pap

She a newsreader. I have to watch out when perving over her though, as ms pap is up, about and alert during Breakfast. Slaps await for the unwary. Her "concerned" face is top.

Man dies of starvation after benefits were cut. http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/11043378.Man_starved_after_benefits_were_cut/ Very sensational, so I'll qualify this with the "bloke had problems anyway".

If you were bazza's secretary, would you spurn his advances by the filing cabinet?

Curse of Strictly strikes again. Susanna Reid splits from partner. http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/leisure/showbiz/11044065.Reid_confirms_split_with_partner/?ref=asnsp Not sure if she's banging any dancers, like.

So Dobs, then. That's his nickname, mate.

Think your anger is misplaced. Is Dobs still leading the match engine work, MLG?

This can't be news to you. I realised this pages ago. Ultimately I'm a big believer in "do whatever the f*ck you like, as long as you don't screw anyone else over". Practically, that's almost impossible to achieve but you try, and there are certainly huge moral icebergs one can forever avoid simply by steering clear of certain careers, like not becoming a loan shark or bailiff, etc. It can be costly; I've turned stuff down for moral reasons and will continue to do so. Deep down, you know it's easy money. With the panoply of full service letting agencies and service contractors on offer, all you really need is the deposit and credit rating. Thing is, easy money rarely comes without strings. One of the consequences of your choice is that people like me will disapprove.

I dunno. If you've passed down your indifferent attitude to the poor to them and give them a sh!tload of stuff when they're growing up too, then I could see it happening a lot earlier. Yeah, seriously. You're getting a handout from the government, aren't you? Collectively, the rates that private landlords charge keeps people out of work. You are not doing great work here, Unbelievable Jeff. You're keeping a home off the market and scrounging off the state. When you hand the kids the shiny new houses, be sure to let them know how many people you kept down so that they could get on.

Everyone is someone else's kid. Does that make everyone above criticism? You introduced your offspring into the argument as justification for your proposed benefit scrounging. There are plenty of other people on here with kids that won't accept that as a valid line of reasoning. No-one is ascribing any negative qualities to your kids with regard to their individual characteristics. People are simply pointing out the perils of giving your kids too much; that they can lack an appreciation for the value of money or hard work.

Then don't use them as pawns in your argument. Besides, do you blame a spoiled kid for being a spoiled kid? Course not. You blame the parents. No-one is knocking your kids; it's not even clear that Jonnyboy was talking about them. The same post referenced workshy university students.

News on March's PS+ offering. Dead Nation is the free PS4 game. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-02-27-dead-nation-ps4-free-with-ps-plus-in-march

I have to be careful here as my original Anelka thread was shut down. I don't really share SuperMikey's definition of anti-semitism. I know that's what it is supposed to be, but practically, it's just a huge label that gets assigned to someone when they are critical of the State of Israel or those who lobby for them. It's designed to put the critic in a box, right next to the one that says "genocidal maniac". As I said earlier in the thread, Netanyahu reckons you're anti-semitic if you support the boycott. Let's appeal to Turk's call for logic. Logically, if we were going to get our knickers in a twist about issues tied to religion, there would be no gay marriage. There are far more Christians in this country (or those with a Christian heritage) that would oppose gay marriage legislation than the 1% of the population that follow Jewish tradition who may be offended by Anelka's gesture. If we were going to use "amount of harm suffered in Second World War" as some kind of delineator as to whether a nation can be criticised or not, we wouldn't allow criticism of Russia. The barrage of news stories condemning Russia's laws against the promotion of homosexual lifestyles wouldn't exist. They lost 25 million people, right? They should be above criticism. None of it washes with me anymore. I'm well aware that application of the term is designed to scare the bejesus out of anyone called it, but I was born in England in 1975, not Germany in 1910. Even if I believed in the sins of the father, my dad ain't German either and was born in 1955. Wasn't there at the time, have never been a genocidal maniac and haven't got any plans in that direction. Fk, I don't even have an ABH against my name. Defenders of the term would insist that we must be on our vigil to ensure it never happens again. It's a load of crap; it's designed to stem criticism and make people feel guilt for horrible crimes they, and in most cases their ancestral countrymen, never committed.

And we're still very much designed to make that happen. The British Empire, as constituted today, is us and a collection of tax havens.

Yeah, and you skipped over my points about VAT being a regressive tax; lump fuel duty in with that. Whether the Laffer curve applies or not (whatever that is), the Russian tax take rose year on year.

Pretty much every part of that supply chain is going to involve fuel duty of some kind. That's why fuel duty is such a huge lever. People reckon that VAT is good because we get money from foreigners. That's not really true. Fellow EU citizens have to pay it whatever, but people from outside the EU can go to tax free outlets, buy all their stuff, and get a rebate from the HMRC. There is a definite case for taxation on beer and cigarettes. If you're going to risk your health, you should bear some of the burden of maintaining it. Smokers make more money for the government than they cost. Much of the indirect taxation we have is regressive anyway, the aforementioned VAT being a good example. No-one gets away from that. Russia did very well out of implementing flat taxation:- The Russian Federation is a considered a prime case of the success of a flat tax; the real revenues from its Personal Income Tax rose by 25.2% in the first year after the Federation introduced a flat tax, followed by a 24.6% increase in the second year, and a 15.2% increase in the third year.[16] The Laffer curvepredicts such an outcome, attributing the primary reason for the greater revenue to higher levels of economic growth stemming from the introduction of the flat tax. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_tax#Revenues Happens more often than you like to admit, Whitey G. This is about the third time you've made such a pronouncement

Realistically, the tax burden is approaching 50% anyway, once you add everything up, especially if you drink, drive, smoke, live in a house or buy things other than food. I suspect a big reason that the government won't entertain a flat tax is because they don't want you knowing what that burden is. Thing is, it'd vastly simplify stuff. Individual, corporation or whatever - the tax rate is the same. As I said before, they should just come clean, let us know what the figure is and get on with it. I used to be hugely in favour of progressive tax systems, but as I was saying to bletch earlier, I write systems - people never use them the way you intend.

I'm in favour of a flat tax. Make it simple. Make it honest. Make tax accountants redundant. Nothing will stimulate an economy like people knowing exactly how much they have to spend. It's the multi directional attacks and constant nibbling that grates with taxation.

Michael, for the love of all that is good, please do not shout "get your t!ts out!" to Dolly when she is on-stage.

I've been playing Squads on COD, which is probably the ideal way to re-introduce yourself to that series of games. None of my characters are very high level, but I have noticed that levelling each one up a bit makes a big difference to how the AI members of your team get on. Trounced some mush with a high level squad. I'm assuming its his kid or dog that was really playing me. Doesn't happen often.

Just read the Guardian's piece on this. Anelka is not anti-semitic. He is to undergo a "re-education programme". That's alright, then.

Ah, everything is anti-semitic these days. According to Netanyahu, the boycott is too. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/18/israel-boycott-movement-antisemitic-netanyahu I try not to worry about it.

Arf. We did the time-honoured trick of roaring up the table, only to settle down into our natural position. Loads of unfancied teams do it. You make it sound like 3rd was something we were going to be able to hang onto. As many said at the start of the season, injuries would be a problem, and so it proved. The better way of looking at it is 14th to 9th.

Not yet. If the Conservatives win the next election and legalise the culling of benefit claimants, and Boundless Sam is on benefits at the time, then maybe.

He did say "price they deserve" and I'm all in favour of low-cost housing. Maybe they could send the heavies around to Unbelievable Jeff's houses to smash them up and/or organise a multi-room dirty protest to lower the asking price. I'd watch that.