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  • MikeKMikeK Posts: 9,053
    The soldier killed in an attack on a London street has been named as Drummer Lee Rigby of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
  • MikeKMikeK Posts: 9,053
  • carlcarl Posts: 750
    Con 33 UKIP 14

    It's like a wisdom index. Someone should average the predictions and see how close PB is.
  • BenMBenM Posts: 1,795
    MikeK said:

    The soldier killed in an attack on a London street has been named as Drummer Lee Rigby of the 2nd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

    Father of two year old son.

    As a father of a little boy the same age, I can't begin to comprehend the grief.
  • SocratesSocrates Posts: 10,322
    tim said:

    Socrates said:

    tim said:

    Socrates said:

    tim said:

    @socrates

    Go and look at France and Ireland and Cyprus and Germany, you'll be up to 1.6-2million in the EU

    Firstly, 1.6 million is not "millions". Secondly, it is not providing evidence to tell someone else to go and look something up.

    I'm quite happy to revise "millions" to 1.6-2 million.

    Now your German facts should be interesting.

    I'm glad you can correct yourself.

    My source is the bubble chart about a third the way down:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jun/26/non-eu-immigration-uk-statistics

    I'm quite happy to revise my "Germans" to "Germany".

    German figures are always distorted by British troops and their families (lots of wives and kids)
    Interestingly the two countries which increased above Germany (and the US which had already overtaken) in the first five years when New Labour came to power and diluted the race were South Africa and Australia.
    A fair point on Germany. I imagine South Africa was mainly affected by the end of Mandela's time as president.

    You're also correct that it took time for Labour's policy changes to have an effect. But it's very clear that the removal of the primary purpose rule caused more immigration from developing countries, particularly the Indian subcontinent.
  • carlcarl Posts: 750
    Socrates said:

    @Cyclefree

    What an outstanding article:

    "it is perfectly reasonable to label a racist a ‘racist’, whether or not they carry out illegal acts or promote law-breaking."

    Yep, good stuff.
  • foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548

    Socrates said:

    @NickPalmer

    I'm intrigued to find out who the Muslim Quakers are. They sound wonderful.

    Sufism would be the nearest equivalent, I reckon.
    I went to a very interesting talk by this Farid Esack, who was at the time Lecturer in residence at the Quaker Theological College in Birmingham.Quakers are relaxed about dual membership, and it is possible to be a Jewish Quaker, a Methodist one or even an Athiest Quaker.

    Is he a Muslim Quaker? Possibly. Certainly he is sympathetic and a very thoughtful theologian. Would that there were more like him in our Mosques:

    http://www.oocities.org/faridesack/fetowhom.html
  • hucks67hucks67 Posts: 758
    Guess for ICM Guardian poll

    Con 27% UKIP 20%
  • PulpstarPulpstar Posts: 78,243
    edited May 2013
    CON 29 UKIP 19 - gah just seen TC has that.

    Ok AMended to CON 27 UKIP 19..
  • rcs1000rcs1000 Posts: 57,301

    Interesting map of shale gas:

    http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/2013/03/28/0014102eac.gif

    If we don't exploit our own shale, we will simply end up importing other's shale. Getting bloody fracking.

    That almost certainly underestimates the potential: pretty much everywhere which has history as a petroleum basin will have source rocks (i.e. organic shales) which are usually packed full of gas. So, you can add massive numbers for Russia and the Middle East as well.

    Plus, if you want to get really optimistic, there are other so-called 'unconventionals', such as Coal Bed Methane (resources in Australia, China and others). We can also do something called in-situ gasification, which basically involves the burning of coal while it's still underground, and extracting syngas (synthetic gas).

    And did I mention methane hydrates?
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    edited May 2013
    My guesstimate is Con 29 UKIP 17
  • AlastairMeeksAlastairMeeks Posts: 30,340
    Con 31, UKIP 13
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,969

    Interesting map of shale gas:

    http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/2013/03/28/0014102eac.gif

    If we don't exploit our own shale, we will simply end up importing other's shale. Getting bloody fracking.

    Would it not be better to import other's shale first and then we will have ours when their's has run out ?

    We could be the DeBeers of the shale gas world!
  • SocratesSocrates Posts: 10,322
    tim said:

    Socrates said:

    tim said:

    Socrates said:

    tim said:

    Socrates said:

    tim said:

    @socrates

    Go and look at France and Ireland and Cyprus and Germany, you'll be up to 1.6-2million in the EU

    Firstly, 1.6 million is not "millions". Secondly, it is not providing evidence to tell someone else to go and look something up.

    I'm quite happy to revise "millions" to 1.6-2 million.

    Now your German facts should be interesting.

    I'm glad you can correct yourself.

    My source is the bubble chart about a third the way down:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jun/26/non-eu-immigration-uk-statistics

    I'm quite happy to revise my "Germans" to "Germany".

