trousers

If by "crèche" you mean "a place where working families leave their children while they go out to work" then I'm guilty as charged m'lud. What else do you suggest we do with school age children during the working week? Sigh

I'm hearing quite a few stories from 'friends of friends' saying they they never received a strike ballot paper...I'm beginning to understand why the turnout was so low now...

Works for me

Either way, I think we should be told. How can we be expected to play like Brazil when we don't look like Brazil? FFS

...

Good to see democracy and individual choice is alive and well in the teaching profession. Will be interesting to see how many stories of such coercion the media will bring to the public's attention as I've an inkling your partner's experience won't be an isolated case.

Woe is me. I've been out-witted on a football forum.... ;-)

Not quite.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/election2010/results/constituency/e58.stm Candidates [TABLE=class: candidate-detail] [TR] [/TR] [TR=class: party-CON] [TD] Michael Gove[/TD] [TD]Conservative[/TD] [TD=class: val]31,326[/TD] [TD=class: val]57.6[/TD] [TD=class: val]+6.2[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: party-LD] [TD] Alan Hilliar[/TD] [TD]Liberal Democrat[/TD] [TD=class: val]14,037[/TD] [TD=class: val]25.8[/TD] [TD=class: val]-3.0[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: party-LAB] [TD] Matt Willey[/TD] [TD]Labour[/TD] [TD=class: val]5,552[/TD] [TD=class: val]10.2[/TD] [TD=class: val]-6.5[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: party-UKIP] [TD] Mark Stroud[/TD] [TD]UK Independence Party[/TD] [TD=class: val]3,432[/TD] [TD=class: val]6.3[/TD] [TD=class: val]+3.3[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: val][/TD] [TD=class: val][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: val][/TD] [TD=class: val][/TD] [TD=class: val][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

Sorry. You're right. I'll stick to quoting Daily Mail articles instead.

It could be worse.... http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2011/11/~/media/Files/Downloadable%20Files/Labours%20Mortgage%20Bombshell.ashx

I just read that the OECD are forecasting that the UK economy will shrink this quarter. Along with the rest of the world's economies.

Not denying that could be the case. Link to a graph or such-like to prove it one way or t'other? (that said, the graph to 'prove' where our economy would be relative to Greece's if Labour's "continue to grow the debt" policy had been deployed doesn't actually exist of course) I thought it was growing, albeit very tentatively? (i.e. at the same sort of rate as Germany and the USA but slightly better than the rest of Europe. Again, any link to the official stats would be appreciated. Cheers

Just finish watching it. Fonte appeared to be playing up front for much of the second half!

Bristol City vs Saints Extended "Highlights" now up on Saints Player.... http://www.saintsfc.co.uk/articles/20111128/all-angles-covered-bristol-city-2-0-saints_2264122_2530201/0,,10280~2530201~1,00.html The most pressing question from me....why did we wear blue socks instead of white? Bristol City wore dark socks so that rules out the usual reason (i.e. avoiding a match with opponent's kit).

I think we'd all like top notch pensions but the conundrum is how would that be financed? Working longer and paying in more perhaps?

I wonder when they're gonna get around to airbrushing their OS....? http://www.portsmouthfc.co.uk/club/ownership.aspx Ownership Portsmouth Football Club (2010) Limited is the company that holds the share in The Football League. It is also a member of the Hampshire County Football Association and an Associate Member of the Football Association. Portsmouth Football Club (2010) Limited is 100 per cent owned by Convers Sports Initiatives PLC (CSI), a company incorporated in the United Kingdom. CSI is 75 per cent owned by Vladimir Antonov, 20 per cent owned by Roman Dubov and 5 per cent owned by Chris Akers.

Are you calling me predictable...? ;-))

I shall be submitting an invoice for my expenses (childcare etc) to the National Union of Teachers after the strike. Of course, they won't pay it but they'll be spending much more in administration costs dealing with my correspondance and phone calls than the value of the claim in the first place.

Totally agree. We're now much further away from the Greek's position than we were 18 months ago.

Eaxactly. So why do the same people believe that the coalition do not have a mandate yet they believe the union's call for strike action does, when neither was endorsed by the electorate....? Surely they're in danger of people throwing hypocrisy allegations at them...?

I'll resist the obvious answer to that one... ;-)

Rubbish collection is privatised round here so no worries there.

Souce?

Ah, cool. I must say, John Lewis's service was exemplary. Ordered online on Friday afternoon and picked up from my local Waitrose store on Saturday lunchtime. The Waitrose staff were a little unprepared as this is the first week that John Lewis have started using Waitrose stores for their 'click and collect' service but they couldn't have been more pleasant. Customer service in the UK is alive and well (on rare occasions) :-) I'd defo recommend John Lewis for online Christmas shopping.

Ah, but look on the bright side....justifying taking our kids out of school during term time for cheaper holidays just got a whole lot less complicated...