pap

I'm duty bound to snarl. Dwarf code, innit? I'm thinking of having another play on your username. Muchtooginge or Notenoughmínge? Your call

Is it a decent trade-off though? I mean, the thing that people seem to have missed is that the UK is no longer a full sovereign nation while it is signed up to the EU. Many of our sovereign powers are trumped by the decisions that the EU commission, an unelected body, manages to get through the European Parliament. These are people with a huge amount of power that have no democratic mandate. No-one would accept a Prime Minister that was simply plucked from a preferred political class. The bastards at least have to get votes for it and can be held to account for their decisions at the next election. That being the case, why do EU citizens have no say on who runs the larger sovereign body we belong to? Even the stated aims of European integration, such as the prevention of another general war in Europe, seem a little fragile at the moment. Fair dos, I can't see the Germans doing a repeat of Gleiwitz anytime soon, but I can see the Russians getting increasingly miffed about what they see as encroachment on their territory.

What a depressing post. First off, it seems to confirm the myth that we've no space. Second, it humbly accepts that corporations and multinationals are a point of truth that must be observed. Thank f**k it's the young that renew the country.

Only if you believe that something very hot immediately becomes very cold when a power cable is removed. Hasn't been my experience with electronics. The chassis retains heat for quite a while, as anyone that has ever had an overheating laptop will know.

Itchen North corner is top class if you like banter and taking the píss. I've sat in all parts of the ground bar Kingsland North. No contest, imo - even with the Northam.

We is South Central, innit?

Good man. Why even bother with tracking two parts of a number when one very large number, which can be divided back down, will do? People today, Bear.

Not necessarily. A keen mathematician would have just multiplied everything by 10 until neither operand had a floating point component.

I've got a mate that buys the Sun. None of my mates are thickos; I don't suffer fools. He backs up everything you said about the Sports section of the Sun. Says it's the only reason he buys it.

Spain and France are countries headed in different directions. Marie Le Pen and her National Front party are enjoying a big surge in the polls, enough to have a say in the next French government. Hollande's approval ratings are hovering between 10% and 20%. The Socialists could be finished there. Spain had an indignados movement, meetings in the squares, in which political matters are discussed. Its fastest growing party is Podemos, which has come to a lot of very left wing conclusions, but tends not to view politics though one particular spectrum. Indeed, much of what they do is deconstruct and explain the existing political systems. Political winds are changing across Europe.

I can't really see it happening, but Spurs, innit? They might have let Bale go for a fraction of what they eventually got for him when mad 'Arry was in charge. They'd be mad to let him go, especially as he's playing his way into Premier League contention. The problem for them is the millions they've spent on players ahead of him. Flogging him will look better on the balance sheet than whatever they eventually offload their Bale buys for. Unlikely, but if it frees up Spurs to buy a player they really want, why not?

Pearson's body language doesn't suggest confidence on his part. Arms folded, no eye contact. Looks doomed.

I don't even think Labour have done a decent job of steering themselves back to their core values, though that must have been the intention of the unions that elevated "Red" Ed (what a laugh) into psuedo-power. He'll likely be remembered for two things, his successful intervention in Syria and his inability to form a coherent opposition against multiple foes. The coalition can be knocked for six on any number of their policies, but in many areas, Labour have seen the positive effect of populism and have chased Tory voters, laying claim to the bits they like. We've seen it all before. It was the final season of The Thick of It, minus that wildcard UKIP element.

[video=youtube_share;enisEolQXnw]http://youtu.be/enisEolQXnw

Jesus, who let that one get through the common sense filter? The shirt is coloured red and looks like it has just been violently thrown through a windscreen. And it's got Peugeot on the front. The French director signing that off must have seen something deeper in it, dedicated follower of fashion, perhaps. "Non, non. C'est bon!"

Been having a nose at the Spurs game. Been one of their stars. Takes people on. Gets in behind people. No idea if there is any validity in the interest, but he does seem like our kind of player.

Yes. We're both importers of obscure, yet surprisingly tasty continental products.

Miliband facing calls to quit. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29935172 Looks like VFTT's prediction might be on the money.

Agreed. Nice effort. Seen most of those points raised before, but good effort regardless.

You were asking how we managed before the EU. The answer is:- a) with a supranational protectionist trade empire that we used to run (pre-WW2) b) badly enough to have the IMF come in during the 1970s

I find the occasional bit of humility keeps the lynch mobs away. That, and greasing the approaches to my house.

And yet, the Empire was never bigger after the end of hostilities in the First World War. The collective sense of getting jipped by the Old World powers after the war fuelled much of the US isolationism. I really don't dispute that the cohesiveness of the Empire was on the wane. One of the biggest problems in the early 1930s was holding it all together. However, it was Bretton Woods where things came to a head and the future of the Empire (none) was determined. Many American historians point to Bretton Woods as the point at which US dominance really began, which implicitly means the unseating of the incumbent dominant power. That would have been us.

Which bit? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/14/how-a-soviet-spy-outmaneuvered-john-maynard-keynes-and-ensured-u-s-global-financial-dominance/

Some interesting bits of media. First of all, arf! Next, Stewart Lee wrote an article in the Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/nov/05/stewart-lee-the-imaginary-liberal-comedy-cabal-will-crush-the-ukips-into-dust

Up until the Americans made us get rid of it at Bretton Woods, we had our own supranational entity called the British Empire. Thirty years after that ended, we were going cap in hand to the IMF.