    German figures are always distorted by British troops and their families (lots of wives and kids)
    Interestingly the two countries which increased above Germany (and the US which had already overtaken) in the first five years when New Labour came to power and diluted the race were South Africa and Australia.
    A fair point on Germany. I imagine South Africa was mainly affected by the end of Mandela's time as president.

    You're also correct that it took time for Labour's policy changes to have an effect. But it's very clear that the removal of the primary purpose rule caused more immigration from developing countries, particularly the Indian subcontinent.
    Yet your argument that "top country for migration" moved from white Germany (doubtful for the reasons I have given) to non white countries under New Labour is false.
    There were only three years out of 13 where India was the highest country, Australia and Poland were the largest for the other years.
    And South Africa showed the fastest jump after Labour came to power.
    I didn't make that claim. I just said that Labour engineered more immigration from the Indian subcontinent, which they definitely did. Just because there was also an additional wave from Eastern Europe due to EU policies doesn't change that. (Although they partially engineered that too, by avoiding transitional controls.)
  • SocratesSocrates Posts: 10,322
    RobD said:

    Interesting map of shale gas:

    http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/2013/03/28/0014102eac.gif

    If we don't exploit our own shale, we will simply end up importing other's shale. Getting bloody fracking.

    Would it not be better to import other's shale first and then we will have ours when their's has run out ?

    We could be the DeBeers of the shale gas world!
    Not really. Shale gas has a practical use - we don't need to conjure up a reason for buying it.
  • RobDRobD Posts: 59,969
    Socrates said:



    Not really. Shale gas has a practical use - we don't need to conjure up a reason for buying it.

    I wasn't seriously contemplating the idea - it would be quite difficult to store several trillion cubic feet of gas, I think.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,395
    Con 28 UKIP 18
  • NickPalmerNickPalmer Posts: 21,543
    edited May 2013
    Socrates said:

    @NickPalmer

    I'm intrigued to find out who the Muslim Quakers are. They sound wonderful.

    It's these guys:
    http://aaiil.org/ahmadiyyat.shtml

    The constituent who approached me is one of the authors extensively cited here, Zahid Aziz, a courteous man in his 60s. His book on tolerance of other religions is here:

    http://ahmadiyya.org/islam/islam-pt.htm

    I recommend pp. 5-10. I've not spent a huge amount of time exploring the website - he impressed me as sincere and I thought they deserved a hearing. He is quite explicit that some Muslim groups live down to the reputation that critics assign to them, and I would assume they're selecting the nice bits of a Qu'ran in the same way as Christians will not dwell on some of the dodgier bits of the Bible.But he doesn't shrink from some of the uncomfortable questions.

    My understanding is that they are seen by mainstream Muslims as decent but eccentric - very much like the Quakers are seen by mainstream Christians. There's an independent view here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmadiyya
  • TomsToms Posts: 2,478
    On topic (and assuming I wouldn't have to pay the postage):
    CON 27, UKIP 18
  • rubricrubric Posts: 5
    Con 30 /UKIP 16
  • currystarcurrystar Posts: 1,171
    Anecdote alert, yesterday was definitely a turning point for the staff in my normally very non-political office. If a party at the next GE went with a policy of zero immigration, the deportation of anyone who did not have a British/EU passport, and much less tolerance to ethnic minorities extreme religious behavior then everyone in my office would vote for them.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,395
    Not a great day for the global economy today as global stocks fall http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22635446

    Also, in Australia Ford has decided to close its manufacturing plants http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-23/ford-closure-sends-shockwave-through-manufacturing-industry/4708584 (Also in Australia, Hazel Hawke, Bob Hahttp://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-05-23/hazel-hawke-dies-from-dementia-complications/4709572wke's ex-wife, has died)
  • MarkSeniorMarkSenior Posts: 4,699
    RobD said:

    Socrates said:



    Not really. Shale gas has a practical use - we don't need to conjure up a reason for buying it.

    I wasn't seriously contemplating the idea - it would be quite difficult to store several trillion cubic feet of gas, I think.
    Are we not already storing several trillion cubic feet of potential gas in our shale fields and at zero cost ?
  • FensterFenster Posts: 2,115
    Sorry for doing a runner after posting that Youtube 'Luton' link earlier. I'm sorry for not replying to the replies. Work to do and all that.

    Just to say that now I know that poor soldier has a two-year-old child it makes it all the more sickening... Absolutely dreadful.

    I know 70 or so people were killed by terrorists in Iraq two days back and the tornado in America was awful and sudden death should have no relativity to it, all deaths are terrible to those close to the victim, but that incident yesterday struck a chord.

    In my office today (as Currystar says below) everyone was talking about it. Just one of those terrible incidents which makes everyone stop and think.

