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.

they don't smile - end of!

Who knows what there doing under all those clothes!!

I think as long as it is not me, or my family who is "depressed", they can all go to hell.

Mind if they decide to take a few others with them it will be O.K as long as it is not me or my family, or it gets to messy!

Soon reduce the NHS waiting lists.

we all tend to make fun of clinical depression, which comes in a number of guises including eating disorders and the like ..... however, it is real and often serious, but to get to the root cause, let alone to help the patient mend is a very long and slow process

magic roundabout cast
my suggestions as follows .....

Florence = Hays
Zebedee = Fred
Dylan = myself
Flappy = Goldfinger .... also appears as Mr Rusty
Brian = Doodlebug
Ermintrude - Hilary

By Jonathan Russell
4:51PM GMT 07 Jan 2015
We need comprehensive strategies to prevent new recruits joining dangerous Islamist organisations, says Jonathan Russell

Today’s terrorist attack in Paris is shocking. But it isn’t surprising.

The 12 victims are employees of Charlie Hebdo – a French satirical magazine that has previously printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – or police officers that were called to the scene. Islamist extremists don’t like to be offended, certainly don’t respect the freedom of speech in the French Republic, have little respect for law enforcement agencies, and have a penchant for violence and terrorism in these instances.

Hence, we might well consider it prudent to self-censor in this climate and not do anything that might offend such violent Islamists, or indeed not try to tackle extremism at all, if this is one unintended consequence. Indeed, if François Hollande were a violent individual rather than a democratically elected official, Charlie Hebdo might think twice about drawing cartoons of him.

However, if we stop trying to counter extremism or shut down freedom of expression because of the very real threat from terrorists, we have given in, thus allowing one of the cornerstones of our liberal democracy to be eroded by violent cultish thugs.

The attack was carried out by gunmen who used automatic weapons and seem to have had infantry training, at least on some level. It looks carefully planned, with the attackers asking for particular employees at Charlie Hebdo, and having an escape route that has allowed them to remain, at least at the time of writing, on the run. The French authorities, which have foiled dozens of other planned attacks in recent years, failed to prevent this, which suggests that there is either little command and control from established organisations, or that the perpetrators have had counter-intelligence training. Attention will invariably focus on French jihadists who have returned from fighting in Syria or Iraq with Islamic State, but this is too hasty.

In the coming hours, days and weeks, there will be an increased security presence outside newspaper offices in European capital – France’s terrorism threat assessment has already increased to the maximum level – and there will be frank analysis of intelligence failures, assertions made that this is blowback from French foreign policy and renewed focus on the foreign fighter phenomenon.

But it matters not to the families of the victims or, indeed, the terrorised French population, whether there was an intelligence failure, whether this can be linked back to Islamic State, or even if sympathisers to terrorism claim that French foreign policy and cultural insensitivity is the cause of this violence. Nor, importantly, do we need to pin this on the bogeyman du jour, Baghdadi, or the most popular Islamist brand, Islamic State, even though it might be cathartic to have an enemy against whom we can unite. It is to the detriment of tackling the problem if we view things thus. Such a way of thinking just leads to quick-fix and highly visible reactions, drone attacks to remove the leadership of terrorist organisations, rather than strategies to prevent new recruits joining the organisation, let alone challenges to the ideology and world view that motivates these terrorists.

We can increase security all we like, but all we really do is plug the latest hole – it was airports after 9/11, the London underground and sales of peroxide after 7/7, European jihadists’ passports with the emergence of Islamic State. Instead, we must cut the flood off at source by winning the battle of ideas and, in that, satire certainly has a role to play.

Jonathan Russell is the Quilliam Foundation's Political Liaison Officer

Dougal appeals to me more:

nah! .... you're def zebedee for you jump up and down a lot :-)

I don't mind being Florence as I don't know anything about the Magic thing.

I thought you were Florence and Haze was a pseudonym.

A&E main problem is drink and drug's

How can i change my password on this site ?

Russell Brand to be studied at English A-level from September



Plans originally caused controversy when announced last year




Richard Garner Author Biography


Education Editor


Wednesday 07 January 2015




Comedian Russell Brand and rapper Dizzee Rascal will be studied as part of the English A-level syllabus as from this September.



Plans to include evidence given by the comedian to a Commons select committee inquiring into drugs and an interview between the rap singer and Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman caused a stir when they were proposed by the exam board Oxford, Cambridge and Royal Society of Arts (OCR)as part of the new syllabus last year.

Now, though, they have been approved by exams regulator Ofqual amongst 37 new specifications for GCSEs and A-levels put forward by the exam board.

In the rapper’s interview on the night Barack Obama won the US presidency, Mr Rascal said: “I don’t think he could have done it without hip-hop.”



http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/russell-brand-and-dizzee-rascal-to-be-studied-at-english-alevel-from-september-9963241.html

Nice and quite on here tonight isn't it?

Anyone watchin' the CBB launch?

Looks like 'gobbie' Katie Hopkins is turning out to be a bit of a star turn in it, too. I'm wondering if she is actually a national treasure.....?

Why the bastards will never win:

more to the point - they should never be allowed to win
the only problem is that undoubtedly there will be an upsurge in (unwarranted) anti-moslem and right-wing sentiment and movements .... they are just as scary in their own ways

George Soros has suggested a new policy to to assist Ukraine.

It involves a shift in focus from 'punishing Russia with sanctions' to balance these out with 'assistance for the Ukraine on a much larger scale'. (An investment of $50 bn larger, actually)

Here is his proposal by way of an essay:

George Soros - Ukraine Proposals