moonraker

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.

If previous tory tax cuts are anything to go by the real winners wont be those on modest incomes.

All the deficit is doing is giving the tories an even bigger excuse for their traditional cust cutting policies, just wait in 4 years there will be plenty of Tax breaks for there core supporters!!

Well now we have visabilty of the "not so strategisc defence review" it is obvious it is a total shambles, Aircraft Carriers with no Aircraft, reductions in persoannel at a time of greatest overstretch, it is typical indiscriminate Tory slash and burn, it is totally incoherrent! Only purpose was cost cutting nothing to do with need aka Thatcher and Knott, that time the Argies saved our defence capabilty, when will we learn the tories are not and never have been friends of the armed forces!!!

I am a regular vistor to Brussesl (Business) and it can be very good tough you need to plan your trip, as to eateries these are 2 of my favourites http://www.restaurantvincent.com/ great steaks and http://www.rugbymantwo.com/ great lobster, neither is particularly cheap. Also in the Grand Place bottom left corner oposite the Hotel de Ville is a bar that does a belgium beer smapler tray (other bars also do this) good way to get a taste for the huge range of beer on offer.

Whilst I understand the questioning of the contract the real question is whether we need the carriers or indeed what should our armed forces look like. GO and his mates have not undertaken anything like a STRATEGIC Defence Review, all his decisions are driven by cost cutting. The previous Government had decided that the carriers were required, in placing orders for long lead items (the most costly elements of the project) the suppliers needed a degree of certainty that the contracts would be honoured or that they would be compensated for the significant investment they have made to fulfil the orders. This is normal commercial practice when you are placing multi million pound contracts the supplier cannot be expected to take all of the risk. It is worth noting that the UK's ability to design and build complex warships rests on this project, if we loose the skills, and believe me we are very close, then all future RN ships will be designed and built overseas, anyone for a German MEKO or French FREMM.

The Olive Tree is excellent, it is in Russell Street and the Hotel is The Queensbury.

Some good ideas already mentioned, I can second the canal walk, Alexandra Park for views, on the way up or back into town the Bear Pub on Bear Flat is very good, both drink and food, the comedy walk, despite the comment above the open top bus tour is a good way to see a lot, also the museum of costume in the Assembly Rooms, the best park in town is Sydney Gardens both the railway and canal bisect it. If you like proper pubs there are a number of excellent ones in the city centre, The Old Green Tree in Green Street, The Raven, Queen Street, The Salamander 30 yards north of the Raven, The Garricks Head next to the Theatre Royal and the Bell in Walcot Street, for a more contemporary bar try Hall and Woodhouse another 50 yards north of the Salamander or the Lounge . You say you have shortlisted eateries but a few I would recommend are top of Walcot Street (Pricey but great steaks) Hudsons, Woods next to the Assembly Rooms, The White Heart in Widcombe, The Thai Balcony near the Theatre Royal, Messaluna (Italian) Kingsmead Square, for lighter lunch /cafe food try Cafe Retro York Street, The Wild Cafe Queen Street, Say Pasta St James Parade, The Green Park Brasserie Green Park Station, Banglos Lower Bristol Road, Hon Fusion Widcombe Parade, whatever you do do not use Binks Cafe in the Abbey Churchyard or the Eastern Eye Indian.