pitflaps

SteveT: but that was me - I wanted my ball back

it can't be: it's half 11, I live 100 yards away and I can't hear anybody being sick

I wasn't saying it makes it okay, I really just meant that the outrage seems to be as much about surprise when it doesn't seem all that surprising given how long the rules and subsequent culture has been allowed to develop: institutional corruption is usually more insidious because it gathers a sort of independent momentum of its own that's hard to tackle individually, (and the scale and length of time is undoubtedly what this suggests). I also wanted to point out, a) most people (seem to) have a pretty high regard for their own morals when they've never been confronted with that sort of temptation, (one person I know for example was mouthing off about how awful it was until I reminded him about how he used to use all my used bus/taxi receipts when he was doing his tax returns each year. He was poor at the time but he was also fiddling the system - plus it was public money, b) (as a corollary) the ubiquity of guilt seems more a condemnation of people rather than MP's per se - unless you happen to think they're a really, really weird group of people, (actually, I've met a couple of politicians so even I'm not sure I agree with that statement). Believe it or not, if you've ever nicked post-it notes, toilet rolls, pens, rulers, calculators, cuddly toys, read the newspaper on the lav at work, phoned in sick when you really had a hangover, taken 3 hours for lunch or spent several hours posting on internet blogs when you should be working...you're stealing - in one way or another. It is also an (accepted) system of behaviour in most places of work. You can argue about the scale but it doesn't make it not true. Anyway, still vote on Thursday please - the principle should always rule over the candidates, however depressing that may sometimes seem.

mine was with Jayne Mansfield....

If you're of the political persuasion but think UKIP are unsullied by the expenses shenangans and therefore have earned your vote doubly so would do well to read this: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1434608.ece or possibly this: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/24/mps-expenses-ukip-nigel-farage I am disgusted...no...actually, I find it a bit hard to be disgusted about MP's expenses simply because I know how most people - including me - view my own expenses. Fiddle-dee-dee-dee-dum - every time I used to go to the US for example, I'd hammer the fact you never got written evidence of tips and basically spent it on myself - sorry, but true; and that was pretty tame based on what most people were up to and all the companies I've been to. I was middle income for those offices and it didn't matter what salary you were on, as far as I could tell everyone fiddled. I apologise if people are offended by that or don't have that experience but it seems unlikely mine is especially parochial to myself. (And I'm not excusing it either, I'm just saying I'd be in a pretty big glass house if I started to voice anger at MPs). It would be nice to assume if I was an elected MP I would go against what I could have claimed and instead taken the moral high ground, refused to claim what I felt was going over the top and done the right thing especially as it's public money. But I doubt I would have done, especially if the culture was to encourage people to claim as much and often as possible; it takes guts to a) take a pay cut when your colleagues are effectively getting thousands in bonuses, b) blow the trumpet about the system. It's been going since the 80s and - as far as I know - no MP blew the whistle on it. Not one. Not a sausage. Does that tell you something about MPs or about people in general? Discuss. Also, I could be wrong here but I read something about the fact that there's only 94 MPs that have been fingered for real abuse...out of 650? Please feel free to correct but that seem astonishingly low if you ask me - bearing in mind they could all have been getting up to the same level of (moral) abuse without breaking the de jure rules And finally: of course you should vote, no brainer. If you're still in doubt find somebody who fought in WW2 and ask them. There, that was easy wasn't it?

couldn't say for sure whether they were male or female - which seems odd even to relate though I think I was a bit shocked at having been hit...I'm even annoyed I didn't get the number plate. They did a weird thing with their arm just after they turned left though; jerking it up to their head like a reflex - couldn't work out if it was an attempt to acknowledge they had just driven like a maniac or a hangover from fixing their hair moments earlier when they should have been paying attention. Or it could have been tourettes or something. I can confirm however that I have calmed down now. Having said that, I feel a bit like the sentiment expressed at the end of Bravo Two Zero - I'm not proud of having read it, I think I was desperate - when Andy Mcnab says he'd got over being tortured but if he saw them in the street, "he'd slot them".

Emily - can you name drop a few more brands next time because you may have missed a few dozen? Thanks.

annoyingly I felt the need to get to work on time outweighed the desire to kick the door off its hinges. Also wasn't sure whether they were off to Sainsburys or if it was going to be a low-speed car chase around the estate. Am very annoyed at myself for getting my priorities wrong.

Instead of trying to pull me under your car by hooking my handlebars with your wing mirror prior to overtaking me and then carving me up by immediately turning left why not wait all of - ooh, I don't know - 3 seconds to let me go on my merry way rather than risk a road fatality? Just a thought.

it's also illegal: http://www.kent.police.uk/Your%20Area/East%20Kent/East_Kent_news/Herne_Bay_charity_sh.html