david_carnell

Confirmed. He's about to foxtrot-oscar. (Not my joke)

Strong rumours here in Westminster that Fox goes today/tonight.

Saw this last night. Sad to say it was pretty dire. I understand this is the playwrite's first piece that is overtly political and moves away from her normal, domestic setting. It showed. It tried to cover far too broad a spectrum of material and ended up being superficial and lacking in historical setting. One of the stories was so shallow as to be almost an afterthought. And whilst my knowledge of South African, Rwandan and Zimbabwean accents is a little shaky, if they were anything as bad as the Balkan and Northern Irish ones on display last night then it was a pretty bad state of affairs all round. At ?10 it's a cheap night out compared to the Royal Court in Sloane Sq but I'd save your money and see something more worthwhile.

16. Most of my wrong answers were statistic based rather than actual knowledge, in my defence. Still - I choose the Seychelles to emigrate to.

I think Maxxi is spot on here. It's a pub. You're drinking plonk. I don't care if you're paying ?25 a bottle - that's retail which means it costs less than a tenner wholesale and by the time you add in costs, shipping, VAT and the cost of the bottle it's definitely plonk. If you're going in there, sticking your nose in a goblet and pretending you can smell elderberries then you're fooling no-one but yourself. You're also drinking it with pizza. Not cuisine cooked by Thomas Keller. So really, drink it from a tumbler and stop stressing about the small things. Life's too short.

There are rumours that there is more to this than meets the eye. There are suggestions of a closer relationship than merely groom and best man. *ahem* The problem for Cameron is that he is desperate to avoid reshuffles at any cost due to the wranglings he has to indulge in with Clegg. If Fox goes, and it is looking more and more likely Huhne will too, he might as well go for broke and do a full reshuffle. Ken Clarke looks tired of governing and has upset colleagues with his forthright comments. That's three Secs of State to move. David Laws will return to the Energy portfolio to appease LibDems and then it's a game of spotting the rising stars. Grant Shapps at DCLG would fancy his chances at a top job but might be moved upwards internally with "Big Eric" Pickles going to Justice. That would just leave the defence role to fill. Owen Paterson, moved from the Northern Ireland brief, wouldn't be a bad choice at all. A very competent and hard working MP.

Jackets should always have a vent. Unless you want to look like a Balkan gangster. Because you will. You will not look like Cary Grant. And anyway, it's always been wrongly identified as a Kilgour number. It's actually a subtle glen plaid, tailored by Quintino of Beverly Hills.

I approve of this motion. An excellent list compiled by dbboy. Can I recommend pheasant at this time of year. An excellent bird for flavour - like a very tasty chicken, not very gamey at all - cheap, the perfect size for two people, versatile, seasonal, British, free-range and practically organic. It's a good roaster if basted sufficiently but I shall be doing my favourite recipe with some home made chorizo: Pot-roast pheasant with chorizo, butter beans and parsley William Rose will certainly have some, but most good butchers should be able to source it.

I know MM - it wasn't directed at you at all. Should have been clearer in directing it towards WoD.

I think comparing Catholicism in Ireland to Wahhabi Islam in Saudi Arabia might be pushing it a little. And whilst I don't want to teach a grandmother to suck eggs, the idea that religion in Ireland is now negligible is also an overstatement of an essentially young and urban standpoint. Women aren't still getting on ferries for abortions for no reason. It is still a pervasive undercurrent of conservative thought amongst large numbers of people. Monthly church attendance is still around 60-70%. Not bad for negligible religious adherence. And expecting the House of Saud to relax religious orthodoxy relating to women by comparing it to apartheid is also hopelessly naive. Whilst it remains a stable (albeit autocratic) regime in the region it acts as a bulwark to more dangerous elements. Not to mention the desire by the west not to upset the price of crude oil. The US has been supporting, not just propping up, that regime for decades despite its human rights abuses and will continue to do so. South Africa was an international pariah with little in the way of natural resources to bargain with at an international level. Arms blockades, trade embargos, an eventual moderation in government position and a comprehensive internal opposition were all ingredients that led towards the end of apartheid. None of those things exist in Arabia.

They could have that Russian spy nymphette too. And Rose West. Oh....wait.....too much.

