Walsingham

Well he bloody well bothers me. Shiny faced commissar wannabe. Obyknven's just some fairly standard russian girl.

Yeah that would shoot his credibility right in the foot wouldn't it. Personally, I would have more respect for such an individual. Becoming an Eagle scout is a HUGE achievement and should be looked upon with pride, not derision. Come on Gfted. I know you ahve actual experience. But can you honestly see a bunch of squaddies treating a bloke who got promoted for boyscout membership with anything other than uproarious derision? I mean, possibly if we were living in some sci fi utopia. But we're at war! Anyway, it's probably off topic. In a similar appeal to common sense, I don't see the problem with the Boy Scouts. They're hardly the KKK. I don't agree with their rather silly anti-homosexual stance, since what they really object to is paedophiles, and that's illegal anyway. But they keep kids out of trouble. It's a valuable, if naff service.

Ah, but the French have a functional political class. Whereas ours docilely accept a corrupt goon like Peter Mandelson back into politics despite being discredited multiple times. Th eman should be fired out of a cannon, not made Minister of Whatever the **** he Feels Like. Preferably into George Galloway.

As I see there are two options: 1. Do credit rating properly, not based solely on past history and current surface circumstance. It has occurred to me that the insurance industry has begun learning this lesson since Hurricane Katrina. 2. Accept that credit ratings are very far from imperfect and move to a highly risk averse model. To prevent testosterone addled halfwits getting out of hand, legislate supervision and transparency in the assessment process right down to the base assumptions.

I've read a couple of studies - including a fun interactive one on the BBC a couple of years ago - looking at how to budget for power using several options. Alterative energy just didn't cut it. The numbers are insane, for things like windfarms. Wishing that solar panels and dinky roof turbines made as much power as a fething great coal burner going as industrial whack is woolly middle class arts thinking. Nuclear is the only way to make enough power for the world we inhabit, accounting for carbon emissions. At least until we develop means of capturing and sinking CO2 into permanent stores.

Fair points, Krez, and the answer is quite simple. Irrespective of what one promises to do, you have to deliver. You can't turn a third division team into a first division team just by changing managers. The Lib Dems have never impressed me in terms of their shadow cabinet (I've met one, and friends have met others including Nick Clegg). I also know from first hand election work that Lib Dem supporters have virtually no idea what their party is intending to do, and it bothers me that such a party might get a measure of power with no actual mandate. Conversely, while I regard most Tory voters as nutcases, I've met a couple of Tory cabinet ministers, and I have a friend who worked for Camerona few years ago. They said he was... well they were rather close mouthed. Which isn't good. But he has said explicitly that he believes in a caring society, and most importantly seems comitted to trying to clarify where we the people want the state to begin and end. Which I think is arguably the key issue for all modern British politics. We spend far too much time and money banning things, and setting up drives and quangos and czars for thinsg of dubious general interest, but manifest lobbying support. Above all, I believe the best thing about the British system is thet we can vote for the person who is our MP not the party. I mean to do exactly that.

Um... not if they want the subject to be worked as a slave in perpetuity. I have no idea if this fellah does, I'm just saying. EDIT: I can't beleive you get military promotion for being an eagle scout. I can't think of anything less conducive to military discipline than finding out your corporal got his stripes for being a boyscout.

I realised today that I've been making excuses for not handing back in my military kit for roughly the same reason you never want to give a girl back her CDs etc after a break up. I really am gutted about failing this way. But there's literally **** all I can do about it. My back is never EVER going to be strong enough to re-do it. ...Unless someone invents a cyber back. ...Which in my head would actually be better.

There should be more games set in Afghanistan during the Great Game.

I don't think we need to be planning the bloody group like a SWAT team. EDIT: Not that I'm saying SWAT teams have a designated rogue.

Another LOL. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8651095.stm I may have misread this piece, but if I understand it correctly then Hezbollah are protesting at the unjust way their members have been locked up in Egypt for belonging to Hezbollah.

Apropos nothing, I heard the boyscouts were invented during the seige of Ladysmith. So they're a sort of church of england style Congolese child soldiery.

Keeping the place tidy certainly helps.

It's a talent, and one we work hard to nurture. Hopefully this will be a good test of David Cameron's commitment to personal freedom - assuming he becomes PM - and it'll be repealed or revised very soon. I think we should get onto the Tories HQ and send a rocket up 'em on this point. Although, to be brutally honest I'd rather have a commitment that he's not going to roger the BBC.

:lol: Sci Fi really was better in the 80s.

Condemning the entire Arab world as incapable of being civilised sounds to me like neo-nazism. Or possibly old skool British Empire.

You could try eating a pound of sausages.

It's a little unfair to say LoF is a Stalinist. I think he tries to blame Stalin for all the 'mistakes' made by communism.

Yeah it may be funny, but in my case is the self-conscious kind of funny. Where in the back of my mind i'm going: "this is really sad". @Kirottu: Dolls make anything funny. I wouldn't feel self-conscious, mate. I'm basically a christian, but I don't feel bad because of the IRA.

The rig exploded. If you have any idea how expensive they are, or how harsh US maritime law is on oil spills you'll tend to give BP the benefit of the doubt on any slackness.

I happen to think the LibDems are hollow vote chasers, but nonetheless Ihave to link to this story saying they will repeal the act.

OK. That's good enough for me.

My advice is steer clear. Knowing you you'll fix up with someone else. This one sounds a bit mad.

http://jobs.telegraph.co.uk/job/465450/con...amp;location=78

Thanks WUE. 1. I want to keep this here. If Obsidian are releasing a Fallout mod, then so can we! More practically I know who I can rely on here, and they know me. 2. Roger. 3. I had a look at those at the end of last year, and none had the right vibe. But I will refer to them for copyright issues.