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 have used these for years and i never knew it had a speaking clock ,i'm over the moon ! probably explains why i don't use an i phone ..

Fred must be ill (been sick for years), not one comment on his beloved Conservative gov't this morning :0) Nothing trivial I hope.

The number of CoE attendees at church has fallen below 1m for the first time. The numbers have fallen 12% in the last 10 years.

EL - weren't both sides of the irish conflict christians?

Cynic

Indeed, they were (but only theoretically).

Haystack

Now we all like a bloody good sing song, don't we? Well I do, even though my singing voice is truly utterly, utterly terrible.

The trouble is, removing singing along to a song played in the car, there are very few opportunities for us to exercise our voices singing. And not very many to sing along with others (other than, say the Cup Final or the National Anthem).

I think it would be interesting to take out of the C of E total attendance figures, the attendance numbers for Christmas Eve and similar dates for such services as the 'Carol Services', 'Midnight Mass', and the like. I guess we all of us know the words for these Christmas Carols and like a good blast at our own efforts with them.

So, what am I saying?

I believe such church attendances are taken just to do a bit of 'a sing a long' rather then for religious attendance to say, have 'a one to one with the Christian God'.

Do you agree?

One of my neighbours, a fine, tall, healthy looking specimen of a chap, complained to his wife of a pain developing in his chest whilst just watching the telly a couple of nights ago.

They phoned for the paramedic but had to cut his visit short and his wife had to take him to hospital herself as he was going quite ashen-faced and the pain was getting very much worse.

She did the correct thing! As it turned out, an aneurism in the major artery between his heart and one of his lungs had burst open. The artery just split! I am not exactly sure which artery and received the information second hand from another neighbour.

Such a thing is so rare, that the hospital were apparently ringing round the country getting tips, help and advice on best methods of treatment for him.

I dare bet this guy was getting blood to everywhere, except to where it was really needed. It's amazing he got to hospital in time to get ANY treatment whatsoever! I don't know whether he will survive this tragedy. Anyhow, we are all confident he is getting excellent care, despite the JD one day strike and stuff.

We just never know what the next day is going to bring us, do we?

Here are a couple of pertinent pictures.

You don't stand much chance if it ruptures

Last year, there were numerous sexual assaults at a music festival in Stockholm - many by migrant youths - but police did not make the information public.
They have now admitted that keeping silent was "a big mistake".
The revelations follow recent events in Germany, where Cologne's police chief resigned following sexual attacks in the city on New Year's Eve.

Scandalous .

UK authorities keeping stum about the number of benefit claiming migrants because it will not be helpful to Cameron's 'stay' cause.
2517

i thought that info was in the public domain

========

anyway, in this instance, it's not the facts that matter so much as the perception

Not yet it isn't cynic, various MP's (vote leave camp) are requesting they be released.
2517

there'll then be lots of "ah buts"!
for example, how many are temporary or eu citizens or how long have they been resident etc etc
surprise surprise, we'll never get a straight and specific answer from either camp

then of course you have the "in work benefit" element, where people qualify for some sort of supplement because, though they are working, they earn insufficient

it's never ever straightforward, and in some ways, for legit reasons

Governments' don't do straightforward or the truth.
2517

ah but what is the truth :-)

in this instance, it is genuinely very complex ..... but that of course suits whichever party/cause is trying to spin/manipulate the numbers to fit their specific agenda ........ fred does it the whole time!

There has been an interesting study in Germany that has found 65% of the recent immigrants are functionally illiterate with almost no prospect of getting a job.

Corby must be doing something right!


http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jan/13/revealed-how-jeremy-corbyn-has-reshaped-the-labour-party

Do you have a link for that German story Haystack?

hmm ..... but many from places like syria will be very well educated
mind you, much of the uk indigenous population is also "functionally illiterate"

A lot of the immigrants have come from impoverished areas. Functionally illiterate may mean no German spoken, none written or read. Not much chance of a job with no language skills at all. I could easily imagine that 65% could fit that description.