AgentAxeman

In the light of the recent attempt to bring down a commercial aircraft by terrorists the English have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588 when threatened by the Spanish Armada. The Scots raised their threat level from "P1ssed Off" to "Let's get the Bast*rds" They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years. The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability. It's not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout loudly and excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides." The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose". Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels. The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy. Americans meanwhile and as usual are carrying out pre-emptive strikes, on all of their allies …. just in case.

for you Happy, in furtherance to your question... For wealthy countries, such as the UK, the cost of being a member of the EU is greater than the benefits they get out. The best estimates put the annual net cost to the UK of EU membership in the region of £40.5 billion. Much of this money pays for the outdated and wasteful Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), while a sizeable amount goes towards the structural funds which transfer money to poorer areas of the EU. The costs of EU membership could be holding back faster developing countries, particularly the UK, which has a more global economy than many member states. For seven out of the last ten years, EU GDP growth has been lower than that of the USA. This is largely the effect of EU regulation making it less easy to do business. In 2006, the EU's Enterprise and Industry Commissioner, Gunter Verheugen, estimated the cost of EU regulation to be 600bn euro per annum. This is the equivalent of the EU losing the entire output of a medium-sized country like the Netherlands every year! This situation becomes more concerning when one considers how hard it is to reform the way that the EU spends money. Several attempts to reform the CAP have failed to reduce its cost substantially, while the 2005 budget negotiations also failed to agree to a slimmed-down budget. This is because it is almost impossible to reach an agreement between 27 countries. At present, EU leaders are hoping to negotiate a reform for the next budget cycle, starting in 2013.

