Keefe

Comin over here, pickin our tulips, turning our cricket bat wood supply into noisy clogs, wearin their funny hats to make us laugh, "chillin" on our Commons to show us how tolerant they are. Outrageous! I'm writing to my MP and the local paper today.

I second that. Positive and always looking for the best (and not the most expensive) solution to your plumbing problems. Have been using his services for years.

This will be of no practical help whatsoever but the Grateful Dead made a lovely album in 1977 called "Terrapin Station". So possibly Malumbu's new friend had tried to get on the train but found the state of rail services in ED so pitiful that it decided it was simply quicker to walk to its destination.

Microchip cat flap stopped exactly this situation for us. Also, by the look of that particular cat, I'd have a chat with the Millwall Supporters Association to see if they can help.

For sure Mr Buzzard. It's called "Dadcore" so I'm told by The Young People. Women will swoon.

Check into the rehab clinic at the Hotel California. It's a lovely place.

This discription sounds very, very similar to a woman who has been working similar sob stories in the Peckham Rye, Camberwell, area for at least the last ten years. It sounds too similar not to be the same person. She has approached me several times and other visiting members of my family once or twice in that time. She has also knocked on our door usually around 8 to 10 at night. I have given her money in the past. I've seen her hit on a lot of other people in the street in that time too. She can be a bit in yer face with her requests but not threatening and always just walks away when you say no. The story almost always involves a baby and a heart string tugging request although offers of sexual services have also been made. I don't know how she is physically working the lactation thing in these latest reports although perhaps she has actually recently had a baby. It is sad and it appears to me to be mental illness issue.

I love my collection of woolly jumpers and swoon over bluegrass but I sing like an untuned brick. Please help!

Quids, I want to agree with you but I think I'm too depressed! And that's not what I see actually happening. The people who have eroded fundamental freedoms for the citizenry are the media themselves. It can't be a freedom for billion pound media corporations to suddenly turn on an individual and invade every part of their life just cos an editor or proprietor feels they can or has some private vendetta to pursue. Sadly, in an industry that is supposed to question everything, journalists don't question what they do. Understandable in that, just like the rest of us, they have mortages or rent to pay. But they mostly tend to see invasion of privacy as their right and if they were to speak out against it, they know only too well the petty vindictiveness, ruthlessness, ten-minute loyalties and long vengeful memories of their trade. And they also believe their own "white knight" PR. NorthLondoner - there is no difference between press and broadcast. Broadcast media let the tabloids do all the dirty work and then pounce on the results to feed their own bulletins. Its an excellent way for broadcasters to deny all responsibility but still use the same information for their own gain. So the BBC maintains its dignity but still gets to discuss the tits n bums of the tabloids. They really emphasised this during the Leveson hearings. BBC presenters were always referring to "the press" as if it was some dirty, drunken old pervert that dealt in matters that were far beneath the mighty and principled broadcast media and not really related to them in any way. The media speaks in the lofty language of noble causes and democracy when its freedom to make money is threatened but it goes about its everyday business in the same way and with the same conscience as your local street corner thug. It never requires the same standards of itself as it demands of the rest of society.

Gotta agree with you there, Northlondoner. The journalist as white knight protecting the rights of all against nasty politicians,ruthless Government departments and evil corporations is a lovely image...but that's all it is. And, who tells us how essential these white knights of journalism and the media are to democracy and the protection of the citizenry?...why, it's journalists/media themselves. They would say that, wouldn't they? The bottom line for our media corporations is profit and the concept of them as watchdogs of civil liberties is laughable. It's a good marketimg concept though. The tabloids which were all over Jimmy Saville's "good works" like a rash for decades, really did a good job on protecting us from his proclivities didn't they? I doubt very much whether those who call for an unregulated press have ever been on the receiving end of a good and proper media/tabloid kicking. Even hacks call it "monstering" among themselves. It's not an activity that pays any attention whatsoever to justice, democracy and the fair treatment of one's fellow citizens. It's straight up bullying and thuggery. Making up quote and bogus stories is the very least of it. If you are very, very rich, you can try and fight it with existing laws but for John abd Jane Citizen, forget it. The lies told to the Leveson Inquiry about what goes on inside newsrooms, how newspapers go about their business and how they treat people that become of "interest" to them, were staggering. Especially from an industry which allegedly produces a product of "truth and accuracy". The NoW was shut down cos Rupert made a business decision to cut his losses. And he's focussed on a future of broadcast and on-line media. Closing down one little troublesome organ from the dead tree media in his multi-faceted corporation was an easy decision and as usual, democracy and citizen's rights didn't come into it.