pap

Homeland started life as an Israeli show, I believe.

The intent was to show how the BBC has consistently bunged out quality over a long period, including today. I watched The Thick Of It this week. Stunning conclusion.

How have you come to the conclusion that prices won't go down if supply is massively increased? I don't share it. Granted, I'm not an economist, but the scarcity and availability of a commodity have a huge part to play in its price. It's part of why prices are where they're at now. People want quality accommodation, there isn't much of it about. If limited supply helps to create high prices, it's not a stretch to suggest that a lot of supply will bring them down. If this question is predicated on the assumption that the whole of the UK has been concreted over, think again. 77% of UK citizens live on 6% of the land. There is plenty of space.

Lots of good stuff on the Beeb mate, including comedy that makes this sketch look like some sort of comedy cave painting. So, from thirty years ago onwards, just on comedy (which proves your point remember?).... The Young Ones Only Fools and Horses Blackadder Red Dwarf Harry Enfield One Foot in the Grave Alan Partridge The League of Gentlemen The Office The Thick Of It ...all sh!t presumably?

Respectfully, TDD - the BBC does more than TV, and does more than entertain. It's an indelible part of the British experience.

Same things as I always propose. Build loads of new houses, flood the market with property - supply and demand will take care of the rest. I do realise this'll upset people who see their home as a casino chip.

Can we just give dune his old account back please?

Not sure how much thought you've given to this, Lord D. Every taxpayer in this country pays for things that they do not agree with. Thanks to PAYE, most people don't have a choice in whether they pay it or not. As a small businessman, I could withhold on the basis of I don't like the way the money is spent. If I decided to do that, would I get into less or more trouble than if I didn't buy a TV licence?

Superb contribution.

Dare to use the word "perceived"? I think it'd be irresponsible of me NOT to use it. Your perception right now is that a long-cherished national institution should lose its charter because some people within it tried to cover their arses. Same thing with your family, really. I don't know what is best for them, but you made a decision based on your perceptions, not hard facts. Judging from many of your 21K posts, I think it's fair to say that your perception of the UK is a lot darker than your average view. So yep, I dare to use the word "perceived", and with some justification. The way you go on you'd think the UK was f**king Mordor. In short, I find your sense of perspective to be highly unreliable. As for the volume of your posts, I was simply pointing out the time could have been spent making a positive difference instead of espousing a negative view.

You might be able to play the wife and kids card if you didn't have 21K posts, my friend. That in itself suggests that you have plenty of free time. It comes down to this; you put the perceived needs of your family ahead of your principles. I say perceived because I don't recognise the Britain you paint. It must look different from a distance. Sorry Alps; I don't mind people moaning - but moaning without a solution is wearying enough. Moaning without any effort to change things is even worse.

You'll probably get more sympathy from me than you would from most on the issue of a disappointing return home. "Failure to re-integrate" may have been a harsh choice of words, but that's essentially what happened. That's not a judgment on you, btw. I think most people who have had their horizons significantly broadened have difficulty returning to what can be a very narrow set of views. I get that completely; before you left you fit snugly into the jigsaw puzzle of British life. On your return, not only had you changed, but so had the rest of the puzzle. No shame in that. I think it happens to all of us who depart the country for a spell. I'm also sure that from your perspective, things probably did look a bit worse than they were before. That all said, I do think that the fundamental issue here is your failure to adapt and the way you dealt with it. If you were on here saying "yup, tried it out, couldn't get back into it" that's one thing. However, it's more along the lines of "everything is sh!t". Now, if you are as much as a man of principle as your post would suggest, and the attributes you ascribe to the UK are accurate, I do have to wonder why you chose to move back to Austria and snipe from afar, instead of say, staying in Blighty and working to bring about the sort of positive change that you believe we're missing.

