Verbal

No, you're all wrong. This is a massive story. As the Echo says: '...one person sustained a minor inquiry.'

The vicar was lying.

Satchmo knows best.

Both for the same reason: the Reagan administration wouldn't allow it. Whatever the truth, the sinking of the Belgrano had to be justified as an attack on a Falklands-bound aggressor to satisfy the Americans. The order handed down to Thatcher was that not a shot should be fired on the Argentine mainland. And it wasn't (a botched SAS operation against a Super Etendard airstrip notwithstanding).

Beliefs, the alleged magical qualities of historical figures and sacred texts are far from the most important aspects of organised religion. Far more important than belief in a deity are rituals. It's ritual that binds religious communities - including the many who have no idea how to articulate a defence of their beliefs, or even 'understand' (such a loaded word) the basis of their beliefs. Those with religious convictions tend not to spend any serious time wondering whether or not deities do or do not exist, or whether there is a means to 'prove' such existence. But they DO spend a great deal of time enacting rituals. Which is a long way of saying that debates about the existence or otherwise of deities are inherently unresolvable, and really quite irrelevant. And, dare I say it, it leads to some sympathy for Sergei's argument.

As iPads, Kindles and smartphones cut old formats and technologies to pieces, beautifully made watches, made with the precision and art of fine jewellery, continue to be extremely popular. More than that, the best of them are more collectible than ever: the value of the most prestigious names in watchmaking has soared in the last ten years or so, making watch collectors also some of the smartest investors. One of the best books out there on watch collecting is written by an old friend of mine, Gene Stone. Here it is: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Watch-Gene-Stone/dp/0810930935/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324995431&sr=1-1 I’m aiming for mid-table respectability: mine’s a vintage (circa 1966) Omega Constellation automatic chronometer, a piece of lovely simplicity that works as well today as the day it was made.

They are, but they're prone to the weird logical fallacy that any suggestion that the object of their worship is imaginary means they are too.

Scrooge was right. Sod Christmas.

Oh dear. That rather proves my point.

What should we discuss then Turkish darling? Needlework? Or how some posters on here aren't the knuckle-headed, racist-but-don't-call-me-that, schoolyard bullies that you clearly aspire to be?

What a master debater you are!

"...and excessive pedantry." Sorry, left that bit off.

No, but I did google it and found this: "The common signs of it are profuse sweating, fear of dying, shortness of breath, fast heartbeat, nausea, vomiting, loneliness, dizziness, inability to think clearly, mouth dryness, and being aloof from the situation."

That's a bit of a turn up. I thought you'd say yes, as our resident bibliophobe.

These 'ancient peoples' are, on the one hand, Palestinians (or more legally precisely Israeli Arabs, since they are Israeli citizens) whose documented legal rights to their homes in East Jerusalem for example failed to protect them from the evict-and-demolish squads, and on the other hand, Russians, Americans and other emigres. The violent evictions in East Jerusalem have been going on for decades, in a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing. East Jerusalem is a microcosm for the systematic dispossession that has been going on since 1948 that was 'necessary' for the emigres arriving in such waves after the second world war. That there is a deep-rooted injustice at the heart of the 'Palestinian Question' is not disputed by any other than rabid Zionists. The rights and wrongs of the campaigns against each other is a separate matter, though just as tragic. (As someone who's been into Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, the price that ordinary people have paid for this is horrendous.) So, yes, I agree with you: this is totally different to the Falklands.

I'd love to see this - Farago offering to trade his 0 seats for a senior government position - presumably for the aviation portfolio.

I do apologise. I would like to see Mark Reckless leading the Party. Apart from having a stupid name, he has a real talent to lead the Party where it deserves to go.

Aidan Burley. He'd be a good choice.

"A good Tory PM' ought to be the standard dictionary definition of an oxymoron...or some part of that term.

He's the 'sort of bloke' who appeals to the ludicrously over-represented forelock-tugging wannabe Tory grandees on this site, but 'universal appeal' is laughable.

Would this be the same Boris Johnson who had to be lectured by his own staff to bother turning up as Mayor occasionally and getting involved in decisions rather than mooning about wasted chances to make it big on the national stage? As Londoners know too well, he's a voluble waste of space whose only good idea (actually not his) is the Boris bike.

As the realities become clearer those numbers will change. Cameron's veto did not prevent powers shifting from London to Brussels. The proposal from Germany was merely that euro-zone member countries - of which Britain is not one - would more tightly co-ordinate their budgets. Nor was Britain seeking an opt-out for EU regulation on financial services, but merely a unanimous vote on certain financial-services issues. He also sought to prevent the transaction tax being used by Frankfurt to remove euro-transacted business from the Square Mile. Dave did NOT seek to block a financial transaction tax as such, nor was he seeking weaker EU regulation of the banks. Nor, above all, was he seeking to weaken repatriate any powers from Brussels to London. Above all, he was trying very hard, beneath the pizzazz, to be as circumspect as possible, given that the stability of the euro-zone is essential to British bankers, who, at the end of June this year, hold about £3/4 of a trillion in Euro-denominated sovereign debt. The only tangible gain made by Dave was on behalf of the French, who didn't want Germany's budgetary controls anyway. Sarkozy was off the hook with voters in France thanks to Cameron. And that really is about it. So you can ignore all the breast beating by euro-sceptics. This government and this Dave-led Tory Party, is having nothing whatsoever to do with any kind of withdrawal from the EU.

That brings back memories. Whatever happened to tommac?

Not so fast Tory boy. Labour and Lib Dem voters still far outnumber Tories, even while Dave is on a very temporary high. An electoral majority for the swivel-eyed Bullingdon clique is still far over the horizon.

A completely inappropriate comment. As a senior member of the liberal elite I have special privileges. And I'm only trying to help. Dave's set the course for the destruction of the coalition and the stripping of the City of billions of euros of business, so Post-Dave Britain is nearer than you think. I hope and expect that Frank Sweeney can count on your vote.