    Tragic.
  • RodCrosbyRodCrosby Posts: 7,737
    edited May 2013
    Con 26
    UKIP 23

    shame the book's already out of date!
  • john_zimsjohn_zims Posts: 3,399
    Con 30
    UKIP 16
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,395
    Lord Mandelson appointed High Steward of Hull
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-22625513
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    currystar said:

    Anecdote alert, yesterday was definitely a turning point for the staff in my normally very non-political office. If a party at the next GE went with a policy of zero immigration, the deportation of anyone who did not have a British/EU passport, and much less tolerance to ethnic minorities extreme religious behavior then everyone in my office would vote for them.

    I can't help feeling that a number of boxes were ticked yesterday on the WTF Outrage scale.

    1. Random member of Armed Services run down by a car
    2. Deliberately outside a barracks
    3. Then allegedly beheaded in middle of the afternoon next to a primary school
    4. By two people who invoked Islam as an excuse for it
    5. And he wearing a Help for Heroes t-shirt
    6. The attackers then made a song and dance about it for the cameras and were clearly very lucid
    7. The cub-scout lady just rammed the human decency/bravery point home again and again as the blood-soaked villains stood by her

    It's Couldnt-Make-It-Up territory that would fail the plot credulity test in any TV drama.

    Any plot twist used after 9/11 could be believable nowadays but there's something about this one that's really hit home.
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    @RobD

    "it would be quite difficult to store several trillion cubic feet of gas"

    Oh, I don't know - I'm sure we can all name a PBer who just farts it all over this blog instead :^ )
  • Richard_TyndallRichard_Tyndall Posts: 32,627
    Con 27%
    UKIP 20%
  • LaskiLaski Posts: 2
    Con 32, UKIP 16
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    This is also a good article http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/douglas-murray/2013/05/nothing-to-do-with-islam/ (though the comments have a high foaming content and are generally to be ignored).
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    Mark Wallace @wallaceme
    I'm quite angry that Anjem Choudary is on Newsnight tonight - I can only imagine how furious Muslims he falsely claims to speak for must be

    Why is a man who founded a proscribed organisation on the BBC?
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    edited May 2013
    Robin Brant @robindbrant
    BBC has uncovered its own footage of one of the #Woolwich attackers, taking part in an Islamist demonstration in April 2007.

    Robin Brant
    @robindbrant
    Michael Adebojalo can be seen in a crowd of men outside Paddington Green police station, holding a placard reading 'Crusade Against Muslims'

    He's made a bit of volte face in that case!
  • samsam Posts: 727
    currystar said:

    Anecdote alert, yesterday was definitely a turning point for the staff in my normally very non-political office. If a party at the next GE went with a policy of zero immigration, the deportation of anyone who did not have a British/EU passport, and much less tolerance to ethnic minorities extreme religious behavior then everyone in my office would vote for them.

    The awful policies of successive governments for the last 45 years have created a situation where the people who bomb London tubes, behead soldiers and try to blow up airplanes in the name of Allah and their "lands" are British.
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    @RodCrosby

    Without contributors like you - we'd have no sources to quote from Wiki at all.

    Thanks to you all - I was one a long while ago on another subject and the level of knowledge is stunning.
  • MrJonesMrJones Posts: 3,523
    edited May 2013

    Socrates said:

    @NickPalmer

    I'm intrigued to find out who the Muslim Quakers are. They sound wonderful.

    It's these guys:
    http://aaiil.org/ahmadiyyat.shtml

    The constituent who approached me is one of the authors extensively cited here, Zahid Aziz, a courteous man in his 60s. His book on tolerance of other religions is here:

    http://ahmadiyya.org/islam/islam-pt.htm

    I recommend pp. 5-10. I've not spent a huge amount of time exploring the website - he impressed me as sincere and I thought they deserved a hearing. He is quite explicit that some Muslim groups live down to the reputation that critics assign to them, and I would assume they're selecting the nice bits of a Qu'ran in the same way as Christians will not dwell on some of the dodgier bits of the Bible.But he doesn't shrink from some of the uncomfortable questions.

    My understanding is that they are seen by mainstream Muslims as decent but eccentric - very much like the Quakers are seen by mainstream Christians. There's an independent view here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmadiyya
    I thought they were seen as heretics?

    edit: i agree they're a decent bunch though
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    @Fenster & BenM: Yes - knowing that there is a widow and young child (and parents) mourning today and for the foreseeable future is quite heartbreaking. One can only hope that they are getting all the support and help they need from the army.

    It was not just the lady who confronted one of the killers who was brave. The lady who sat down next to the body to pray for the soldier had a special sort of courage and a level of decency and compassion that his killers are incapable of comprehending.
  • samsam Posts: 727
    tim said:

    @Fenster

    I see Newsnight have idiotically gone and booked Anjem Choudary, who speaks for the one or two hundred loons marching.

    Thats why his rent-a-mob turn up in places like that.


    Anyone who thinks as was posted on here today that he has a 'mass of British followers" is insane

    I cant imagine he is speaking for many people of any faith when he describes Michael Adebajo thus...

    "He's a very nice man - I believe he's a family man. He's a very calm and non-violent man. As you can see from the clip yesterday he was concerned and apologising to any women and children who were there."

