ecuk268

What happens then? Who takes over? Some fundamentalist Muslim group?

Quite right. When I was a nipper the most frightening thing someone could say to me if I was up to no good was "Wait till I tell your parents". These days, if teachers attempt to discipline children, it's often the parents who are up in arms rather than being supportive.

Mrs ecuk268 has been in infant teaching all her career, at one time a deputy head but now just regular supply work. She's taught in a variety of schools including some in "difficult" areas. Some kids don't stand a chance due to their parents having no interest at all in education. Some of the kids start school without knowing what a book is yet others start being able to do basic reading. The infant teacher has to cope with these widely varying abilities and try to get all of them to the same level. The home environment is extremely important for child to achieve at at school. If the teacher has to spend the first few weeks trying to get a child to just sit still for a few minutes and not go wandering off then other more important aspects of education will suffer. Children starting school without even the simplest ideas of reasonable behaviour can be a big problem. That has to be down to the parents.

We haven't got a Conservative government - it's a coalition. Where next then? Bahrain? Syria? Saudi? There's plenty of dictatorships to choose from.

Good game yesterday at a beautifully warm and sunny Rosebowl. I thought that we were in line for about 220 but McKenzie's knock in the last few overs gave us a good total. We started off well in the field with Jones bowling fast and accurate, Cork getting a wicket with his first ball and with a few early wickets I thought that we had it in the bag, but we let them back in with some sloppy fielding ( 3 dropped catches) and they needed 10 from the last 2 balls with Cork bowling. The first went for a 6 but they couldn't manage a 4 for the second so we scraped home. Not a bad performance against last years winners. Hopefully the fielding was down to early season rustiness, if we tighten up on that we should be a decent side.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel is a good read. It's about Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII's enforcer. She's supposed to be doing a sequel.

When my nipper was young they had Reserve ganes at The Dell, so we started off there. Maybe try to take in a game at Staplewood, Totton or Eastleigh to see how it goes.

I think that you should seek medical help before you get sacked.

Probably 90% of us would have trouble passing the test again as we all pick up bad habits over the years. As a previous poster has said, statistically, young drivers have the worst accident record, hence the high insurance premiums. What I think is needed is more medical checks on older drivers (eyesight, reaction times etc). An elderly relative of a friend is still driving in her 90's (but not at night because she doesn't see too well). Frightening.

I think that he said "You f*cking beauty". Absolutely disgraceful. You never hear swearing at a football match, do you?

Countless white managers have been rubbish as well. Don't think that colour comes into it. I think that they will become more common - it just takes time. Back in the 70's, coloured players were a rarity, now they're numerous and some of them will move into management. Keith Alexander looked to have the makings of a good manager before his untimely death.

Bunch of Polish guys run one at the Jet garage in Paynes Road. Do a really good job inside and out.

Comet started in East Street. At the time, their prices and range of goods were way better than anyone else.

Remember the Liverpool game well. it was an evening game and The Dell always had a unique atmosphere under lights. 0-3 down with about 15 minutes to go. A bit more extra time and we would have won as Liverpool were really under the cosh.

I didn't want Chris Nicholl to go but the rumour was that he was going to be replaced by Harry Redknapp (who was doing well at Bournemouth) with Jimmy Case as player/assistant manager. Branfoot arrived, released Case (you don't play my style of football), sold Alan Shearer, Barry Horne, Tim Flowers and bought a series of deadbeats (Ken Monkou excluded) and played some awful football (we used to take bets on what time Hurlock would get his yellow card). As for players, Ripley - made it plain it didn't want to be here, Lee Todd - absolutely useless, and Dixon - good player in his day but well past his sell-by date.

Going through a bit of a post-apocalyptic phase. Just finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy and now into "The Passage" by Justin Cronin (recommended by a previous Forumee).

What happens if Gadaffi goes? This is a country with no history of democracy. Who takes over? As with Iraq, the dictator imposes order. if you're going to remove him, it helps if you have plans for who replaces him. Democratic Islamic states seem to be a rarity in the Middle East.

If I buy a book in a bookshop, I can pass it on when I've finished it. You can't do this with a Kindle. Has anyone come up with a crack yet?

Still got one up in the loft somewhere. Might get it down and plug it in to my LED flatscreen TV.

They probably thought that it was cheaper to release him "on medical grounds" than to have dodgy evidence come to light in a few years, a re-trial, aquittal and millions in damages. (Again, see Northern Ireland). If you can afford expensive lawyers, "medical grounds" seems a good way of getting released. Remember Ernest Saunders, who was banged up for fraud, released due to Alzheimers and then made a remarkable recovery - the only person ever to do so.

If you read a detailed account of the trial, it's highly unlikely that he was involved. It's not he first time that political pressure for a conviction has led to innocent people being convicted (see Northern Ireland). All governments deal with unsavoury regimes, especially if they've got lots of money (or oil). Look how Thatcher sucked up to that bastion of democracy Saudi Arabia (who recently announced that any form of anti-government protest was banned). That rabid left-winger Prince Andrew was also mates with Gaddafi.

As the lovely Mandy Rice-Davies once said: "He would say that, wouldn't he". Younger listees may need to look her up on Wikipedia. Anyway, isn't Gaddifi in Venezuela (that's what Hague told us).

Made a prat of himself by suggesting a no-fly zone over Libya which we couldn't do without the US and they weren't interested. They said it would need at least 2 aircraft carriers (ours haven't got any aircraft as Dave scrapped the Harriers). Otherwise, much too early to say.

Listening to a report this morning on the proposed buy out of the rest of Bskyb by Mr Murdoch. He's offered to sell off Sky News which has consistently made a loss for 20 years. If Murdoch can't make money from a news channel, I don't see that anyone can.

There are only 2 sports - football and cricket (and maybe women's beach volleyball). The rest are mere games.