well i suppose that depends on your definition of on the whole. on the whole the richer powers have been way too greedy (self interested) and this has forced the current economic imbalance. if youre referring to the overall growth of the euro then i suppose that yes in a way it has been succesful, in the same way most currencies were in the boom years and look what happensed then. imo, its sucess is built on a house of straw with no substance. Thinking the unthinkable Stephanie Flanders | 13:32 UK time, Thursday, 11 February 2010 All eyes are on Brussels, as we await more details of the "co-ordinated measures" on offer to help Greece. There's just one problem. Even a bail-out - if that is what it turns out to be - won't solve the basic problem facing Greece, or the eurozone. Let me explain. Greece has two big problems: a debt problem and a competitiveness one. A "bail-out" won't solve either - at least, not a bail-out that any self-respecting German would be willing to consider. We may get a bit more clarity today on the support that Germany and others are planning to offer Greece. More likely, as I said yesterday, we will have to wait until the next week's meeting of European finance ministers. That is what today's statement suggests. But we can be fairly sure that whatever deal is struck, it will not make Greece's debt problems go away. The best that Greece can expect from its eurozone partners is a promise to underwrite Greek debt, or some form of bilateral loan to tide Greece over. The first would cut the risk premium on Greek debt and make it easier to service. The second would give them cash to get them through the next few months, when nearly 10% of their debt comes up to maturity. But neither would do much to lower the stock of debt hanging over the economy. Or lessen the need for swingeing cuts in public services and tax rises over the next few years. Indeed, if Berlin has anything to do with it (and we know it will) - Mr Papandreou's government could come out of this with an even tougher schedule for cutting the deficit than it had before. So, it won't make the debt problem go away. It probably won't make the burdens on the Greek government - or its people - that much easier. It just goes from being 'impossible" to merely "intolerable". It goes without saying that it won't solve Greece's competitiveness problem either. I promised a post today on the long-term structural problem underlying this eurozone crisis. Happily - or perhaps unhappily - Martin Wolf beat me to it, in a superb column in yesterday's FT. As he says: "So long as the European Central Bank tolerates weak demand in the eurozone as a whole and core countries, above all Germany, continue to run vast trade surpluses, it will be nigh on impossible for weaker members to escape from their insolvency traps. Theirs is not a problem that can be resolved by fiscal austerity alone. They need a huge improvement in external demand for their output." As I showed in my piece for yesterday's BBC News at Ten, it's no accident that the countries in the firing line in this crisis are also the ones whose competitiveness has deteriorated the fastest within the eurozone since the single currency began. This chart tells the story, from Janet Henry at HSBC. HSBC chart German unit labour costs have barely budged since 2000, and German inflation has been lower than the eurozone average. As a result their exports have gradually become more and more competitive in world markets. Whereas Greece, Spain, Portugal and the rest have had relatively higher inflation, faster wage growth, and thus growing unit labour costs - and falling competitiveness. This is why there is no comfortable route of this for the Pigs (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) - though for some the path is tougher than others. As I've said many times in the context of the UK, it's tricky to cut borrowing as a share of GDP when your GDP is itself shrinking or stagnant. It is more or less unthinkable that Greece would manage to do this and achieve the real cuts in wages and living standards that would be necessary to seriously improve their competitiveness within the eurozone. Martin Wolf says that higher German domestic demand is the solution (or a big part of it). That would certainly help. So would a weaker euro - though remember, in the current situation, the biggest beneficiaries of a weaker euro would be German exporters. But imagine you were coming to the situation for the first time. You knew nothing of the Bundesbank. Or the history of the single currency project. Or even the market impact of the failure of Lehman brothers. If you were such an unworldly creature, you might come up with two, more ambitious proposals for tackling Greece's fiscal and competitiveness problems head-on: debt restructuring for Greek bondholders; and a higher inflation target for the ECB - say, 4%, instead of 2%. I touched on the first of these, briefly, on the Today programme this morning. If you could pull it off, restructuring Greece's debt (with some suitable "haircut" for private bondholders) would actually lower the real burden of its debt, making the path out of this more plausible. Of course, Greece would pay a price for it in the markets. For a long time. But it's not as if it's never been done. And it's not as if the alternative path for Greece is much brighter. "Unthinkable", you may say. "Remember what happened after Lehmans was allowed to go bust - and everyone in the world holding private bank debt started wondering whether they were next?" The memory of that is indeed one of the many reasons that a debt-restructuring is not being seriously considered. You could be looking at Lehmans, cubed, if the markets started seriously questioning every developed country sovereign bond. But the international community has now accepted that we need ways to restructure private debt without all hell breaking loose - ways to make private bondholders bear some of the burden when banks get into trouble, not just taxpayers. A few years from now, I wonder whether we will be saying the same about sovereign debt problems as well. So much for unthinkable number one. What about unthinkable number two - a higher inflation target for the ECB? This post is so long already - and this is so unlikely to happen - that I won't belabour the point. But this is something that was discussed, a little, when the euro began, and especially when the membership extended beyond the European "core". Arguably, a higher inflation target for the eurozone would help the less developed economies on the periphery grow faster in real terms, not just nominal. It could also make it easier for countries at the periphery to cut labour costs in real terms - without actually lowering people's nominal wages or suffering deflation. And it could weaken the euro, which might help growth as well.

The euro? It's a great success, says Mandy as Greece turmoil sends single currency into worst ever crisis Lord Mandelson triggered incredulity last night by insisting Britain should join the euro - just as the currency struggled with the worst crisis in its history. The Business Secretary played down turmoil in the eurozone by claiming the single currency had been a 'remarkable success' and said it was in Britain's long term interests to sign up in the future. But he was accused of 'living in cloud cuckoo land' after EU politicians failed to quell market panic over Greece's fiscal crisis. Eurozone leaders pledged 'determined and co-ordinated' action to help Greece deal with its vast deficits, as they attempted to shore up the euro. But traders were alarmed at the lack of detail offered about the plan, a weakness which prompted a sell- off late in the session. The euro slid by 1 per cent to $1.36. It was little changed against the pound at 1.13. EU nations led by France and Germany met yesterday at a summit in Brussels to discuss the rescue. Afterwards EU President Herman Van Rompuy said eurozone members would take action if it was 'needed to safeguard financial stability'. Any final plan is expected to involve a mixture of loans or guarantees from the richest eurozone nations plus technical support from the International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank. Despite the turmoil, Lord Mandelson said the crisis had done nothing to dampen his enthusiasm for Britain eventually joining the single currency. He admitted that being outside the eurozone had given the UK more freedom to respond to the downturn, but insisted: 'I think in the longer term it would be in Britain's interests to be part of the eurozone.' Speaking on Radio 4's World at One, he added that the euro had been a 'remarkable success'. 'It is strong and that is why it is going to remain intact,' he said. But Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'Greece is a living example of why you should never give up control of your own currency, and Lord Mandelson must be living in cloud-cuckoo land if he thinks we should still join the euro.' He added: 'There is no way that British taxpayers should bail out Greece or the euro. The British economy and public finances are in a bad enough state as it is, without dishing out yet more of our money to solve the EU's self-inflicted problems.' Gordon Brown yesterday said Greece's woes were a eurozone problem, but refused to deny that British taxpayers could be forced to contribute if Greece were forced to go to the IMF. Greece's deficit has spiralled to more than 12 per cent of economic output in 2009 - which is more than four times the eurozone's limit.