  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    There are crimes that are just so bizarre that they'll stick in mind for a long time - this is one of them

    "A family doctor who used a secret camera inside his James Bond-style wristwatch to record himself abusing female patients was jailed for 12 years today.

    Dr Davinder Jeet Bains, 46, used his position as a GP at a medical practice in Royal Wootton Bassett, near Swindon, Wiltshire, to assault dozens of his female patients.

    Bains filmed the attacks on his Tieex 4GB Waterproof Spy Watch, which has been likened to something out of a 007 film.

    It has a built-in camera on the face - with simple on and off buttons to record - and can be bought on the internet for less than £60.

    When detectives arrested Bains at the Tinkers Lane Surgery they discovered his hi-tech wristwatch and later recovered 361 high-quality video clips from the watch and home computer.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2329615/Twelve-years-family-GP-used-secret-camera-inside-James-Bond-style-wristwatch-film-abusing-300-patients.html#ixzz2U8VVNGEA

  • DadgeDadge Posts: 2,052
    Con 32 Ukip 14
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    @sam

    I cant imagine he is speaking for many people of any faith when he describes Michael Adebajo thus...

    "He's a very nice man - I believe he's a family man. He's a very calm and non-violent man. As you can see from the clip yesterday he was concerned and apologising to any women and children who were there."

    WTF? He just missed out the bit where Mr Adelbajo was covered in blood and holding a 12" knife and meat cleaver...

  • TheWatcherTheWatcher Posts: 5,262
    edited May 2013
    ' He's a very calm and non-violent man...'

    ... as he smashes the cleaver into the chest of the 25 year old father ...

    Part of the problem, not the solution.
  • foxinsoxukfoxinsoxuk Posts: 23,548

    Socrates said:

    @NickPalmer

    I'm intrigued to find out who the Muslim Quakers are. They sound wonderful.

    It's these guys:
    http://aaiil.org/ahmadiyyat.shtml

    The constituent who approached me is one of the authors extensively cited here, Zahid Aziz, a courteous man in his 60s. His book on tolerance of other religions is here:

    http://ahmadiyya.org/islam/islam-pt.htm

    I recommend pp. 5-10. I've not spent a huge amount of time exploring the website - he impressed me as sincere and I thought they deserved a hearing. He is quite explicit that some Muslim groups live down to the reputation that critics assign to them, and I would assume they're selecting the nice bits of a Qu'ran in the same way as Christians will not dwell on some of the dodgier bits of the Bible.But he doesn't shrink from some of the uncomfortable questions.

    My understanding is that they are seen by mainstream Muslims as decent but eccentric - very much like the Quakers are seen by mainstream Christians. There's an independent view here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmadiyya
    it does seem a mistake to not fund their campaign.

    There is an old Afghan proverb concerning the British. "It is better to be the Enemy of the British than their friends. The British buy their enemies and sell their friends"

    Alas there is more than a little truth to that.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,810
    Is there any secular way to mark someone as forever reprehensible? I'm not sure that there is, much as I'd like it to be so.

  • JamesKellyJamesKelly Posts: 1,348
    Scott Lumsden ‏@ScottLumsden
    Great idea right-wingers: bring back capital punishment to tackle Sharia Law. I'm sure fundamentalist hate clerics despise hanging.
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    Omnium said:

    Is there any secular way to mark someone as forever reprehensible? I'm not sure that there is, much as I'd like it to be so.

    EPluribusUnum Report @iEPluribusUnum
    "May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't."- General George Patton Jr
  • CyclefreeCyclefree Posts: 25,318
    sam said:

    tim said:

    @Fenster

    I see Newsnight have idiotically gone and booked Anjem Choudary, who speaks for the one or two hundred loons marching.

    Thats why his rent-a-mob turn up in places like that.


    Anyone who thinks as was posted on here today that he has a 'mass of British followers" is insane

    I cant imagine he is speaking for many people of any faith when he describes Michael Adebajo thus...

    "He's a very nice man - I believe he's a family man. He's a very calm and non-violent man. As you can see from the clip yesterday he was concerned and apologising to any women and children who were there."

    Perhaps he'd like to apologise to the soldier's widow and child.

    What an absolute c**t Choudary is! I hope Newsnight skewer him.

  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,810
    The 'nothing to do with Islam' thing isn't right. It is a product of their faith, no matter how much they wish to disown it. Their faith, and any faith, is liable to produce such horrors as there is no grounding in rational thought.
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    lucy manning @lucymanning
    2 further arrests on Woolwich attack. 29 year old man and woman on suspicion of conspiracy to murder.
  • JamesKellyJamesKelly Posts: 1,348
    edited May 2013
    By the way my prediction would have been Con 27%, UKIP 19%, but I'm not sure there's much point because that and every permutation close to it has seemingly already been taken.

