buctootim

Chamberlain gets a lot of unfair stick. Britain was totally unprepared for war in 1938. He bought us a year and organised massive re-armanent.

Club Quarters is a good comfortable business hotel in Northumberland Avenue (Trafalgar Square). They often have discount rates at the weekend.

I pleaded not guilty to a speeding ticket for doing 54mph on a 60 limit dual carriageway (i had photographic evidence and witnesses there were no signs warning of a temporary 40mph speed restriction) - it took 18 months four hearings and a heap of witnesses. Found guilty because "I should have known" (how, by clairvoyance?) there were speed restrictions on an unmarked road. Total waste of everybody's time. Ended up with £500 in costs and fines, plus I missed a week of work all told. The bloke in the court next door got a weeks community service for a burglary.

You're probably only a terrorist from the waist down.

Why not? we blew up restaurants and and cinemas on thousands of occasions. Dresden left 25,000 dead in one night - an attack on a town with no military or industrial significance. If its possible to justify that attack then its possible to justify the ANC attacks - grossly abhorrent though they both were.

Autumn Statement: UK growth 'hides disappointing news' http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25258963

The fire bombing of Dresden? the carpet bombing of Cologne? Nagasaki / Hiroshima or is it different when we do it?

Yes but why. It wasnt because of results. http://www.theargus.co.uk/sport/10838920.Barker_sacked_by_Crawley/

Struggling with the flawed logic of your own beliefs Jamie?

It wasnt. They infiltrate terrorist cells and took part in terrorist acts. You've said clearly they were terrorists.

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Its a complicated moral issue. Some security forces who infiltrate terror groups need to take part in terrorist acts to maintain credibility. Some leaders who want a political solution accept some violent acts in order to control the headbangers and keep the political push going. Neither are easy calls.

So the English Civil war - parliament against the Monarchy was terrorism. I see. Don't be offended if I disregard you.

Well done, you missed the point yet again Jamie. No I wasnt glad she died, I just wasnt particulalrly upset she died and didnt want to read 30 pages about her dying. The point Jamie, spoken slowly, is that I didnt try and mock people for feeling differently to me. Anyway back to Mandela. Amazing to be able to emerge from 27 years in prison and then do what he did. RIP.

Then why not just shut the **** up? I was glad Diana died late at night on Saturday, because it meant she didn't trash the Sunday papers by being in them. It doesn't mean I went to Kensington Palace to **** on the floral tributes. Let people do what they want without trying to score points or belittle everything you think isnt cool or is hypocritical. Yes there is a lot of phoney emotionalism around now. This thread probably isnt one of those places.

Says something when people need to spam a tribute page to a dead man to get attention. Isn't there some facebook page for a teenage car crash victim you can post on to get your top up?

A very quiet one now.

I dont know why you assume everyone is pointing the finger at you. I find your views irrational, overly pesissmistic and often kneejerk, but I think you believe what you post, so thats fine.

Not really. Dream is someone offers an opinion, other people agree or disagree and make their case, some of them funny. Lots of other forums manage it. Trolling is what has killed this site, not anything else.

Mom and Pop capitalism runs as you describe - small traders provide goods and services to people and compete for trade. Trouble is in many sectors we increasingly have a late stage capitalism - Corporatism where markets are controlled by a few very large players who have more power than the governments that are supposed to regulate them. They achieve success by smothering competition by paying low, charging high and avoiding tax by methods not available to local or regional traders. As Aintforever says - global corporates wont swap sandwiches and water. One will kill the other off, buy up its assets cheap and and then put the prices up having first agreed a non compete pact with their last remaining rival firm in China.

I think there must a difference between American and British English. That's the one I slipped up on and I know the 'which' / 'that' usage really well because my US boss picks me up on that 'error' all the time, when I think its correct.

Hardly. A very young and improving mid table side.

I think you mean "How good is your grammar"... 97%, one wrong through being careless. Have been thinking whether it still really matters in the internet age, but maybe now accurately conveying what you meant is even more important.

Thats true. The threads I start should begin with "listen". The ones started by most others should start with "disregard" (or "oi" in a couple of cases).

It is easy to say and harder to rectify. Its much better to not fall into deep holes in the first place than to try and climb out of them. I dont pretend to have all the answers but here some things I'd like to see happen. 1. A reformed house of Lords. Some independently appointed life peers but majority elected. No political parties permitted in the house. Voting to conscience on legislation proposed by House of Commons. 2. More free votes in House of Commons 3. A statutory requirement for newspapers to provide balanced and fair coverage of politics 4. A 'top up' system for the house of Commons to make parliament more representative of the votes actually cast. Perhaps 10% of seats would not be tied to a constituency and would be allocated depending on total votes cast nationwide.