This game has taken over my life. Right now, I'm taking the cheater's approach, resurrecting most of my downed troops via the power of PREVIOUSLY SAVED GAMES FWIW, think it's better than the originals. Far less d!cking about. Back in the day, something as simple as opening a door correctly was a precision operation. The UI changes have been very welcome indeed, with the only odd thing being the use of the mousewheel to change elevation. I've cocked that up a few times and sent people to premature death. Bit buggy too, although might just be my machine. There's an issue on the squad select screen, just before the mission. If you happen to double-click on a weapon you already have equipped, an unclosable dialog pops up, which is fun. Also seen issues with aliens coming into play. Bunged one of those sniper battle detectors into a room full of aliens, immediately launched rockets at the feckers only to discover that they weren't officially taking damage I'm working my way through the game on medium. A lot of things have just started to "pop" all at once. Think I got The Foundry, Psionic Labs and Firestorm at around the same time. Australia have left the XCOM program. That's ok. The aliens can have them. My game of the year.

Very nice defence of the BBC. It isn't perfect, but I feel it is very much part of the national character. One of the first things I miss when abroad, so much so that many US hotel rooms have had Radio4 streamed into their innards via the medium of my laptop. Alps, without wanting to cast aspersions on your fine character, I do get the impression from your posts that you have a healthy disdain for many British institutions, unjustifiably so in some cases, including this one. Honest question(s). Do you think part of that is your brain doing a number on you because you no longer live here? Is there some part of you that perhaps resents being where you are? I know you've said you moved back here and that didn't work out. Is it remotely possible that many of your opinions are formed by your failure to re-integrate into British society?

Nice, but this doesn't cover the millions of working people who get HB.

I think most people can put up with a bit of temporary hardship, TDD. The very fact that we're paying HB to those in work should tell you that earnings are not inline with the cost of living. There is no light at the end of the tunnel for many people stuck on HB. Go to work every week, and still be unable to fully support yourself? Still have no disposable income? I'd say that justifies bleak.

I pay my licence fee every month and despite the fact that I only use a fraction of their services, I don't feel short-changed. Irrespective of what the BBC produces itself, the existence of the Beeb's universal advert-free channels makes all other media in this country better. It prevents advertising from being as prevalent as it is elsewhere in the world, either in length and frequency of ads, or editorial input over the content. Contrast our TV landscape with the f**king dreadful end-point of total commercialisation, and the Beeb looks like a pretty sweet deal.

If the BBC is lacking any political will, you can blame the politicians. Blair and pals came down like a ton of bricks on it after it made the mistake of telling the truth about the case for the Iraq war being sexed up. Cameron and pals put Jeremy Hunt in charge of the BSkyB bid, presumably with a view to getting it rubber-stamped. Most of the anti-BBC rhetoric comes from the Murdoch crowd.

Hmm, give up a cherished institution that has united the nation during innumerable times of trouble, because people within it have made bad decisions during the last 80 years? I'll go one further than hypo, Alps. You don't even get a say.

You didn't have to explain, Tokyo. I did manage to catch your joke mate, but didn't chuckle in written form and went off on my own tangent instead. Soz

Is hubcap theft still a thing? It's mostly moulded alloys these days. Do you think that the disappearance of thievable hubcaps is somehow linked to Liverpool's sustained and impressive regeneration?

Blimey. People moaning about scousers getting all the jobs. Whatever next.

Right now, Next jeans, Primark plain black T, and big clumpy socialist working man's boots. Long-term, I'm abandoning clothing altogether. I saw this excellent animated program that suggests that if you grow your hair all the way down to your feet, you will be surrounded by hot girls that call you "Cavey" and will be able to pull useful objects from your body-length barnet at will. F*ck you and your brands.

I'm no fan of Liverpool City Council. Cheeky feckers have a habit of sending surprise bills out. I got a nice one for council tax arrears for 2.7K a couple of years ago. I owed part of it, but wasn't in the place for most of the period they were talking about. Ended up paying the lot because I didn't have a 9 year old leccy bill kicking around. That said, if they have to pay the grant money back, it'll probably end up being reflected in my council tax or services, which is a bit crap, as I pay for Europe too.

I subscribe to the Guardian's paid digital service, mostly out of a sense of obligation. It's a good paper that occasionally does decent journalism and provides a ton of free content. I wouldn't normally buy a paper anyway; so it's not like my subscription is cannibalising a paper sale. Just felt like a bit of a freeloader and wanted to support some of the work they do. The Guardian is repeatedly mocked in Private Eye for not making any money out of their plunge into digital, so I have to wonder. Have they turned digital revenues around or is this one last, desperate throw of the dice after making operating losses for years?