    Well, I may as well enter - I'll go for UKIP 24%, Con 23% (but if I scrolled down far enough I'd probably find even that has been taken).
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,810
    Plato said:

    Omnium said:

    Is there any secular way to mark someone as forever reprehensible? I'm not sure that there is, much as I'd like it to be so.

    EPluribusUnum Report @iEPluribusUnum
    "May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't."- General George Patton Jr
    Yes but I would throw myself in the way of Patton's wrath rather than a nut-job's mercy any day of the week.
  • TheWatcherTheWatcher Posts: 5,262

    Scott Lumsden ‏@ScottLumsden
    Great idea right-wingers: bring back capital punishment to tackle Sharia Law. I'm sure fundamentalist hate clerics despise hanging.

    Perhaps that is the answer to the question of what to do with the rabid dogs arrested yesterday. Western laws don't seem to have deterred them.

    Many seem happy with the concept of 'an eye for an eye'.

    Blow up a train and survive; your reward is a ride to heaven atop a box of dynamite on Salisbury Plain.

    The Bustards can eat any scraps that remain.
  • FensterFenster Posts: 2,115
    tim said:

    @Fenster

    I see Newsnight have idiotically gone and booked Anjem Choudary, who speaks for the one or two hundred loons marching.

    Thats why his rent-a-mob turn up in places like that.


    Anyone who thinks as was posted on here today that he has a 'mass of British followers" is insane

    Tim, I know Choudary is an embarrassment to most sane British muslims, and I'm lucky enough to live in an area where racial disharmony doesn't exist. I have no argument with that, and despite me posting that 'Luton' thing, I don't know the area from Adam. It might as well be China to me; I just thought it was an interesting youthful take on Britain by a young girl..

    But there's no point me denying, or being afraid to speak about, despite the blissful calm and security of my rural spot, the pockets of land in the UK populated by people who fecking hate Westerners. For example, it is tacitly acknowledged around here that the Butetown area of Cardiff isn't particularly safe at night for white people. Tiger Bay - as it was once known - was historically a dockside-area of immigrants, blue-collar brawlers and transients, and a place of spit and sawdust bars. It was always rough. It was never pretty. It was a typical dockland of racial mixes, with hookers walking the streets at night. But it was never a place people were really scared to go into. Yet over the last 10/15 years it has grown to house the biggest population of Somalians outside of Somalia. And now it is a place that people are scared of and it is also a place with a heavy religious presence. Is the danger-factor therefore just a coincidence?

    Don't ask me exactly why people are suddenly scared of that particular estate; perhaps all white, Asian, and Carbibbean people (who historically populated the area) are just a bunch of backward bigots who hate Somalians. But I doubt that's the case.

    It is perhaps more to do with the fact that an influx of illegal immigrants from war-torn, lawless, Sharia-dominated Somalia fled their country to re-home in a hitherto peaceful Welsh city. Cardiff is still a lovely city, but every man and his dog knows that area is the one to avoid.

    To state that isn't bigotry, or racism, it's just commonsense. You stick a load of (on the very large whole) disaffected, uneducated, non-English speaking Somali men together in a hovel of an area, allow them access to as much extreme Islamic propaganda they can hear preached to them, and they'll eventually, partly through disenfranchisement and partly through indoctrination, begin to hate us white people. And we, as a nation of tolerant, scared-to-offend nice people, are allowing it to happen. Cardiff is just a minor blip. In comparison to the Luton's ot Bradford's or Oldham's of this world it is Mr Nobel Peace Prize himself.

    You know what, I can kind of understand why they start to hate us. But that doesn't make me feel sympathetic and cosy about it. It makes me wary. And it makes the authorities keep a very, very close eye on activity in the area (there have been various reports of burgeoning extremism and potential terrorism in the area: the celebrations that followed 9/11 and 7/7 didn't help). Perhaps we are just in the early stages of a wonderful onset of multiculturalism where the end result will be a cascade of Somalian educational and aspirational brilliance throughout the city, where they one day live in harmony alongside people from all other backgrounds. Maybe, but for now, as a white man, I'm wary of that area. And a Woolwich style atrocity wouldn't necessarily surprise me.

    But on your point of there being no legions of aggressive muslim armies taking over our streets, of course there aren't. But the thought that extremist indoctrination is taking place on a widespread scale away from our glare is the one that strikes fear into the heart of a lot of people.

  • JamesKellyJamesKelly Posts: 1,348
    "Perhaps that is the answer to the question of what to do with the rabid dogs arrested yesterday. Western laws don't seem to have deterred them."

    I trust you detected the sarcasm in that tweet?
  • PBModeratorPBModerator Posts: 664
    TIM /SAM your discussion about Enoch Powell is CLOSED
  • TheWatcherTheWatcher Posts: 5,262

    "Perhaps that is the answer to the question of what to do with the rabid dogs arrested yesterday. Western laws don't seem to have deterred them."

    I trust you detected the sarcasm in that tweet?

    Or lock them up in 'Camp Alba', north of the Wall.

