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.

Doesn't come with a neat car.

c'mon fellas. this isn't even a contest !!! there is only one winner and she is the delightful miss laura esposito, one of the presenters on channel 5's italian football show. worth watching just to see the two male co-presenters actually drooling on live tele :))

Today we are granted a rare insight into the mind of an interfering beaurocrat.
Europe have insisted on a smoking ban in all enclosed public spaces. This has happened despite the well reasoned argument for smoking permitted rooms inside places such as pubs.
To fight the loss of amenity and trade, almost all pubs, clubs and restaraunts have built, at great expense, outdoor heated smoking areas. Customers have taken a real shine to these and are often frequented by non smokers who enjoy the fresh air, and the fact they are heated through the winter by patio heaters. So many pubs have put out tables and chairs to form an outdoor eating patio, all year round.
Someone has pointed out that this is environmentally damaging as all this energy is used to heat the outdoors. I don't doubt this to have been done with the intention of showing the idiot lawmakers how stupid the total ban was, because the heaters cause very little damage anyway.
The response of Brussels has been to now consider a patio heater ban!!!!
Some bright Dr type from an environmental charity has pointed out that patio heaters cause less co2 emmissions than a plasma TV, to try and show how silly their latest plan is.
I've got a fiver says the result will be the european parliament considering a ban on plasma TVs. The alternative is to admit they were wrong in the first place, and that is unthinkable.

the wood burning patio heaters that double as a pizza oven would be a way around it

alan, as you say, the smoking ban is europewide. as a small insight into how mentalities differ, when i was in sicily last year i went into an opticians. it was a stunning shop, marble and granite everywhere, sheets of glass with water cascading down, vaulted ceilings and sold top of the range designer glasses. while i was there someone decided it was time for coffee, so some espresso was ordered from a nearby bar and delivered. i was offered one and then they all sat down and got their tabs out. they could do this because they knew that some prick from the local council would not be coming in the enforce the ban. unlike here where we have had two pricks in the last 6 months from the local council making sure we don't allow smoking. (btw, we have never allowed smoking for the simple reason that it stinks. that's what back rooms are for.)

I don't care much for co2 emissions but even less for the selfishness of smokers over the years blowing their disgusting smoke in our faces in pubs and worse restaurants, let them freeze.

oooooooooooooooooooo driver ;)

Bos, God bless the eye-ties!!!
They never did bother following any rules cos there'd be another leader along shortly who'd change 'em again. And if any prick turned up from the council, they would no doubt be reminded they were family, and it would be settled over a chianti. Thats proper local democracy.
Driver. No problem with not smoking in restaraunts, but nobody has yet come up with even a single argument against having a designated smoking room in pubs etc.

bos
It's got its compensations.

Hi Bos ,i don't think she counts ,my understanding of the rules was she had to be a cartoon , and you can't beat Lara in lingerie .

Never mind the meaning of life, this is more important.
I used to be a professional diver and never understood the following......why is it that the colder it gets the more womens nipples stand out (like chapel hat pegs) and the more shriveled a mans privates get.
I wanted to carry out a study on the subject , but after several threats of Police involvement (it's the photographs that did it), I decided against it.
Believe it or not this question is asked in all seriousness, so no mucky comments (some hope) please.

have to agree with you on that one, jimmy ....... although, when i was younger , i do remember daphne and jana of the jungle featuring quite heavily in some of my more lurid self-massaging sessions :) sometimes together ;)

Alan,

'I've got a fiver says the result will be the european parliament considering a ban on plasma TVs.'

The Aussies have thought of that one already!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/10/2055587.htm

AAAARRRGGGHHHH!
I thought I was being satirical, but evidently politicians make the best comedians.
What the hell comes next?
Are we going to see a ban on "manual terraforming implements" (I used to call them spades but I'm not allowed now) in case of accidental damage to earth worms?
Hopefully the next one will be to reduce co2 emmissions by a ban on politicians breathing out.

I see where your coming from bos ,especially the blond.

Evening all. It's been a while since I checked in on the NOWT thread and all of you have been busy! :o)

Alan, will I be able to buy your (and Trev's) jottings in book form in time for Christmas? That takes care of the Christmas presents...

Kim - your post 6421: couldn't agree more that the dairy farmers have got a raw deal. In fact I think that the current government has serially failed rural people and I'm almost ready to join the Countryside Alliance in order to support them.

Although what I really hope to do is make like a Jimmy B and leave the country again as soon as possible. Even if I only get as far as Germany again, at least I'll be a tourist and therefore not responsible for whatever messes may be going on.

Hi Soul. Yes, I sometimes think that the government has a hidden agenda to bring farming to an end in this country, probably courtesy of another hidden agenda, this time a european parliament one. Hmm, I'd better be careful for 2 reasons, firstly I will have my phone tapped (phones are being tapped at the rate of 1,000 per day according to the Telegraph), secondly it could set Trev off on a deep thinking moment - government conspiracies and all that sort of stuff!

I'll have to grow a beard and buy a canoe, disappear for a few years.

Better still; stop the politicians breathing in.

Just heard the government is to remove Britannia from 50p coins.

Another example of this government eroding our culture whilst falling over backwards to accept non-Britsh cultures.

Whatever happened to 'Rule Britannia'?
http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.2006091.0.mp_joins_fight_to_save_britannia.php

"Rule Britannia" has been referred to the axioms and cliches review board of the EC, where 17000 beaurocrats on 65000 per year (plus expenses) are due to rule on whether or not it is an acceptable phrase, or whether it should be replaced with "Open minded and constructive democracy, based on a multicultural and ethnically diverse approach to policy resulting in harmony through various classes of origin, wealth and ability, providing none of it upsets our European neighbours or anyone who has oil".
It is thought this is more fitting for a 21st century balls up of a country that has been relegated to taking in laundry for the rest of the world.