ecuk268

Your last sentence raises an interesting question. Should the public be allowed to decide on matters of which many have them have no great knowledge but which could have considerable effects on the country. The EU question is extremely complex and certain sections of the press have their own agenda and print stories which are blatantly untrue (the banning of Bombay Mix was invented by a small Belgian newspaper who then sold it to gullible papers like the Sun and the Mail who didn't bother to check it). Could a referendum be phrased in such a way that the voters would be aware of all of the possible effects of staying in or coming out?

This is a like a replay of the 90's with Major's government. Economy going down the tubes, unemployment rising, inflation rising and all the Tories can do is squabble about Europe when they must know that their leadership would never bring us out, as their big-business backers wouldn't let them.

I don't think that you can buy new Georgian furniture.

They haven't got any oil so nobody gives a toss

Boilers were lot simpler then. My old one went for 20 years and never went wrong. I've had the new one for 6 years and, while it's definitely more efficient, it's gone wrong twice and cost me about £250.

The RAF actually flew about 10% of the missions as did Canada, Italy and Norway, the French flew 33%, the Yanks 16% and Denmark 11%. Hardly a leading role. So, where next? Syria, Bahrain, Saudi?

I don't think he's a hypocrite, but where does he think his 120K comes from and what does he think his duties are? He's there to help his electorate, they pay his salary. A bit of advice wouldn't have gone amiss.

How do you judge a manager? Is Alex Ferguson with his squad full of superstars a better manager than some bloke in League 2 trying to keep his club going on a shoestring? Probably different qualities needed for each, but who's to say which is the better.

Townsend Thoresen went to Cherbourg and Le Havre and P & O also went to Le Havre (the Panther and the Leopard). There was also a larger ship called the Eagle which went down to Santander and Tangier. My cousin was a Customs Officer at the time and the Eagle was always good for a bit of the exotic tobacco.

Apparently, he resigned last week but gave the letter to Oliver Letwin to pass on to Cameron.....

I've had Virgin TV, phone and broadband for years and not had too many problems. When there has, they've been fixed pretty quickly and they've even phoned me afterwards to check that everything's OK. I've got a V+ box which will store 80 hrs of SD programmes. It's got 3 tuners so you can be watching one programme while recording 2 others. They now do a Tivo box which is like a better version of V+, stores more and has programme search facilities. As a new customer, you'll probably be able to negotiate a good deal.

Me too.

You cannot do this if they own a cat.

Rab C. Nesbitt. A welcome return of the Scottish philosopher. (Not actually a film).

I lived there for 9 years. The natives are........different. Great in the summer as you get to know where to go to avoid the holidaymakers. Deadly in the winter like most small seaside resorts.

Au contraire mush. In the early 80's I worked for a company that was after some defence-related work and we had a vist from Keith Speed, then called the Navy Minister (a charming chap, by the way). He was later sacked by Thatcher when he refused to resign because he would not accept the cuts to the Navy proposed by Thatcher and Nott. Later events in the Falklands showed him to be right. If the Falklands had happened a year after it did, we would have been in the sh*t.

I see that latest tit-bit to emerge is that when Foxys London flat was burgled, he had a young man staying with him. All perfectly innocent of course, but why did Tory officials at the time say that he was on his own? Curiouser and curiouser.

Got a Virgin SuperHub a few weeks ago. I get some variation in speed but not as bad as yours. Ranges from about 15Mbps but usually around 25. The hub is just below the lounge window and I get good reception up in the loft so no complaints there. Just sold my old Linksys router on Ebay, but I did try it connected to the SuperHub and it worked OK.

There was a guy from one of the companies involved at the Dubai meeting on the BBC at lunchtime saying that all this about "chance meeting" was ****** and that it was all agreed days in advance. Werrity was openly touting himself as Fox's advisor so there doesn't appear to be any way that Fox didn't know.

He can't be sacked because, and I'm not making this up, he's got a cat. (Acknowledgement to NewsBiscuit for this gem).

Trial postponed until March due to courtroom cock-up. http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/9298367.Saints_player_could_wait_months_for_trial/

Small shops in town centres cannot compete with the free parking, generally lower prices and vast range of products that the big supermarkets provide. In the suburbs, small shop can survive if they stay open long hours. If I need a paper or milk or bread, I'll stroll up to the local shop. Unfortunately, the Tesco Expresses are taking over here. They should be confined to their big stores.

Sainsburys because it's convenient, but fruit and veg from the stall on Shirley High St. Miles cheaper than the supermarkets. Lidl in Shirley is a bit grotty but the one in Eastleigh is quite presentable. I have a passion for their oven chips.

I've had an Inspiron 6400 for 5 years and it's still fine. New batteries are about £40 for a high capacity one if you shop around. If I'm just browsing on the net I can get nearly 4 hours per charge. I'd ditch Vista if I were you - it's bloated and slow. Go back to XP or forward to Windows 7 or, if you want to get rid of Windows completely, try Ubuntu.

The problem with the Itchen waterfront is that it's all used. Apart from the Town Depot, the rest of it is in use as boatyards or gravel wharfs. The cost of relocating these businesses, especially Solent Aggregates which is a big site, would be considerable.