clicky You've got to be one harsh bastard to do that to your bairn like... Child abuse- plain and simple Some things transcend decency............ .........and anyway, they teach em sex ed at 7 or 8 now (i read it in the daily mail so it must be true )

I miss Stevie............ :lol: He would have had something really interesting to say at all this.............. (if it had been someone else of course!!)

who??

At least you're in disguise.................

so, are they dead yet??

Snakey, the report you read WAS commisioned by Microsoft. I read the same thing. Didnt stop me using Google mail tho. as every system has its weaknesses and not just Google. What Bing didnt mention in the report is that they are also subject to the same rules of disclosure as every other provider (to governments, taxman, police etc..). back to the OP. Might give it a try but to be honest i cant see much use for it. Imo it seems to be a cynical attempt to get everybody to use google products.

the only difference with the CM's is that 1 sits pulling the strings and 2 go forward. Its described like that because thats the starting positions. Sheesh!!

Who plays like that btw? Arsenal used to sometimes when they had Henry. I use it exclusively on Champ Manager. works a treat!! Never seen it used in the way you describe in real life tbh. It doesn't even make sense. A DM then three attacking midfielders with one of them sitting in? ??? i never said 3 AM's? ...... GK RB CB CB LB ...... DM . AM CM AM .....ST ST with the 2 FB's getting forward. any clearer now??

Who plays like that btw? Arsenal used to sometimes when they had Henry. I use it exclusively on Champ Manager. works a treat!!

Black hole sun by Soundgarden = fucking class song!!

cant believe no one has mentioned 4-1-3-2. 2 FB getting forward to provide width, 2 CB big stopper types, 1 DM again big stopper, 3 CM/AM (1 sitting, 2 getting forward), 2 strikers GK RB LB CB CB DM AM CM AM ST ST

Fucking hell, i knew the stats were bad for his West Ham career but i never knew they were this bad........... Dyer straits! Five starts, no goals...and Kieron Dyer will cost West Ham 30million quid! Kieron Dyer's West Ham nightmare will cost the club close to a staggering £30million over the course of his four-year contract at Upton Park. Dyer has started only five Barclays Premier League games for the Hammers in two-and-a-half years and has yet to score a goal for the club. Kieron Dyer The former England midfielder is fast becoming an emblem of the reckless financial regime of Icelandic owner Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson and his sidekick Eggert Magnusson. West Ham’s medical team raised doubts about Dyer’s signing when he arrived from Newcastle in August 2007 but the transfer was rushed through before the deadline because the owners were keen to showcase top-class players. Dyer, who has managed just 558 minutes of League action for the club, signed a four-year deal reported to be worth £70,000 a week but broke his right leg soon after his debut and missed more than a year as he suffered complications in his recovery. West Ham's poor return His transfer fee was £7m - £1m more than the figure publicised at the time - and the agents’ fees on the deal cost the Hammers another £1m. Together with bonuses and National Insurance contributions, the club can expect to have paid out the thick end of £30m for him by the time his contract has expired at the end of next season. Dyer has struggled through this campaign with hamstring problems and the 31-year-old has not played since limping off at Bolton in December. Dyer He is closing in on another first-team return but if his fitness fails and he breaks down again, West Ham could seek to negotiate a deal to pay up his contract and bring to a premature end his disastrous spell at the club. Such lavish rewards and lengthy contracts are not likely to be encouraged by new owners David Sullivan and David Gold, who signed Mido on loan from Middlesbrough last month for a basic wage of just £1,000 a week.

