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This weather is vile. Much prefer the cold.
Mr. T's proving rather entertaining as a Telegraph blogger.
But surely the correct answer to "what do you get when you multiply a half by a quarter" is "a Miliband McLuskeyed".
It's a good job no-one said that to Brunel 150 years ago (*), or the government before they started the Preston by-pass.
(*) Not many investors made a fortune out of Brunel's schemes. But most of those schemes still advantage us 150 years later. Just don't mention his locomotives...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fda06aWNO7s
Ed, what are you waiting for ? Call the referendum. Now.
Knowing when Winston was born and the answer to 1/2 * 1/4 are two very different things. The first is trivia - it's as important as who was called lemonade in the splice girls.
Listening to that clip it seems that Nick Ferrari has the wit of a potato. Why Gove might be interviewed by him has to be a mystery.
I think you need to consult Dr. Prasannan's publications before answering.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/413379/We-don-t-want-Churchill-being-taught-to-our-children-says-Welsh-MP-in-curriculum-debate
'My first comment, in June 2011, following some picayune political row, was this:
“I can't believe you are all falling for this pitiful Tory decoy. What's new here? Everyone knows Gordon Brown was trying to unseat Tony; Brown was just trying to do his job as a politician, and as a morally centred human being, and keep Labour in power.
“If only Brown had succeeded earlier! Then we wouldn't be faced with this literally homicidal government. For God's sake, Muslims are being kicked in the teeth, GPs are being publicly horsewhipped, and disabled folk are literally having filth smeared across their faces, just so the Bullingdon Tory Boys can have a laugh.”
To be honest, I thought I might have crossed the line first time, and I would be rumbled as a trolling libertarian immediately. Yet this borderline-psychotic comment got six “recommends” from my fellow Guardian commenters.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23233573
Boy George song isn't that bad.
I'm curious - I've noticed a few posts that suggest you know the odd thing about railways - if you had GBP50b to spend on railways what would you do with it?
I recently stumbled across the Rand corporation's railway ideas - got anything that radical?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100225442/the-question-ed-miliband-has-to-answer-whose-side-are-you-on/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
As for your earlier reply: a new railway built to 'normal specs' (whatever they may be) will not help much for the reasons I have given before. It would be just as costly (if not more) and require many more interconnections with the existing network to create the paths. Look up the history of the GCR and some of the reasons it was closed for more information.
http://t.co/rURkWBal4B
http://t.co/VIluaaHWQN
http://t.co/rURkWBal4B
http://t.co/VIluaaHWQN
it seems that most politicians want to cram in extra stuff (like 'life skills', which is a bloody awful phrase) to be taught at school. Shouldn't some things be taught by parents? You can't expect teachers to give children everything they need to know.
New Labour and the lefties in Unite are two separate parties in all but name.
Our "benefactor" Mr Murdoch is running Ashes reruns on SSP2 in advance of the Ashes series (bloody marvellous it is too) and Murray won Wimbledon (and therefore is forever British).
tim can try and has tried to "distract" people from whatever he might deem the most damaging story for Labour on any given day, but frankly most voters couldn't give a tuppeny or even a thruppeny toss.
The fact remains that ED is CRAP, whatever Sunil might allude to, (even mischievously)
Software is hard, and consumer businesses rarely put enough money into it - either from the programmer's end or the analysis end of the process. Worse, they keep on with the same software even when the business changes.
I've made some money from that in the past. Firefighting's profitable ;-)
David Cameron may have more grounds for optimism when the IMF publishes its latest forecast for UK growth tomorrow.
http://www.channel4.com/news/are-thing-looking-up-for-britain-video
" In London the Metropolitan police have received 28 complaints across 12 boroughs and launched five investigations – one in Ealing and four in Tower Hamlets, which has a history of problems with electoral fraud. In Tower Hamlets the allegations are understood to relate to the registration of up to 10 "ghost voters" at single addresses where the residents have no knowledge of the names on the electoral roll. George Galloway's Respect party has complained that opponents are interfering with postal voters."