  • surbitonsurbiton Posts: 13,549

    Scott Lumsden ‏@ScottLumsden
    Great idea right-wingers: bring back capital punishment to tackle Sharia Law. I'm sure fundamentalist hate clerics despise hanging.

    Not only would they have no problem with hanging, they would love to have a few martyrs too !
  • NeilNeil Posts: 7,983
    Sterling knock from Stirling - I dont think Ireland will get Pakistan's total but with a quality century he's showing that more games between test nations and the top associates would surely benefit all.
  • JamesKellyJamesKelly Posts: 1,348
    "Or lock them up in 'Camp Alba', north of the Wall."

    Yes, we could probably do with another 'union dividend'.
  • TheWatcherTheWatcher Posts: 5,262

    "Or lock them up in 'Camp Alba', north of the Wall."

    Yes, we could probably do with another 'union dividend'.

    Only downside is Wee Eck releasing them after 6 months.

  • CarolaCarola Posts: 1,805
    I'll go for Con 24 Ukip 21 as the 'more likelys' have gone (maybe that's gone, dunno...).

    I've got the heating on and it's nearly June. Either it's a nippy spring or I've lived down south too long and have gone soft.
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    Whilst bloody awful re Woolwich - other things have happened - such as this stat

    Harry Phibbs @harryph
    The top rate tax cut to 45p and income tax revenues increase by £1.3bn. If Labour put back to 50p how would they finance that tax increase?
  • FluffyThoughtsFluffyThoughts Posts: 2,420
    Excellent article in this week's "The Economist":

    http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21578435-minorities-embrace-englishness-even-metropolitan-whites-shun-it-identity-parade

    Don't allow Wee-Timmy and his troupe-of-trolls to pish all-over the race debate....
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,810
    Neil said:

    Sterling knock from Stirling - I dont think Ireland will get Pakistan's total but with a quality century he's showing that more games between test nations and the top associates would surely benefit all.

    The 50 over format isn't what the public wants now though, and perhaps the players don't want it either. Stirling getting a mere 103 off 107 balls in that context seems disappointing. IRE v PAK test, or T20 series though would be great.

  • NeilNeil Posts: 7,983
    edited May 2013
    Plato said:


    Harry Phibbs @harryph
    The top rate tax cut to 45p and income tax revenues increase by £1.3bn. If Labour put back to 50p how would they finance that tax increase?

    The OBR estimated that the cut in the additional tax rate cost hundreds of millions of pounds. So reversing it would be expected to yield money rather than cost money.
  • old_labourold_labour Posts: 3,238
    edited May 2013
    A picture of one of the attackers at a Choudry rally.
    https://twitter.com/BBCDomC/status/337617879950303234/photo/1
  • ZenPaganZenPagan Posts: 689
    Con 27 ukip 21 is my guess, havent scanned to see if its a duplicate though
  • NeilNeil Posts: 7,983
    HYUFD said:

    Treasury raises more from 45% than 50% tax

    That's completely and utterly unfounded.
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    edited May 2013
    Totally OT - as some PBers know, my sense of smell has been AWOL for a while - but this afternoon, I'm overwhelmed by the scent of Christmas Pudding.

    Given its late May and I'm in the middle of nowhere - any suggestions?! This is a most pleasant experience - if very peculiar. I trust its not a brain tumour or something else scary - that's burning feathers [they are buggers to light if anyone's tried to get rid of a old pillow on a bonfire]...
  • JohnLilburneJohnLilburne Posts: 6,263
    RodCrosby said:
    This is a good one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election

    All the headline poll results are easily accessible, with links to the data, and the graph is updated much more frequently than the ukpollingreport one, and includes UKIP.
  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,810
    Neil said:

    Plato said:


    Harry Phibbs @harryph
    The top rate tax cut to 45p and income tax revenues increase by £1.3bn. If Labour put back to 50p how would they finance that tax increase?

    The OBR estimated that the cut in the additional tax rate cost hundreds of millions of pounds. So reversing it would be expected to yield money rather than cost money.
    It does seem to be the case though that revenues rise. The OBR have to say what their best guess is, but the foundations are very poor. Actual experience does tend to point towards lower top rates increasing tax revenue.
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    Why is there so little in the British media about the riots in Stockholm?

    http://www.thelocal.se/
  • SocratesSocrates Posts: 10,322
    AndyJS said:

    Why is there so little in the British media about the riots in Stockholm?

    http://www.thelocal.se/

    A very good question. It should be huge news.
  • FensterFenster Posts: 2,115
    tim said:

    @Fenster

    Yet over the last 10/15 years it has grown to house the biggest population of Somalians outside of Somalia.

    Cardiff has?

