bridge too far

I'm not an expert on this WSS, but my understanding is that councils close to the port of entry have the responsibility to look after refugees. They get additional government money for doing so. It is a legal requirement.

Right or wrong doesn't really come in to it in my view. Our country has a proud tradition of offering asylum to those in need for centuries. Off the top of my head, I can think of Hugenots, Jews, Poles, Hungarians, Ugandan and Kenyan Asians and I'm sure there are many others. Our compassionate nature has made us the country we are and I wouldn't change that for the world. And if ever this country changed to a point where I felt my human rights were threatened, I would hope that another nation would accept me as a refugee in the same way.

I wouldn't slate anyone if I didn't know the REAL story behind the situation. I don't take scaremongering reports from the Rabid Right press as fact - ever.

Probably because she landed at Heathrow and the councils closest to the airport get to look after refugees.

But this would have happened anyway TDD.

You're right and some research on this has just been published http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7773035.stm But I don't think this is entirely due to people no longer working in the mines. My mother is in her eighties and is being kept alive by drugs that weren't available 10 years ago. She never worked in the mines However, these life extending drugs are very expensive. The cost to the state of an increasingly aged population who are being kept alive by expensive treatments funded by fewer people of working age is quite worrying.

They have refused to renew some contracts because of poor performance.

Spot on! =D> (another smiley that doesn't work ) We all 'make money' by offering something that someone else wants to buy. She's no different.

Yes, generally I do think the standard of living is better than ever. But that's inevitable with the general increase in technology and science, isn't it. I think for some people, the standard of living may have increased but not at the same rate as for others. I think the gap between the top and the bottom hasn't narrowed. I don't know much about overseas aid that this country makes available but this is quite interesting: http://www.europaworld.org/issue37/uknowfourthlargest1601.htm Equally interesting is an article by Robert Peston, from the BBC, talking about the New World Order that will come about because of the financial downturn. It's his view that capitalism will be far more benign because developing countries will hold more economic power.

Part of the reason for the increased spending on the NHS these days is, in fact, due to the need to restore it to how it was before Thatcher came to power. I worked in the NHS then, and I can tell you that the cut-backs that were made at that time were horrendous. Hospital buildings were being run down and waiting lists were incredibly long. And it was at this time that so many support services were contracted out to the private sector - we all know what happened with cleaning services, for example. It's taken a couple of decades to get it back on course and then move it forwards. I shall remember to my dying day her creed that there was 'no such thing as society'. I am sure that this view has contributed to many of the societal ills that we have these days. Even her own party thinks so.

Would give even a nanosecond's thought to taking a 2 month old baby to a football match on one of the coldest weekends of the year http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/leicestershire/7772808.stm

I alluded to this yesterday. There could be a domino effect, R, as the guy has loans secured against his shares. His shares have fallen in value since a) he put them up as collateral for the loans and b) since the announcement was made yesterday. He might, therefore, have to sell other assets (including shares in WHI) and there's a chance maybe that he has other loans secured against other shareholdings? I think it was established yesterday that one of Rupey's companies has gone to the wall. I don't imagine WHI will, although hedge fund managers and stockbrokers are feeling the pinch big stylee, but what does it say about WHI when one of its major investors doesn't 'know' the rules of the stock market (allegedly).

Pip, you're doing all the right things. A cold is a virus and has to run its course. All you can do is manage the discomfort and patiently wait....... There are no cures. But a hot whisky and lemon does help (or a few )

It was an Afghan woman actually: She is a refugee driven from Afghanistan by the Taliban. She isn't allowed to work yet but is learning English so that she can work when it's allowed. The facts: Ms ***** receives £1,600 a month – under £20K p.a. – to feed a family of eight. The private LANDLORD gets £12,000 a month from the state to house the family because there is no council housing. Also bear in mind that, thanks to the ludicrous property boom in the capital, £1.2m pounds doesn’t actually buy “a mansion” – even as prices fall, that’d hardly get you a two-bedroom flat in Notting Hill. As ever, the scare-mongering press chooses to be economical with the truth. As the economic crisis bites, the media will lash out at the weakest and most defenceless people in society. If they are Muslim, they make an even easier target.

Yeah - especially the ones we don't want to do

I was just saying to Mr TF that if there were marks for artistic impression, we'd walk this league

Beautifully observed silence. Well done Saints fans

No, hand on heart, I haven't. But this is entirely because I don't like scampi

Uh oh - NickH in generalisation shocker I know you'll find this hard to believe, Nick, but some people actually do have principles (even if they're misguided ones) and do actually stick to them. I don't fly, I do only buy locally produced food as far as possible and I do try to use public transport whenever I can and I'm not even a 'greenie'. I'm sure these people will be even more determined to stick by their principles too.

Whatever they are, they're bl00dy huge! And because they've just taken off / are about to land, they're very close to the rooftops. I can almost see the pilot's face - I do like a man in uniform

Really? Really? Nooooo surely not. I'm struggling to think how

Coca cola (well, it's sort of red..... well brown anyway)

I regularly have very large planes flying over my house from Brize Norton. They are incredibly noisy and, no doubt, polluting. I think I'm probably right in saying that most of Oxfordshire is under or very near a flight path for Brize Norton.

You're being deliberately obtuse, aren't you I'm not championing this guy's cause - I'm only repeating what I heard on the radio. He quite clearly stated that he moved, many many years ago, to the countryside for a quiet life. He moved there before Stansted was any where near as large as it is now. I don't think for one moment he lives close to Stansted but, rather, lives under what is now a busy flightpath and will get even busier if the expansion goes ahead. His over-riding point was that he'd move if he could sell his house but it is now blighted and he can get no compensation. At the time he bought his house, Stansted and the flight path(s) wasn't an issue.

I think, to be fair to him, he bought the house many years ago when Stansted was very small. It only started to expand when the budget airlines moved in I think and I don't think anyone could predict that at the time. A bit like buying a house in the New Forest near Stony Cross airfield maybe and then finding it's going to be bigger than Southampton airport. I spent my early married life living about 2 miles from Heathrow, under one of the flight paths and TBH it didn't bother me in the slightest. However, there are significantly more movements now and I wouldn't want to live there today.