Ken Tone

And they conveniently overlook the fact that of the FL had been strict enough to stop Chainrai and the other dodgy owners taking over, they'd have gone bust years ago --- and they'd all have been bleating on about the FA and FL killing them off

What? ... You mean they're going to all get together and call Chainrai a pleb?

The issue there is, when does a child have real free will, as opposed to being unduly influenced by an adult placed in a position of trust and authority over her? -- debatable. Btw ,for others who've focussed on the age of consent on this thread, the 'position of trust' aspect applies regardless of whether she is 16 or not. A teacher who has a sexual relationship with a 17, or even 18, year old student in a school or college will certainly be sacked nowadays, and very possibly prosecuted too. The law was tightened up a few years back. Interestingly, the infamous Chris Woodhead (who has made a lucrative living out of his brief spell as chief inspector of schools) would almost certainly have been prosecuted and banned for life from teaching, had he behaved as it was claimed he did when a young teacher, under current rules and laws.

Fahim is their equivalent of Micky Fialka. He can 'consider' till the cows come home. He still hasn't got any money. (Mind you that isn't stopping the trust tbf)

Good grief ! We'd never raise that much!

Serious question --- what do you think Birch and his PKF pals are doing? Isn't it very odd that they have not yet declared a preferred bidder? And I see Neil Allen is saying they are not answering calls etc. When will something be announced?

My god! Have you got a hidden camera in my room?

Don't tell Turkish there is not much of a dress code, or he'll set one up. He's obsessed with clothes! (Personally, as I write this I have on a rather nice satin velvet smoking jacket in an understated midnight blue.)

It's not always easy to get work back in the UK after a long spell abroad. Don't underestimate the effort you'll need to make to sell yourself.

Depends on whether any of the quoted figure takes tax into account this time! PFC has a convenient habit of forgetting details like that.

That he's just a ****ing patrician, who already knows his place ?

An interesting approach. Killing makes the few survivors healthier! It's a bit like saying we should kill lots of people in Africa to reduce malaria, which it probably would do, but I doubt that this would be seen as a sensible or humane way of achieving this. (I am not of course suggesting that badgers are as important as people, merely drawing an extreme analogy to make the point)

Another link worth reading http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/25/badger-cull-high-court-challenge?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487 As I said before if there is clear evidence to support a cull as being effective, then fair enough, but it would appear that there is only opinion, not universally accepted fact. Also intersting that the Welsh goverment has changed from a planned cull to a policy of vaccination, citing 'scientific evidence' as their reason -- though of course those in favour of culling, dispute the evidence and sayinit was realy a political decision. As I said there is no universally accepted fact.

The early season home game against Leeds when we walked all over them and their arrogant, deeply unpleasant, fans started singing 'what the **** is going on?' is still a sweet memory.

The debate here is surely whether or not a cull will actually achieve a significant decrease in bovine TB? If that were universally accepted, I think nearly everyone would say go ahead. But there is no accepted fact here and indeed much (most?) of the scientific evidence suggests that a cull will not be effective. Some evidence even suggest it will make matters worse as it will cause movement of the remaining badger population into fresh areas .It is a political decision, not a scientific one.

From where do you get this idea that badgers are rare in Scotland? The only live ones I've ever seen were in Scotland! http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/wildlife/badgersanddevelopment/biology.asp DISTRIBUTION AND STATUS Britain is a stronghold of the Eurasian badger, which occurs from Ireland and Iberia in the west, through continental Europe and Asia, to Japan in the east. Although Scotland does not support the high densities of badgers that are to be found in the south-west of England, the species is quite common particularly in the lower-lying, more fertile parts of the country. While the Scottish badger population overall is probably stable, there are areas where badgers appear to be on the increase. There are no accurate figures for the total population in Scotland, but it has been estimated to be around 25,000.

Lol. Ah, "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things." (Douglas Adams this time!)

Beliefs in coalition that they didn't have in the Lib-Lab days? A pact to help a minority goverment for the short term would have been a far greater brake on Tory policies than this coalition has been, because every extreme policy would have been subject to review, but of course it wouldn't have given Clegg the trappings of power as deputy prime minister- nor perhaps lost his party 4 million votes?

What would you know? You're just a pleb!

What I felt the LibDems should have done was to help form an interim government for a short time not agree a formal coalition fixed for 5 years regardless. In other words, to do more like they did in the days of the Lib-Lab pact. Without the LibDem part of the coalition we would not have had a conservative government is the point. They did not have a majority.

(very much snipped) I've met quite a few government ministers and shadow ministers, including Clegg, in my job and of course nearly all of them come across as decent and interested. That's how they get elected! I'm afraid being in politics corrupts morally. They all end up making so many compromises and having to pretend they believe in stuff that they don't, that after a while they either get out because they can't take it --- or they go on to become very convincing liars!

Of course he only said that about being sceptical well after the event.. not at the time.

Well I speak as someone who was previously a fairly regular LibDem voter..... As far as I am concerned, Clegg sold the country, and his party, down the river for a 'mess of potage' in the form of a ministerial car and a bit of reflected glory as Cameron's lapdog. Has no credibility whatsoever. I cannot see me ever voting Lib Dem again whilst he is in charge --- if ever, in fact, because I don't see that many of the others who've enjoyed playing at being in government, at the cost of all principle, are much better.

Just realised that at least Dickens learnt from his time in Portsmouth..... It's no satisfaction to be done by two men instead of one. One's enough. A person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay - Mr Pancks, the rent collector, squeezes the residents of Bleeding Heart Yard in 'Little Dorrit'