ecuk268

He didn't serve in the military. He was rejected because he was near-sighted. He sold insurance before he found fame as an author.

According to John Moore (now Lord Moore) who was one of the more right-wing members of Thatcher's Cabinet, it "beggars belief that the Mail could accuse Ralph Milliband of lacking patriotism". He says "Ralph Milliband taught me (at LSE) and I can say that he was the most respected and objective of teachers that I had. The Daily Mail is telling lies about a good man who I knew". The article also drew criticism from Lord Heseltine and Boris Johnson. The only politician who supported the Mail was Michael Gove (probably because his wife writes a column for them). http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/society/daily-mail-hates-everyone-in-britain-2013100279973

Depends how much I was offered. Every man has his price....

According to the latest ONS figures there are about 500000 vacancies. So what's going to happen to the remaining 900000 (assuming that the vacancies are in the same areas as the unemployed)?

What evidence have you got that his father's opinions would be ingrained. Did you know the family? When we reach our teenage years, many of us rebel against our parents views and don't blithely taken on their opinions. What you think at 17 is hardly indicative of how you'll be in later years. Ken Livingstone was on R4 this morning telling how his mother and father were both working-class Tory voters and, when he was 17, he was very anti-Labour. He started to form his own left-wing views in his 20's, much to his parents dismay.

That's exactly what they show. Did mine back in the late 70's and was invited to join. They certainly had their share of weirdos .

Thatcher and Blair both considered this but gave up. Is the idea to save money or is it a sop to the right-wing in their dislike of anyone in receipt of benefits (despite many having contributed all their lives via National Insurance). If you're on Jobseekers at about £70.00 per week, how many hours are you expected to do? If it's at the minimum wage, then about 11. How will it be administered? Will there be a small army of supervisors checking up on people? How much will they cost? It'll probably be contracted out to some company who donates to the Tories, who'll make a fat profit whilst managing to cock the whole thing up (perhaps G4S). Can't see it ever getting off the ground.

Our Bramley trees are loaded this year and Southampton Common yielded a good haul of blackberries. What's the best way to freeze cooking apples?

John Humphries was interviewing Farage on R4 this morning. He sacked him because he felt that the media leapt on remarks like that and used them to reinforce Cameron's remark that UKIP was a party of "loonies, fruitcakes and closet racists". Although I wouldn't touch UKIP with a bargepole, Farage is a very entertaining speaker.

Wheater was said to be better with the bat. Didn't quite work today.

Brackets first so 1.

How about the Saudis, those bastions of democracy. We've flogged them enough kit in the past and it's not like they can't afford it. Mind you, they're probably not too keen on encouraging the populace to rise up against their leaders.

Mrs ecuk268 bought me a year's subscription to The i. Don't normally have time to read a decent paper every day so The i is a good compromise between quality and brevity. Reasonable coverage of cricket and Premiership footy and some good articles on sport in general. If I want more depth, I go online.

Used to park in M&S but they may have rumbled that one now.

We all had the jab when I was at school.

Sholing to Southampton Central is £4.00 return (or £3.90 off-peak).

A guy here in the office uses Bartley UK in Totton. http://www.bartleyuk.com/

Ah, the brilliant Framley Examiner. The Classified Ads were brilliant. Why did they stop producing it?

There an article in today's Evening Standard in which Patrick Barclay reckons that, because Rooney was pretty poor last night, Chelsea and Arsenal will give up trying to sign him and turn their attentions to Rickie. Not convinced myself. I think that they would want someone younger with a proven top-flight record.

Reported this morning that Danny Briggs has signed a new 2-year contract to 2015.

Whoopie!!!

He got the sack for lending you his scarf? That's a bit extreme.

You can get a weekly bus ticket for £15.00. Gives unlimited travel for 7 days.

£4.20, which isn't bad when you consider petrol, parking and avoiding matchday traffic.

Good point. The old excuse that's often trotted out that "it's expensive to eat healthy food" is utter rubbish. Learn a bit of basic cookery, shop locally for fruit and veg, grow some herbs on your window sill and you'd be surprised how economically you can create good food. And you know exactly what goes into it.