Why ask Ed a question to which we already now the answer? There's a better question and a better answer. and they don't involve Labour.
Tories will declare victory when Theresa May tells MPs the coalition has agreed to abandon 98 of 133 EU criminal justice measures
Tories, talking to the Nation.
Labour, fighting amongst themselves
@PickardJE: Has anyone ever used the political headline "Division of Labour" and if not, why not?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151561771804092&set=a.136716249091.108848.6085639091&type=1&theater
That would be the opt in that Len has already briefed about http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jul/08/labour-real-selection-scandal-unions
Broad gauge, as you probably know, endures in India and Ireland, though the respective gauges are rather less than Brunel, 5ft 6 and 5ft 3 respectively.
But I don't like the semi-alternative term 'Tiger Team' either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_team
A definition of the computer use of the term 'firefighting':
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/firefighting
I can understand why you don't like it.
http://labourlist.org/2013/07/miliband-is-fundamentally-changing-the-union-link-and-taking-a-leap-into-the-unknown/
If Ed gets the unions to swallow a REAL opt in, I'll kiss @OwenJones84s arse.
It goes to a mega-sized image if you click it. I think Horst's rather more ripped than Cameron. [And he's not evil. Just a bit short-tempered and violent].
https://twitter.com/mushenska/status/354338448720662530/photo/1
The only growth industries in the Rhondda are meow, steroids and tanning salons.
And I'd bet 75% of the people in Porth don't even know who Bryant is.
[Also, pain was what I was after for that cover, so I'm glad it came across that way].
'The question Ed Miliband has to answer: whose side are you on?'
Interesting article with an excellent example of Labour's policy to reduce standards in schools to the lowest common denominator.
The builder, Watkins, chose a continental loading gauge because he thought it would be useful to take Channel Tunnel traffic in 1899. That is visionary. :-)
Shame BR closed it 25 years before the tunnel opened. It would have saved us a great deal of bother now. And it is not really Beeching's fault: under the guidelines given to him, the GCR was a goner. BR and the politicians could have chosen to ignore him, as they did with other lines.
It would be interesting to see how much reopening the entire line would cost, including through Nottingham and Leicester, and compare to the cost of HS2. Would it be cheaper if you tunnelled under the built-up areas and had underground stations?
However, I would point out to you the history of the Metropolitan Railway. A railway line was built, and then housing soon followed (AFAICR the railway company was actually prohibited from building housing). Much of the northwestern suburbs of London owe their existence to the railway. And the railway came first.
And Toton isn't the middle of nowhere. I have family living near there!
Now Scott, have you an opinion on supporting the coalition agreement on this or are you waiting to post "weak weak weak" again?
What the country wants Ed Miliband to announce are policies to oppose the Coalition Government.
So what does he do?
Agree with all the Coalition's key policies and declare war on his own party. The only policies he will announce tomorrow are those which are designed to undermine the power of his paymasters.
And why?
Just to rid himself of perceived weakness.
Some leadership, tim.
BTW
Q. Oldest railway forming part of the current Underground network?
A. 1856 between Leyton and just south of Loughton stations on the Central line - opened by the Eastern Counties Railway.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7014739.stm
Levels of public participation were, however, fairly anaemic.
One word of warning - we've already had several about-faces in the last week from Ed Miliband. It's probably worth waiting until the speech has been delivered before taking too strong a view on his proposals either way.
I suspect the joy you got on CiF is equal to the joy Tim gets on here when he's on a roll. There's nothing like deflating the balloons of your political enemies.
http://www.nuneaton-news.co.uk/News/Vicky-Fowler-is-the-Labour-parliamentary-candidate-20130708163751.htm
Damp squib incoming.
So what does he do?
Agree with all the Coalition's key policies and declare war on his own party. The only policies he will announce tomorrow are those which are designed to undermine the power of his paymasters.
And why?
