moonraker

Disagree, the BBC may have some problems and politicians like to use it as a punch bag, but believe me it is right up there with the very best broadcasters in the world, if it aint broke don't fix it.

From the two books you identified I am assuming historic, maritime themes are good, these two are a good read: The Floating Brothel: The Extraordinary True Story of an 18th-Century Ship and Its Cargo of Female Convicts, ADMIRALS, The Naval Commanders who made Britain Great, Andrew Lambert

Joke Thread !

There was a good article in G2 yesterday listing the six things all Children should learn about our (British) history, the six do not include any great inter state wars or battles, they are in the authors (Simon Scharma) opionion the key things that have shaped our nation, his choice in chronological order is, The Murder of Thomas Beckett, The Black Death and the Peasants Revolt, The Execution of Charles I, The Indian Moment, The Irish Wars and the Opium Wars. The key is it these events are key to our national psyche and are not those things that simply glorified us. http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/09/future-history-schools

I attended the Bonfire Night at Colerne in Wiltshire, it has been a notable village event since at least my childhood in the 60's, the bonfire is huge with guys from a competition sitting prominently atop the pyre and a big firework display lasting 25 mins, I reckon this year there were upwards of 1000 people in attendance which for a village of just over 2000 is pretty good going.

I attended the Bonfire Night at Colerne in Wiltshire, it has been a notable village event since at least my childhood in the 60's, the bonfire is huge with guys from a competition sitting prominently atop the pyre and a big firework display lasting 25 mins, I reckon this year there were upwards of 1000 people in attendance which for a village of just over 2000 is pretty good going.

In this instance I think intricate demographic and geographic accuracy was central to your post as your title defines a Geographically bounded area.

Grimsby and S****horpe are in Lincolnshire, always have been. As to Yorkshire it really is a strange county full of strange people however the North Yorks Moors Vale of York and Dales are are wonderful and the locals are very freindly. There is an old Yorkshire saying that sums up the county, "if tha's going to do owt for any one do it for thee sen"

The first thing that must be established is what sort of justice you want, a system based on Retribution (e.g. USA, IRAN) or one based on Rehabilitation (most of Europe). Whichever system you choose must be applied universally to all criminal acts, from shop lifting to murder and rape. In general a retribution system does not cope well with mitigation e.g. stealing a food to stave off hunger would result in the same punishment as stealing food to sell for a profit. In the case of murder the USA get around the automatic death penalty by having different degrees of murder, in practice First Degree (death penalty) charges are reserved for the poor and marginalized members of society, the better off respectable members of society in the main get charged with non death penalty lesser degrees. Introducing such a system would mean the majority of murder charges would be made in the lesser degrees and the weight of evidence required to convict in the first degree would be greater. Our current system has a mandatory life tariff for Murder, the Judge (the clues in the name) decides on the evidence what the minimum term of imprisonment should be, all those convicted of the most horrendous and evil murders, Soham, Yorkshire Ripper, Mrs West etc will die in prison for them life is life.

Image is not the same as cleanliness and smartness.

Sounds like that you have discovered the secret to success, you should write a book as I have never come across the Knife and Fork theroy of success before it would complement, Stephen Coveys The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People® and Dale Carnegies How to Win Friends and Influence People (neither conatin anything about table manners) Dune your onto a winner!

Colin you are not alone!

The question of good manners is a difficult one, who decides what they are, convention constantly changes. In the main it seems to be the privileged classes who decide how the rest of us should behave, this tends to lead to one of 2 outcomes, snobbery or indifference. In the former those who want to better themselves try to replicate the behaviour of the privileged classes, and as you have observed most are easily spotted as the devil is in the detail, the latter just get on with their lives and attain whatever success comes their way by talent not mimickery.

Having spent 36 working years evenly split between the two sectors the one great myth that needs laying to rest is that private sector workers work harder than public sector workers. The reason private sector workers take the pain in the way they do is driven by one thing, profit, and the witch of the eighties ensuring that many private sector workers were denied employee rights by stealth putting them in fear of any sort of opposition to market driven greed. How many senior executives have walked away from once great companies whose downfall they were central to with enough money to keep a several normal families for life.

A lot of the current growth can be attributed to Gov capital spending which is soon to dry up under your darling little boy Georrgie Porgie, lets see what the rate is in 12 - 18 months. I hope it is still strong but I am not holding my breath.

2016 has been the ISD for QE for a while, PoW will have a delayed ISD due to redesign work to fit additional Steam Gear, the space and weight budget for which was I understand inculded in the requirments as the previous Gov recognised that it might be useful.

Your point is!

From my perosnal experince I do not agree.

The biggest reduction in Armed Forces numbers and capability in the last 50 years was between 91 - 97, when the Tories halved the defence budget made thousands and thousands of servicemen redundant then asked many to come back when it was realised that all the experience had left. In 1990 the RN had over 35 escorts 24 submarines 3 operational Invincible Carriers, 2 LPD’s, 20 + MCMV's by 1997 we had 28 Escorts, 14 submarines 2 operational Invincible Carriers, 1 LPH, 1 LPD, 17 MCMV's with numbers planned to be reduced further with no new escort design agreed and no replacements for the 30+ year old LPD. Believe me you can draw up similar lists for the Army and RAF.

You can take the party politics out of the defence debate, the problem is that politicians as breed have no real understanding of the role of our Armed Forces or respect for the men and women who serve in them and even the civil servants who support them. One Harrier pilot, Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Kris Ward asked the PM: "I have flown 140 odd missions in Afghanistan and I am now potentially facing unemployment. How am I supposed to feel about that sir?" Mr Cameron thanked him for "everything" he had done for his country,” now F**k o**.

The special forces HC 3 Chinooks were ordered by Majors lot a complet contractural FU, alongside our armed forces foreign aid is essential to our credibilty in the world , I dont think that all of the new hospitals and schools support Labour wasted the lot, they didnt get everything right but they got quite a bit right inspite of Brown.

Mates in the navy rarely know what Whitehall is thinking they are far removed form that world. Whilst it may happen it is not currently a serious option, I have worked at both ends .

Have I missed something, this is a Tory decision, they had choices and have got it wrong again, as above ala Thatcher and Knott.

Go to Bath City 3 - 4 times a season, my first ever game at Twerton Park was Bath City V a Southmapton 11 in the late 60's.