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.

moneyplus

I agree with what you say. There isn't anywhere where kids can go 'for free' other than the 'street corner'. There isn't anything they can do for free other than amuse themselves by taking some kind or low, medium or high risk by getting involved in some mischief or other. They are absolutely bored out of their brains.

Particularly, with the Olympics coming along, this is where we ought to be spending tons of money. Namely on free sporting activities for kids. Things like free outdoor illuminated pitches for basket ball, soccer, tennis, baseball, fives courts, biking ramps, skateboard ramps, roller skating rinks, cricket nets, bowling alleys, gymnasiums, boxing, wrestling, judo, kung fu and other martial arts facilities, etc, etc, etc., so that there can be some organised competitions and leagues.

Indeed, every town or urban area should have extensive facilities of this sort so that kids can either participate or just go and be able to hang out as spectators.

So what's different from when most of us were kids? I would suggest that kids of today have a hell of a lot more to do than I ever did. PCs, Ipods, game consoles, trot down McDonalds and other stuff besides. The problem is not that they don't have anything to do but that they would rather cause trouble by crossing the line; why do they cross the line? Because they don't have values. Where do they get their values from? Mainly their parents and society to a degree. I wonder how many teenagers of today are members of their local library? I would hazard a guess and say not very many.

I'll echo PTH.
And more to the point there is loads of free stuff to do and places to go.
Leeds is awash with out of school activities and evening meets. The simple and unescapable fact is if you provide youths with these things, they wreck 'em.
Be honest, what was the last playpark you saw without broken and vandalised equipment? When did you last see a skatepark not trashed and strewn with broken bottles and graffitti? Which was the last football field you saw where you would feel safe on an evening?
In one area of Leeds, the social services organised Go Kart racing days and trips to Alton Towers one summer holiday. All you had to do was turn up at the meeting point with 2 and they would take you, get you in and give you lunch. It was abandoned due to a lack of take up, while at the same time police reported the usual increase in youth crime that always comes with the summer holidays.
No, the answer is they have too much. Our generation had much less and though we were no angels, we certainly did not cause the problems that exist today.

Hmm, it's all down to discipline and respect I'm afraid. Unfortunately the 'do-gooders' who think they know everything want us to respect the youth of today; if we don't WE will be disciplined. It is not the fault of the local thug when he/she beats up your granny because she won't hand over her last coin to help him/her buy heroin; he/she had a 'disturbed' childhood so we should let him/her off and help him/her by giving him/her endless benefits plus a home where he/she can get together with his/her dubious mates to plan the next football etc riot. Next time I see a gang of misunderstood, deprived youths kicking the sh*t out of a misguided member of public who dared to remonstrate with them for tipping a disabled person out of their wheelchair for fun, I will congratulate them on their innovative way of making entertainment for themselves. I mean, who could criticise them for that? I wish I had thought of entertainment like that when I was young, much better than the games of football, cricket, tennis and loads of other things which I used to do!: those things are still available in most places and lots of today's youth take part, it's the minority shite that cause trouble and God help anyone who lifts a finger to try to stop it. Shove the do-gooders into the Gladiator stadium along with half our politicians and all the Euro bureaucrats, let loose the lions and then ask today's minority shite 'yoof' if they'd like to take their aggression out on the lions after they have finished, that's what I suggest.

I blame Janet Street-Porter. If it weren't for her there would be no such thing as 'yoof'.

According to The Sunday Telegraph, Muslim men who have married more than 1 women can now, as long as the marriages took place in a legal Muslim ceremony IE not in the UK, claim all available benefit entitlements for all their wives. This was not announced by this government due to a possible backlash.
I wonder how long it will be before a Muslim takes this government to a court claiming that to restrict them to only take 1 wife in this country contravenes their human rights.
No wonder more and more of us are feeling like second class citizens in our own country.
I suppose we can at least be grateful that Derek Conway is not a Muslim.

My first thought is to wonder about the truth of the report, or whether it is trying to stir up a backlash against the Muslim community. Much like this particular newspaper does about silly Euro rules.
My second thought was to wonder about the reasons for it if it were true.
When I read something like this, or the report about phrases the police should not use when interogating Muslim suspects in case they are offended, I wonder if there is some kind of hidden agenda going on to ensure all the rest of our population is turned against the Muslims.
Surely no-one could possibly consider this right and appropriate, and in a country where polygamy is an offence, the benefit / tax system cannot be seen to support it. So what is the real reason this is leaked, if indeed it is true and not the brainchild of a bored journalist?

