Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

I wonder if it had been the other way round whether his girlfriend would have been granted bail.

Now there's a good idea!!!


Mr Pistorius is next due in court on 4 June but his trial may not be for many months. Magistrate Desmond Nair also ordered him to give up all his firearms as a condition of bail.

Cyners,

I don't know if I'm missing your point or not.

All I can offer is my personal experience with my own children which is that the supposed 'best' state schools around Nelson Mandela Towers are populated with the offspring of chavs. Everyone plays the same game and, as I'm sure you know, money can't buy class. Although we positioned ourselves so that our children would get into those schools if all else failed, they fortunately both passed their respective admissions tests for selective grammars in the neighbouring borough and we were spared them having to mix with the numpties. Unfortunately, a couple of my friends' children weren't so fortunate, and my friends were permanently bitching about the bad influence of the other children.

Not knowing where your son lives, I can't say whether the same scenario applies round his neck of the bois.

I would suggest the influence of the parents is more formative, unless they are inadequate.

hils - i don't really know; he lives in a "nice" town in north yorks, but for sure there are some rougher areas there too ..... the biggest prob with the pupils of many comp schools is the lack of discipline and aspiration that has been instilled (clearly not!) by their parents ...... thus, many children of such upbringing will have a propensity towards disruption and a disinterest in learning and getting on in life

generally, children who go to selective schools of all types come from families who have aspirations for their children and are (much more) likely to have done such basic things as reading to their children at a very early age ..... this has very little or anything to do with affluence

Nelson Mandela was locked up for 27 years and I don't think actually he murdered anyone. Pistorius would probably be safer in prison right now rather than being out on bail. If he was supposedly terrified for his own safety before he must be sh------g himself now - and presumably he no longer has a gun underneath his bed to defend himself with.

i just find it appalling that the SA public seems to be batting for him and not for his victim

He has to live with relatives. They can have guns of course. He is banned from his home.

Cyners,

I don't think the comprehensive problem is due to lack of aspiration. There are both good and bad comprehensives in every borough and, in our borough, people are prepared to spend £2m or £3m on a house just so they can get their kids into what is perceived to be a good school.

It seems to me that the desire is certainly there to get the best for one's kids, but the application is lacking. In that respect, you're right in that time spent with a child during his or her formative years is invaluable. A lot of parents, once they've got their kids into a good school, seem to think their job is done. For instance, mothers will go back to work and allow their children to turn into latchkey kids and get up to all kinds of mischief in their absence. When your own kids inevitably mix with those oiks, it's difficult to prevent some bad habits from rubbing off.

As I say, they're my personal observations from what I've witnessed around Nelson Mandela Towers. Hopefully things will prove different for your son in north Yorkshire. I'm sure that the pace of life is slower and there is greater emphasis placed on more traditional family values.

If he decides to do a runner, I'd like to know who'll be able to catch him. :)

Consumer spending is one of the main areas that can help drag this country out of the financial mess it is in.
How can this government expect people to spend when energy costs are so high.
Once again I have had to reduce my outgoings due to my monthly energy bill going up from £97 to £144, and I am with the cheapest supplier in the UK.
The energy companies use the excuse that they require higher prices in order to enable them to improve the infrastructure and for greener fuels.
Whilst partly accepting this, the excuse won't wash as every year their profits go up by double figures.
As for OFGEM, they are a waste of space.

He has pissed off the police and if they saw him doing a runner they would probably shoot him.


I had a friend who lived in Nigeria working for a European company. He went ask about a driving licence. The policeman just said give me some cash (about £10). He warned him that if he knocked down anyone not to stop. If you have just hurt the person they might get up and would probably kill him. If the person was dead then there would be no point in stopping. In either case don't stop.

greekman
That's almost a 49% increase. Energy prices haven't gone up that much even if you add several years increases together. The rises have meant the average bills rise by £100 a year.


Are you growing exotic plants in the attic?

hils - you're right; unintentionally, i tarred all comps with the same brush ..... that's as inaccurate as saying all private/selective schools offer first-class education and that they do not suffer drink and drugs problems (hahaha!)

Hi Haystack,

It looks like I gave the game away re my Cannabis factory.

But seriously, my bill increase is sort of correct.
When I rang EDF they stated that the increase was worked out on my yearly estimate by using the last year as a base line.
I managed to persuade them to increase it to £120 and not £144, but they still consider that £120 will put me in arrears.
The tariff deal that has just ended was signed up to 3 years ago, so you can see how prices have increased.
I spent around 1 hour doing the rounds of comparison sites and only found one that had a better deal, but their customer service was shocking, so having to stick with EDF.

I see Georgie Boy has lost his virginity and is feeling Moody about it.



Promises, promises, promises.

Hays, wasn't he a friend of yours?

It was expected that we would have our AAA rating slightly to AA1. There only two major economies that are AAA and they are Germany and Canada. We have done well to have keep it for so long. We have lost it because we have not reduced debt enough. I guess we need deeper cuts and the sooner the better.

Your not balanced again Fred, it was already in trouble under labour-

Britain's AAA rating under review for first time in 30 years.
Britain's economic stability has come under the gravest scrutiny yet again after the Government's debt was placed under official review by the world's leading ratings agency for the first time in more than three decades

5:38PM BST 21 May 2009

In a decision which sent shivers through the currency, gilt and stock markets, Standard & Poor's (S&P) announced that it had put Britain's AAA rating onto "outlook negative". The decision comes only a day after the International Monetary Fund warned that the Treasury needs to cut debt faster than promised in the Budget.


The Cons have not got the debt down fast enough, no different from the labour party in the past.

It is quite cleat that if Labour were in government we would have lost our AAA rating more than a year ago.

But they never centered their whole economic policy around it.

This government is a joke.