hypochondriac

In what circumstances?

He could easily sneak into a euros now the tournament has been expanded.

Again you don't actually address anything I have said other than a single unrelated point which is to be expected from you. You know none of the stories I was impressed by so have no right to sneer which is your stock response to most things on here and yes in fact many of the details did come from a 99 year old in a wheelchair who still assembled wheels for trucks on the workplace floor. What reason would they have to lie? They weren't gaining anything from it, I'm not buying any more of their products (they give a lot of it away and in fact gave us some) and were simply telling us how they started and why they believe what they do.

The facts are this: I posted about a visit where I met a group that fled persecution from the nazis and who made a popular load of play equipment for children. I found their story and their values and ethos something that I agreed with and I believe it helped some staff to consider how they planned their resources to ensure that children had opportunities for play and were able to use their imaginations. I found them to be welcoming and intelligent individuals. This group happen to be a religious community that you and some pages on the Internet claim has links to poor practices and who have damaged people's lives. I contest that even if this did take place in Kent (which I doubt, having visited.) that doesn't mean what they present as their ethos and values is less correct, that myself or my staff did not receive something positive from the visit which will help with childcare in the city and that their play equipment is anything less than excellent! Now if you want to continue the discussion regarding this why not tell me what part of that you have a problem with? Or you know do what you normally do and tell me to take a deep breath, read my own post or pretend I'm a member of a cult. I can already guess what you will go with!

So the answer is no you don't fancy reading what I posted and telling me what was wrong with the response I gave you. You seem to think that I am endorsing some cult who isn't what I said at all. Why you think I'm annoyed by a response on an Internet forum is odd. I'm posting on here in between other things. Fancy responding to what I actually wrote instead of telling me to read my own posts? Not the first time you have responded to posters in this manner.

Fonte hasn't made a serious mistake every other game. We probably need another cb in the summer but that is an exaggeration.

I've elaborated as much as I am able and posters such as yourself are deliberately misunderstanding what I say so a serious thread has descended into cheap point scoring and jokes about cults. And people call me a WUM. How about if you have a serious point to make, tell me what you disagreed with in my last reply to you? I think I made my stance fairly clear. Even when attempting to have a civilised discussion with yourself you start on with the inflammatory comments and attitude and then go running off calling foul when anyone gives it back to you.

If you don't understand what I am saying then I'm not going to elaborate further.

I'm not denying that this organisation could be like that. What I don't believe in is lumping every group in together. Even that site you linked to said that a lot of positives came from groups such as the one in Kent but there were certain factions who had problems. I have no doubt that there are certain religious groups that ruin lives or force people to be a certain way but I saw no evidence of that whilst I was there. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen but it's not the impression my group had and if members of our group are inspired by the experience and motivated to improve childcare practices as a result then fantastic. Overall they were very friendly, very welcoming, posed no threat to us physically or mentally and were happy to share with us how they designed and made their products and offered us assistance with planning a room in the future. I'm not advocating sending children there, I'm simply relaying my experience and suggesting people make their own minds up rather than tarring every religious community with the same brush.

I never claimed there were. What I said was that this particular place I visited was inspiring and I agreed with the philosophies they said they followed and the reason why they made the furniture and play equipment that they did (play equipment which you will see in virtually every nursery setting in the country by the way.) I had no idea what to expect and I have no clue what their childcare is like but their philosophy was very interesting.

UKIP and tory way out in front for me. Good to see.

Well as you have never been there nor seen this particular group (and as I can see nothing referring to this group in particular in Kent) I'm quite happy to take what they have said at face value. Even if they are some sort of secret evil sect, which I don't believe, they make excellent furniture and their story was inspiring. I'm not advocating sending children to them to go and live, nor am I saying they are perfect, I am simply saying I agree with the values they are saying they promote and they appeared to be extremely warm and friendly individuals and my day was certainly brighter for having visited.

Again, go there and judge for yourself. It's much better to speak from personal experience on these matters than to form your opinion based on a website. Personally I found the people I spoke to very enlightened about the outside world and earnest about giving children positive experiences. I'm saddened at the turn this thread has taken to be honest, I was hoping to avoid conspiracy theories for once.

The Go and visit for yourself and form your own opinions. Much more useful thing to do. Besides, the flaws in their organisation do not make their views in childcare less valid.

Tbh that's a pathetic comment as you have never been there. Read up on visit yourself then you wouldn't be so ignorant: http://www.communityplaythings.co.uk

I've worked in childcare in this country all my adult life and have visited Scandinavia twice to look at how they do things over there. It is not perfect but it is better than the system we have here.

I think that unfortunately there are a number of parents who either through neglect or ignorance do more harm than good for their children. Much of this can be fixed through Education though as most parents do want to do what is best for their children but they have never had the skills to do so. I would recommend the incredible years course in Southampton and not just because I have a hand in it

As an update to this, I've just spent the day at community playthings near Kent. For those who don't know what that is I would highly recommend reading up on them. They are a Christian community that make furniture and play equipment for nurseries. They are a community of about 300 here but they also have locations in Australia, USA, Germany and South America. They have being going since the 30s and during the war they had to flee Germany so ended up in England. Yes they dress a little funny and they sing before lunch but today's visit was truly inspiring. They run their own nursery and school for their children and encourage children to do practical activities in the afternoons, building dens and playing in the woods. Their philosophy of children learning through play is something I wholeheartedly agree with and the results speak for themselves. They were really welcoming and warm and I would seriously recommend a visit if anyone gets the chance.

This basically. Odd that Francis thinks there was desperate criticism from day one when that is not my recollection at all. At the first fans forum he was actually clapped in and out of the building. I also agree that it pretty much could not have done better off the pitch (other than maybe some poor recent transfers). Obviously everyone who thinks this way has an agenda though.

Do you have any sort of criticism for the liberal Democrats? Serious question because your last two replies on here seem seriously deluded. You sound like the chief spin doctor from the Lib Dems who was on the BBC last night.

Glad you liked it minty. Here is another one if you are interested.

Certainly some of what he has come out with today is not only worrying for the future of our children, it's incredibly insulting to the huge number of professional and dedicated early years workers across the country.

Do you think clegg won the debate?

WHen you post on these subjects BTF I like you more and more . The whole schooling system is flawed because it teaches that people below a certain intelligence level have failed. I want people to be able to reach their potential and to have fulfillment and happiness in their lives but they don't bother with that sort of thing at school (and increasingly if the government get their way at nursery!)

Why are you lumping nurseries and schools in together? They are completely different and should perform different functions. Why for example should a child be forced to read at three if they do not want to? What life advantage do they derive from this that they would get over for example learning to read at five?