Morning,

Like you I tend to take such articles with a pinch of salt, but dates figures were given which lead me to beleive the details. Also little suprises me any more.

To read the article see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=GZMONCR3P2BIBQFIQMGCFF4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2008/02/03/nbenefit103.xml

'The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife, as is permitted under Islamic law.'

So, now we're adopting Muslim law? Going back to the previous subject of badly behaved 'yoof', how would Muslim law deal with them? I can imagine in a more radical way than we do if that below is anything to go by, so maybe we should bring in a few other 'Muslim laws'.

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/news/article_1371270.php/Saudi_Arabia_chops_off_hand_of_Egyptian_for_theft

Thanks for that, Greek.
One part of me hopes this ridiculous ruling becomes common knowledge so that the architects may be hung from a lamp-post a la Mussolinni, but another part of me hopes it remains very quiet, lest Dewsbury becomes a town of 4 women to every man.
You are a Yorkshireman, you'll know what I mean about Dewsbury.

Ah, but I was born in Nottingham and lived there until I was 29. Nottingham was always known for a city with a far higher ratio of females to males. No one every found out why. Mind you Yorkshire sheep are far more attractive than those found in Nottinghamshire. They are faster too, or could it be that age has slowed me down a bit. Fast women, fast sheep, they both have their own unique problems.

Women Are Like Sheep.

If youve ever had the not-at-all-pleasant pleasure of herding sheep, youll know why its such an evocative metaphor. Sheep are about the dumbest animals on the planet and would wander straight into a coyotes mouth if they arent herded. However, once you set them on the proper course, they generally follow itrebel sheep who dont go with the herd are pretty rare. Its becoming clear to me that the Biblical metaphor that mens relationship to women is the like gods relationship to his people, and gods relationship to people is like the sheepherder to the sheep is the primary metaphor that explains how conservatives square away all this restrictive reproductive rights legislation with their bullshit about smaller government. The government has no business interferring with the world of men, the world of business, etc. But certainly theres no reason to think the government shouldnt be pointing women, who are sheep after all, in the right direction.

Digging a big hole now.

If Muslim men can live in the UK with more than one wife ,can i ???? and if not ,why not ??.

I asked that and was told I was too ugly to find more than one woman.

Jimmy B,

Yes, no problem. Just change your religion to Muslim/Islam go to a Muslim country and marry several women. Although the rules have changed somewhat it appears that there are still several loop holes allowing this.

"Islamic law permits men to have up to 4 wives at any one time - known as a harem - provided the husband spends equal amounts of time and money on each of them" ................ so, I would get whatever allowance I could get my hands on for the first, then 33.65 each for the extra 3; I would only have to stay with each of them for 1 minute a day and spend 50p on each, then I would be able to spend the rest of the day in the pub with Trev and have 99.45 left to buy a few rounds in. Fantastic, bring it on!

mmm,, money i forgot about that one.

As a kid I always dreamed that when I grew up, I would work in a harem. What a great job (I thought) look at all the freebies that you could possibly get away with. Chief tester for the harem owner, best job in the world. Then I found out what the application medical was like. It puts the old medical saying, 'Cough' into perspective.

50p on each. Bloody hell no wonder your so popular with women.

My generosity knows no bounds Greek!

Bounds makes me think of bondage. Ok won't go there.

How does that tie up with this silly law, greek??

What galls me about all this is that if I were to set up a pressure group to press for these kinds of laws and rules allowing muslim men to follow their religious traditions in this country and offer legal advice and help on getting 4 wives here, flying first class HMRC, I would be awash with grants. The National Lottery, The Home Office, the foreign office, the ministry for racial affairs, all the bloody lot would fall over themselves to support me and give me money.
If however, Trevor and I, and a few of the likeminded who speak out on this august platform, set up a group to push for all citizens to obey the law, and for laws to be kept for the majority, for our moral values to be of higher importance than foreign religions and for the requirements of the indigenous population to be ranked higher than the desires of recent imigrants, what would happen then?
I would be denounced as a white supremecist, intolerant, charged with inciting racial hatred and derided as a nazi in the press.
I struggle to spot the difference. A few overly zealous Muslims are islamic supremecist, intolerant of their hosts views and morals, certainly incite racial hatred among non muslims towards muslims and are as far right as Hermann Goering. Yet they benefit from all kinds of legal protection.
As a kid we all thought George Orwells 1984 was a taste of the future. We were wrong. It was Lewis Carrolls Alice in Wonderland that was closer to the truth.