CB Saint

Are you suggesting that just because he is young and has a future he should be treated differently? I suspect a good proportion of people in prison made a mistake and would never commit the same crime again - does that make it wrong that they were imprisoned as well? You mention that people who rob old ladies get let off etc and you are right, system is imperfect and it is difficult to accept the lack of sentencing consistancy, however, if you introduce mitigating factors, such as age / likelyhood of reoffending etc then sentencing will become even more incomprehensable to the general public.

Hmv get hammered on two fronts. Firstly as mentioned above, online and secondly the supermarkets who sell "top 40" albums at very discounted rates. The supermarkets have also hit the book sellers in the same way. They only offer the most popular books / cds without having to stock all the back catalougue or the more eclectic stuff. The high street record shop is doomed in the medium term.

The use of statistics can be really frustrating when calculating premiums. Last year I had a bang. It was not my fault, someone slid back down a hill on the ice and hit me as I was stationary at the bottom. We claimed and thje following year my premium went up 60% because even though I still had full no claims and it was not my fault, statistically I am more likely to have another accident - sucks eh!

Merry Christmas to everyone.

I am going to my brothers for xmas dinner and he is point blank refusing to cook sprouts. To me they are as important to the tradditional xmas dinner as, say, crackers but he is not having any of it. Got me thinking, what one food item perfectly captures xmas for them? Is it mince pies, brandy butter, sprouts? For me is has to be the chipolata wrapped in bacon.

No way - I deserve mine - I was the best in my class at colouring wen I was 5 and I did a sponsored swim for charity.

See above

WTF Apparently there rumours circulating that he will be knighted in the new year honours. Seeing as it took redgrave 5 gold medals at consecutive olympics to get his, what has david beckham done to warrant one? This smacks of a pr stunt in the same vein as the "cool britannia" parties blair threw in th early days of his reign.

Insidious little b4stards. You couldn't write a "pro" list long enough to convince me otherwise.

Is that the big buy that was facilitated by a very big sell?? Some one doesn't fancy it as much as you.

Which is why we will probably bumble along with the lot we got. Both the tories and the libs know that it will be a disaster if they went to the polls again. Both have been out of power too long to risk that and lets be honest, to the average politician, irrespective of party, power it what it's all about.

Why it is technically impossible? Technically expensive more like. If large organisations like ibm can block it then it should be possible - its just a question of scale. Ok so it won't stop a determined horny teenager uncovering the stuff if they put their mind to it, but it will stop the easy access to porn that younger children have - that can't be a bad thing can it? They are also suggesting that you could opt into porn if you were the bill payer so your freedom of information rights is protected. Have to say though,the thought of there being a record somewhere of me opting to download porn is somewhat disturbing.

You know, wishing that someone was dead and then saying you'll dance on their grave is pretty sick whatever the provocation. It makes you no better than the target of your emnity in my opinion.

Glad I cheered you up.

You think its cold here... http://www.boston.com/news/source/2010/12/winter_wonderla.html?rss_id=Top+Stories

Fair play to some people for getting on with things I have seen the paperboys out delivering My new dishwashers turned up and Ocado is on the way perhaps we are getting used to coping with the snow

I completely agree with what you say, however it seems to me that cases are judged by the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law. Unfortunately that leads to defence lawyers (ab)using loopholes to wriggle out of a charge when in fact their client is guilty. That bloke who gets celebs off of driving convictions is a prime example of that. The human rights act is one that completely abused and should be the first act to be replaced. for example http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-12009111

The Blackburn driver who has used the human rights act to avoid deportation has got me thinking. Is the UK legal system broken and not fit for purpose? A lot of our sytstem is based upon common law and precedent, ie historic rulings. Are these rulings appropriate in a modern society? It seems to me that common sense now plays second fiddle to the exact interpretation of the letter of the law. How you you guarentee justice in this environment? Perhaps we should overhaul the entire system, repealing or update the statute book and start with a blank piece of paper with a more common sense approach

There does seem to be a lot of politically driven threads in the lounge at the moment. How about resurrecting the politics forum and dumping them all in there?

We are going to have a white christmas

Well given my limited knowledge on the subject (your above post has probably increased my knowledge fourfold!!) the personalised budget scheme makes sense on the one hand giving the control and freedom to the ultimate user of the service. The bit which I think could upset the apple cart is the removing of this ringfenced budget from the day care centres. Competition is good if it improves service offering but if it leads to mass closures and people unable to access the services then that is a bad thing. In reference to your comments regarding in house services, then the local authorty controlled centres should compete on a equal basis to the private centres. There doesn't seem any benefit to give someone a personalised budget and let restrict how they spend it.

I get your point. The issue is that the general public perception is that it is debt, and until this changes then your entirely rational explaination of the scheme will be lost in the noise. Christ, I beginning to sound like a leftie I am going to exile myself from this thread for a while before I am beyond redemption.

I disagree. When you buy a house, you have something to show for it. With the fees situation you are investing in your future potential earning power. That is much more intangible and I think that is difficult for young people with limited experience of earning money to grasp. Now I get the whole pay it back as you earn it etc, however it is being portrayed as debt and not a graduate tax for that is what is is in reality. I don't think that the government will be able to shift public perception on this as it is too ingrained.

Both are illegal and therefore equally wrong. However, in a cash in hand transaction, both parties benefit whereas only one party benefits in the benefit fraud case, but this is really splitting hairs.

The trouble is at 18yrs old the prospect of £30-£50k debt is mind boggling. Most kids at that age have hardly had any money so asking them to get to grips with the idea that it is an investment for their future is a big ask.