bridge too far

Here you go: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/8211596.stm

We don't know and we never will now, will we? Which is kind of the point.....

So - hypothetically - if someone murdered your wife / brother / best friend but someone else was erroneously convicted of that crime, you'd want the innocent person to 'rot in prison' and the real perpetrator to go free? How strange.

A lot of Scottish people (including victims' relatives) are very disappointed that he decided not to appeal again as they believe he was innocent. I guess they're upset that now they'll never know the truth of the matter and the real guilty party will never now be brought to justice.

I'm not Scottish so I guess it's nothing to do with me really. If I were Scottish. I'd feel very uncomfortable knowing that anyone dying in a prison in my country wasn't granted some sort of compassion - especially if there was a microcosm of doubt about his guilt.

You're right - he did. My bad. There must have been new evidence to prompt him to resubmit his appeal (which he has now withdrawn). His 'co-conspirator' was cleared wasn't he? It seems to me that there's a lot a questions that will now never be answered, which is a pity. Weren't there questions about a security lapse at Heathrow (although the bomb was supposedly loaded at Malta's airport)?

He hasn't lodged an appeal. He could not, therefore, be adjudged to have not won an appeal.

Is there some doubt about the safety of their convictions then? I believe Hindley died in prison.

So you didn't spot the irony in my last paragraph then? Tch. Actually, as Bungle says, many people (including some relatives of some of the victims) believe he was set up as the fall-guy. It's odd that he's changed his mind about appealing. Could it be he was told that if he dropped his appeal (when the truth might have come out) he could go home? I do actually believe in compassion TBH - I think it is an admirable quality and a sign of a civilised society. I like to think that it is possible to rise above 'an eye for an eye .....'.

I'm proud of the fact that I live (next to a) compassionate country. Compassion is lacking in the world these days IMO. The fact that we are trying to move away from Russia to Libya for our oil supplies is purely coincidental, I think. I would have thought the Americans would realise that decisions are never made on the basis of where the oil is.

I think it would be a very good idea if SOME people in the UK were forced to cover themselves from head to toe whilst swimming. I am very offended at the sight of bare flabby flesh exhibited at pools and beaches in the UK.

But I thought Sasha had trousered the first instalment of Sky money to set against his debts?

She missed the Olympics because of damage to the ankle she takes off from in the jumping events (not sure, but I think it was a stress fracture). So, in the past 12 months, she's trained to use the other ankle for take off. That's an amazing achievement!

MOTD saying Poopey will go down

Now number 2 in the world :shock: Brillilant!

And also, Baj, prescription medicines are a lot more expensive in the US. I don't believe insurance pays for these. I think that's why there's a 'tourist trade' to Canada because these medicines are cheaper there. In England (because it's different in Scotland and Wales) over 80% of prescriptions are written for people who do not have to pay prescription charges - children, pregnant women and nursing mothers, the elderly and many people with chronic conditions. Do people with heart conditions get free prescriptions? I know diabetes sufferers do.

Apparently so: "The CDC claims that 1.7 million people contract infections in U.S. hospitals each year. In fact, the truth is several times that number. The proof is in the data. One of the fastest growing infections is methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a superbug that doesn’t respond to most antibiotics. In 1993, there were fewer than 2,000 MRSA infections in U.S. hospitals. By 2005, the figure had shot up to 368,000 according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). By June, 2007, 2.4 percent of all patients had MRSA infections, according to the largest study of its kind, which was published in the American Journal of Infection Control. That would mean 880,000 victims a year." from: http://www.hospitalinfection.org/essentialfacts.shtml However, I can't find any data to compare all HAI rates in the US and England.

Very true I just hate unsolicited phone calls. We've got TPN but of course as Sky customers that won't stop Sky phoning. If we wanted ESPN we would have bl00dy phoned Sky.

I had a phone call from Sky the other day asking if we wanted ESPN. We don't and we were very cross because they phoned during the day, waking Mr TF up when he was recovering from a night shift :mad:

This makes for interesting reading: http://www.aflcio.org/issues/healthcare/whatswrong/ As does the fact that the US system has considerable administrative overheads, far greater than in nationalised systems. And, apparently, medical debt is the biggest cause of bankruptcy in the US.

Maybe they'll start rifling in some goals now and hammer the opposing teams. Who do you suppose they'll have in their sights?

Apparently not: [edit] Coverage Enrollment rules in private and governmental programs result in millions of Americans going without health care coverage, including children. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that 45.7 million Americans (about 15.3% of the total population) had no health insurance coverage at some point during 2007.[36] Most uninsured Americans are working-class persons whose employers do not provide health insurance, and who earn too much money to qualify for one of the local or state insurance programs for the poor, but do not earn enough to cover the cost of enrollment in a health insurance plan designed for individuals. Some states (like California) do offer limited insurance coverage for working-class children, but not for adults; other states do not offer such coverage at all, and so, both parent and child are caught in the notorious coverage "gap." It's worth reading the whole link. I was amazed to see that the most sophisticated country in the world has a lower life expectancy than the UK. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States#The_uninsured

These two countries that are a) in the eurozone (the sooner we are, the better) b) not so dependent on the financial sector as are we (and the US) c) have a far lower general level of leverage than in the Uk (and the US) because their people don't buy property as happens here.

So their owner is also going to be their Chief Executive? That works well, we found - NOT

Oh right - I just wondered when you did it, that was all.