    Don't recognise that at all I'm afraid

    1672 Somali Born in Cardiff

    http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=6275349&c=cardiff&d=13&e=61&g=6497663&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1369330569255&enc=1&dsFamilyId=2525

    3209 Somali born people in Leicester

    http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=6275151&c=leicester&d=13&e=61&g=6383957&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1369330966755&enc=1&dsFamilyId=2525

    7765 Somali born people in Birmingham

    http://www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk/dissemination/LeadTableView.do?a=7&b=6275020&c=birmingham&d=13&e=61&g=6363493&i=1001x1003x1032x1004&m=0&r=1&s=1369331140567&enc=1&dsFamilyId=2525


    There are only 5,213 of African ethnicity in Cardiff in total, fewer than the Somalis in Birmingham


    As for the language

    "The Somali community in Cardiff has the largest British-born Somali population in the UK."


    I assume that's what you mean, given that the community is long established and took the first wave of refugees in the 80's

    I'll accept your official stats on that, I was told a few years ago now by a nice lady in Cardiff Council that Cardiff housed Somalia's biggest population outside their homeland (and maybe she was correct back then), but I bet a) Cardiff has seen many more Somalians than that born outside of the official figures, and b) the historic immigrant populations of Leicester and Birmingham will no doubt feel the effect of Somalian integration-skills. They arrive fast, stick close and do not assimilate well.

    Incidentally, you talk to long-time immigrant residents of areas like Tiger Bay, mainly from Afro-Caribbean backgrounds* and they will be quick to tell of the difficulties they have faced with integration.

    *Ryan Giggs' dad Danny Wilson is a former Tiger Bay resident. A bit of a rogue and a hustler himself. I once played rugby against him (he 40, me about 20). Shirley Bassey is from there too. The area has changed dramatically now and your stats do nothing to displace my overall point. The area is not good.

  • SocratesSocrates Posts: 10,322
    HYUFD said:
    Only in the first month. That'll be mainly people booking income later. I doubt it'll last.
  • eckythumpereckythumper Posts: 27
    you are all barking on here
  • SouthamObserverSouthamObserver Posts: 39,667
    HYUFD said:
    That is unbelievably inept spinning from the Treasury. It is pretty obvious that if you announce a tax cut a year in advance people are going to defer payments to take advantage of it. This also depresses what would have been collected under the old rate, of course. Loans, for example, can be paid by companies and then repaid under the new rate.

  • JackWJackW Posts: 14,787

    you are all barking on here

    Woof woof

  • OmniumOmnium Posts: 10,810

    you are all barking on here

    Yeah but it's clear you don't really believe that as your pseudonym is sort of begging for approval, and you'd hardly set that out in a madhouse. The highlight of the Goodies I agree.

  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,395
    Socrates, Neil, SO Clearly we will have to wait to get the full picture
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    I thought Sweden was supposed to be one of the closest places to paradise on Earth. If that's true, why are immigrants so ungrateful about being allowed to live there?
  • SocratesSocrates Posts: 10,322

    Socrates said:

    @NickPalmer

    I'm intrigued to find out who the Muslim Quakers are. They sound wonderful.

    It's these guys:
    http://aaiil.org/ahmadiyyat.shtml

    The constituent who approached me is one of the authors extensively cited here, Zahid Aziz, a courteous man in his 60s. His book on tolerance of other religions is here:

    http://ahmadiyya.org/islam/islam-pt.htm

    I recommend pp. 5-10. I've not spent a huge amount of time exploring the website - he impressed me as sincere and I thought they deserved a hearing. He is quite explicit that some Muslim groups live down to the reputation that critics assign to them, and I would assume they're selecting the nice bits of a Qu'ran in the same way as Christians will not dwell on some of the dodgier bits of the Bible.But he doesn't shrink from some of the uncomfortable questions.

    My understanding is that they are seen by mainstream Muslims as decent but eccentric - very much like the Quakers are seen by mainstream Christians. There's an independent view here:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahmadiyya
    What aspects about them make them Quaker-like? Do they believe in the equivalent of a priesthood of all believers? Are they pacifists?
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    edited May 2013
    Found this on the BBC website:
    "Rioters have lit fires and stoned emergency services in the suburbs of Stockholm for the third night in a row after a man was shot dead by police.

    Incidents were reported in at least nine suburbs of the Swedish capital and police made eight arrests.

    On Sunday night, more than 100 cars were set alight, Swedish media report.

    Police in the deprived, largely immigrant suburb of Husby shot a man dead last week after he reportedly threatened to kill them with a machete.

    More than 80% of Husby's 12,000 or so inhabitants are from an immigrant background, and most are from Turkey, the Middle East and Somalia."
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22622909
  • nigel4englandnigel4england Posts: 4,800
    Yes. When was the last time you were in London?

    Face it tim, the experiment in multiculturism that was foisted upon us with no mandate, and no regard for the indigenous population, has failed with catastrophic consequences. Even Trevor Philips has said so.