Just to rid himself of perceived weakness.
Some leadership, tim.
Some achievement if it happens. What was that about trusting the British people?
Rod Richards has joined UKIP.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/comeback-speculation-mounts-rod-richards-4888041
Richards took over as MP for Clwyd North West in 1992 after the retirement of Sir Anthony Meyer, the man who ran as a stalking horse against Margaret Thatcher in 1989.
As antifrank, once again, astutely notes, there is plenty of scope for obfuscation!
So what does he do?
Agree with all the Coalition's key policies and declare war on his own party. The only policies he will announce tomorrow are those which are designed to undermine the power of his paymasters.
And why?
Just to rid himself of perceived weakness.
Some leadership, tim.
It's probably worth waiting to see the detail before you turn on the auto-rebuttal machine. It may have good consequences for your party too - if you get more Wollastons and fewer Hunts.
I'm at a stage in my life when I feel that I have achieved pretty much all that I want to achieve in my chosen career and I fancy branching out in different directions. The skills I'd like tested more are those which would involve me using my deductive abilities, lateral thinking, my ability to explain complex ideas clearly and strategic planning skills.
I've got that far in my thought processes, but I'm now trying to compile a list of possibilities that might fit the bill. So I thought I would crowd-source this part of the problem.
So, any ideas?
Which Tory is that?
So who is Labour's Wollaston then?
Mr Bryant told the Commons: "There's only one constituency in the land where Winston Churchill was never ever welcome, including after the Second World War, namely the Rhondda.
"So I am delighted this curriculum, which bizarrely only insists on one politician being studied in the whole of the history of the 20th century, namely Winston Churchill, will not apply in Wales or in the Rhondda."
So, we'd better airbrush out of history Mao, Stalin, and Hitler too, presumably, since I imagine even the loony and offensive Chris Bryant is not loony and offensive enough to think these gentlemen would be welcome in the Rhondda. (At least, I hope I'm right on that). So that's the Second World War and the Cold War pretty ruled out as subjects Welsh children can be taught. It's certainly a novel view of what matters in history - the personal popularity of individuals in the Rhondda.
Miliband is activating a dormant fault-line in his party's internal structures. Like the curators of Iceland's geysers he is pouring soap into the depths in order to satisfy onlookers with a temporary burst of spuma.
The proper way to handle internal process - the way a confident leader in control of his party and destiny would do it - is to negotiate in backrooms with key stakeholders. When a deal has been reached it can be announced with realised public benefits trumpeted.
Instead, Miliband has decided to negotiate with his paymasters adversarially through the media. He is hoping to be portrayed as a valiant and strong crusader for freedom and justice.
Will the media play his game? Never.
All he will achieve is to convert distant friends into lifelong enemies and weaken his sources of financial and political support.
And as he does it, he will both expose his party and leadership to media mockery and detract public attention away from his primary task of opposition. His job is to hold the Coalition government to account and offer the British people an electable alternative. By opening a second front against the Unions he is writing his own suicide note.
Scratching one's navel in public is an activity only undertaken by very long term oppositions.
You can visit both the Samuel Johnson and Erasmus Darwin houses, and a statue of the captain of the Titanic is proudly on display in the city gardens. And Lichfield cathedral is the only medieval English cathedral with three spires:
http://www.samueljohnsonbirthplace.org.uk/
http://www.erasmusdarwin.org/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/stoke/hi/people_and_places/history/newsid_8864000/8864652.stm
http://www.visitlichfield.co.uk/content/lichfield-cathedral
@TwistedFireStopper In my head I'd be Tom Baker, but in actuality I'd be worse than Colin Baker.
When ? For 2015 ? Doubt it.
2020 - mind the long grass...
"Govt has changed next Monday's Commons business but won't say why. Rumours of fresh move on party funding in unions/lobbying bill"
http://www.lichfieldfestival.org/blog/2013/04/laura-mvula/
http://basedhere.com/Lichfield/Lichfield-Gospel-Choir