Pretty guilty?

Maxted Rd here. We still had our single pint. You might just have been unlucky.

Why, when mobile phones are now digital, can signals be on a gradient between excellent and poor? Surely either you have a signal or you don't with digital? Your reception should be either crystal clear or non-existent and yet this is clearly not the case. Kind regards, Confused of SE15.

A likely story.......does MrsBen know about this?!

And without sounding rude, James, your suggestion of idly asking members of staff to explain their hygiene rating whilst dining is...... ambitious.

I've never really understood this. Does/has anyone ever use this to decide on where to eat? Or avoided somewhere because of a low score. Surely the only criteria when deciding on where to eat is the food (and associates like cost and atmosphere). For instance, Gourmet Burger Kitchen gets 5 stars. Frankly , you'd have to pay me to eat their shoddy burgers. Meanwhile the East Dulwich Deli only gets 1 star. No doubt unpasteurised French cheese is frowned upon by inspectors. Yet I will continue to eat their lovely products with a smile on my face.

Hmmm I'm not sure. My experience of somewhere like Vietnam is that the locals don't wear the sort of thing Mamora Man might want to. Whilst the tailoring there was cheap the quality of workmanship and materials was poor. Much better to buy better quality in Britain rather than cheap tat abroad. Also, having met the rather tall MamoraMan, they won't have anything in his size in places like SE Asia!

Science joke of the day: And the barman says sorry we don't serve neutrinos. A neutrino walks into a bar.

SJ is right about policies vs vision. There is no point listing a series of policies three years away from a general election. The ground moves in the meantime and you're left looking either inflexible and dogmatic or someone who flip-flops and jumps on bandwagons. What he should be doing is slowly defining the vision he has for Britain and outlining more general methods of working towards that. I want to be shown something to believe in and strive for before I get all excited over fiscal policy minutiae. As a Labour member who voted for EM I'm a little underwhelmed compared to how impressed I was in the election debates but I think he's doing ok.

Ask the master. Not Ray Mears.

So - I should be buying dollars and/or US Treasury bonds? I would do this how?

Huguenot Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Sorry I'm late, I'm only giving it 30% today. Like > every other day. It's likely that I'll get really > angry and try and organise a strike if you're late > with paying me though. Today is magazine reading > day, but I can interrupt it to have a chat with a > girlfriend about the fact that she saw an > ex-boyfriend walking past a shop. > > Do you want a cup of tea? It's my tea break now, > like every other minute of the day. Are the workers not responding to your demands again? Tsk.

Mamora Man - I don't think that's a flaw in my argument. When the companies in question are there to make a profit first and foremost, the rise in fares and cutting of maintenance costs are related onlysofar in that they are both ways of increasing profit. I would proffer that a nationalised service would do neither. Prices would remain low or subsidised and maintenance would take place when convenient to passengers (as happens almost anywhere else in Europe) rather than when it costs the operating companies the least.

I no longer commute by train to work. I've found cycling to be time and cost efficient in comparison. With that caveat, and with a distinct possibility that I may do so again in the near future, I have looked on in horror at the continued above inflation ticket price rises that commuters are subjected to. 13% does not seem reasonable or fair. The endless closures of track for maintenance at weekends because this is when it is cheapest to do the work rather than the most convenient for commuters (which would be at night) continues to make travelling at weekend a nightmare to plan. A lack of competition for services means passengers face the same monopoly of service they did under British Rail and the associated bind that means there is little one can do about rising ticket prices. The legacy of an ill-thought-out privatisation programme left a myriad of operating companies offering competiting and not complementary timetables and a further company owning the infrastructure. A logisitical gordian knot. I move that the Labour Party should make it a manifesto commitment to renationalise the entire network as-and-when franchises come to an end and run the entire network on a not-for-profit basis. Borrowing from the Treasury at favourable rates for infrastructure and rolling stock investment would by-pass the cry of "where will the money come from?" and passengers would benefit from cheaper fares. An industry already heavily subsidised by the tax payer is not privatised. It is using tax payers money to line the pockets of shareholders. A ridiculous situation. The knock-on effect of reduced car usage and the associated environmental benefits would be significant. I commend this motion to the House.