    Only desperate people like you, who will not admit you were wrong all along, disagree. My life is supposed to be enriched by multiculturism and diversity, sorry but I do not see how that is so.
  • AndyJSAndyJS Posts: 29,395
    edited May 2013
    "On Woolwich, British media could learn from Swedish riots coverage. It brings its own problems but Swedish media's refusal to obsess over violent incidents may reduce the chance they will spread

    When I saw that riots around Stockholm had made the front page of the Financial Times, I scurried over to the sites of Swedish papers to see in some detail what was happening. It turned out that the dismembered parts of a Thai woman had been found in Lapland, various television stars had been variously unhappy in their love lives, a farmer had caused the evacuation of a police station in the south of the country by handing in 12 sticks of dynamite he'd had lying around the place – oh, and there had been a hundred or so cars burnt out in the satellite towns around Stockholm.

    Only the conservative Svenska Dagbladet had led with the news a couple of days ago, when I started watching the coverage. Do these things become less newsworthy after three or four nights, or is it deliberate policy not to encourage copycat rioting?

    I can only assume that it's the latter, coupled with a certain prudishness about violence. Even the most sensationalist of the papers did not reproduce anywhere prominent on their websites the pictures of the English atrocity. For once, I think the Swedish press is showing the English one a good example"
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/23/woolwich-media-swedish-riots
  • taffystaffys Posts: 9,753
    Face it tim, the experiment in multiculturism that was foisted upon us with no mandate, and no regard for the indigenous population, has failed with catastrophic consequences.

    Let's just say for argument's sake that's so Nigel. Trouble is, we are where we are. What do you propose to do about it.
  • FinancierFinancier Posts: 3,916
    Plato said:

    Totally OT - as some PBers know, my sense of smell has been AWOL for a while - but this afternoon, I'm overwhelmed by the scent of Christmas Pudding.

    Given its late May and I'm in the middle of nowhere - any suggestions?! This is a most pleasant experience - if very peculiar. I trust its not a brain tumour or something else scary - that's burning feathers [they are buggers to light if anyone's tried to get rid of a old pillow on a bonfire]...

    @Plato

    Anyone making silage near you?

    My guess for ICM 30/16
  • nigel4englandnigel4england Posts: 4,800
    taffys said:

    Face it tim, the experiment in multiculturism that was foisted upon us with no mandate, and no regard for the indigenous population, has failed with catastrophic consequences.

    Let's just say for argument's sake that's so Nigel. Trouble is, we are where we are. What do you propose to do about it.

    A very good question to which much more intelligent people than me have no answer.
  • PlatoPlato Posts: 15,724
    Financier said:

    Plato said:

    Totally OT - as some PBers know, my sense of smell has been AWOL for a while - but this afternoon, I'm overwhelmed by the scent of Christmas Pudding.

    Given its late May and I'm in the middle of nowhere - any suggestions?! This is a most pleasant experience - if very peculiar. I trust its not a brain tumour or something else scary - that's burning feathers [they are buggers to light if anyone's tried to get rid of a old pillow on a bonfire]...

    @Plato

    Anyone making silage near you?

    My guess for ICM 30/16
    Ah ha! Yes - that'd explain this very odd phenomenon. Thanx.
  • In the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court, tomorrow at half past 10:
    Before Mr Justice Tugendhat [Robed]
    For judgment: TLJ/13/0509 The Lord McAlpine of West Green v Bercow
  • Y0kelY0kel Posts: 2,307
    As mentioned last night, both those shot and arrested at the incident in Woolwich indeed were known to the authorities. One is confirmed as known to the security services ands police, the other definitely to police. You'd assume by default if the 2nd was known for links then SS would be aware as well.
  • MrJonesMrJones Posts: 3,523
    taffys said:

    Face it tim, the experiment in multiculturism that was foisted upon us with no mandate, and no regard for the indigenous population, has failed with catastrophic consequences.

    Let's just say for argument's sake that's so Nigel. Trouble is, we are where we are. What do you propose to do about it.

    Well at least stop the media and political class covering up certain crimes because they don't fit the narrative as beasting the police into ignoring it increases the number of people involved and thus greatly increases the number of victims.
  • SocratesSocrates Posts: 10,322
    tim said:

    @Nigel4England.

    You want to build a case that London is a failed city I think you'll struggle to be honest.
    Same with New York

    Compare London now to how it was thirty years ago.

    Let's see how well London does on the Gross Wellbeing index when it finally comes out.
  • HYUFDHYUFD Posts: 123,395
    Harvard Test Your social intelligence
    http://kgajos.eecs.harvard.edu/mite/#
  • samsam Posts: 727
    edited May 2013
    tim said:

    @Nigel4England.

    You want to build a case that London is a failed city I think you'll struggle to be honest.
    Same with New York

    Compare London now to how it was thirty years ago.

    Well there are far fewer English people living there so I guess youd call it a success

  • VerulamiusVerulamius Posts: 1,543
    On the April income tax receipts I would recommend that you look at the OBR analysis. April receipts are mainly PAYE and thus relate to earnings from March, during the 50% rate. It will be the May receipts which will be the first analysis of the impact of the 45% rate.
This discussion has been closed.