my beautiful granddaughter but I'm not posting it on here

Awesome, awesome nature programme on with David Attenborough. This programme alone is worth the licence fee

I'm liking your style

I've been ill for four weeks. My daughter has swine flu.

Fair trade / organic for me if it's available. And organic, barn eggs taste so much better than anything else. I try to buy locally where possible (Waitrose devote a section to locally grown produce now). Ethical banking too - with the Co-op - about the only bank not requiring a bail-out from the government and it doesn't invest in dubious regimes / businesses. But I don't hug trees, wear green wellies, have an allotment or drive a Prius.

Or even name the thread 'Blackberries'? A friend of mine has one and it's not very good for reading / manipulating spreadsheeets apparently. Get an iPhone - brilliant!

My understanding is that the PL is waiting for this information........

Blimey! Portsmouth not paying their taxes could mean some doctors, nurses and policemen lose their jobs or operations might have to be cancelled. That's dreadful. HMRC would penalise me if I didn't pay my taxes! This is not an ironic post, BTW but one from someone who is generally horrified at the double standards that operate where taxes are concerned.

The same right wing parties that support the European Union? Wow! Cameron will have a problem then. Oh I forgot, his cronies in Europe are nazi sympathisers (allegedly).

For the first time ever too I find myself agreeing with Rattlehead :shock:

Read Keynes, Nick. And look at this table: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_public_debt Look at where we are in the table - especially compared to Japan, France, Italy and the US. Public debt is not an issue and is invariably a 'paper' debt in that all countries with developed economies have it. It only becomes a risk in places like Zimbabwe. If we had no public debt, you can bet your sweet life we'd all be significantly worse off. Few people working and buying > little in the way of national income from taxation. The economy has to be stimulated to put / keep more people in work and spending. Sadly the Conservatives don't seem to realise this and that really worries me. They are at odds with the rest of the major economies of the world.

Well, they say we get the government we deserve. We're such a celebrity / appearance obsessed society, maybe that's true.

Indeed, and remember it was those archetypical Marxists, Thatcher and Reagan, who deregulated the banks beforehand.