I'm pleased this fucka got nicked. A criminal in uniform: Teflon Commander Ali Dizaei used race card to dodge jail for years. Now he's got four-year term for framing an innocent man PLUS: How his bosses limply played along Commander Ali Dizaei bullied, intimidated and threatened anyone who crossed his path. If that didn't work, the Iranian-born officer accused them of being racist. But yesterday his reign of corruption came to a dramatic end when he was condemned as a 'criminal in uniform' and given four years in jail for trying to frame an innocent man. Following a bust-up in a restaurant, Dizaei, 47, told colleagues that an Iraqi website designer had assaulted him. It was a pack of lies and yesterday, after a four-week trial, a jury took just two-and-a-half hours to convict Dizaei of misconduct in a public office and perverting the course of justice. They found he attacked Waad al-Baghdadi before arresting and attempting to frame him for assault. Dizaei, who had been the subject of dozens of corruption allegations during his time in the Met, is the most senior Scotland Yard officer to be jailed since the 1970s. Although he seems certain to appeal against conviction, he faces the sack after more than a decade of running rings around some of the country's most senior officers and politicians. As the crooked former president of the National Black Police Association starts his sentence at Wandsworth Prison in South London, on the vulnerable prisoners' wing alongside sex offenders, the Mail can reveal that: * Dizaei is sitting on a £1million pension pot which last night prompted calls for him to be stripped of his entitlement. * He was promoted to commander, equivalent in rank to a provincial assistant chief constable, despite performing poorly in interview and Yard chiefs being warned by the Serious Organised Crime Agency of concerns about his conduct. *Police authority officials had wanted to sack him in a fast-track process last spring but backed down amid fears he would sue for racism - allowing the £90,000-a-year officer to stay suspended on full pay for a further nine months. After the verdicts, the chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, Nick Hardwick, said: 'Dizaei behaved like a bully and the only way to deal with bullies is to stand up to them.' Mr Hardwick, whose organisation was widely praised for pursuing Dizaei, made a thinly-veiled attack on previous Met chiefs who had appeased the corrupt officer over the last decade. He said: 'The greatest threat to the reputation of the police service is criminals in uniform like Dizaei. Corruption comes in many forms and remains a threat to the police service. It requires constant vigilance to fight it.' David Michael, a founder and past chairman of the Metropolitan Black Police Association, said Dizaei had damaged race relations in the force. 'I'm concerned that Commander Dizaei has used the National Black Police Association as a fig leaf to cover his own questionable behaviour.' The former chairman of the Metropolitan Police Superintendents' Assocation, Simon Humphrey, called for Dizaei to be stripped of his £1million-plus pension pot. He told the Mail: 'As a matter of course, he should lose his entire pension. The police should no longer take a cowardly stance towards this crook.' Having served 24 years in the police, Dizaei is currently entitled to a lump sum payout of about £200,000 and an index-linked pension of about £30,000 a year when he reaches the age of 60. A jury at Southwark Crown Court heard that Dizaei and Mr al-Baghdadi met by chance on July 18, 2008 in the Yas restaurant, run by a friend of the policeman in Hammersmith, west London. Mr al-Baghdadi, 24, approached Dizaei and asked for £600 he was owed for building a website showcasing the officer's career, press interviews and speeches. This angered Dizaei, who had just eaten a meal with his wife but was still in uniform after attending a ceremony at New Scotland Yard for new recruits. The officer confronted the younger man in a nearby sidestreet where a scuffle took place. By then Mr al-Baghdadi had called 999 on his mobile phone but Dizaei took the phone from him and complained that he was being attacked. When police arrived it was Mr al-Baghdadi who was arrested and handcuffed. Dizaei claimed he had been assaulted with the metal mouthpiece of a traditional pipe held on Mr al-Baghdadi's key ring. But a doctor concluded that two red marks on the officer's torso were probably self-inflicted and did not match the pipe. When Mr al-Baghdadi was told weeks later he would not face any charge, he complained about his treatment and Dizaei's web of deceit slowly unravelled. Giving evidence, Mr al-Baghdadi compared Dizaei to the bloodthirsty movie gangster Tony Montana, played by Al Pacino in the 1983 film Scarface. He said many people were scared of the Metropolitan Police officer because of his status in the Iranian community. Yesterday Dizaei, his hair newly dyed black, swaggered into court with his third wife Shy fully expecting to be acquitted. But he showed no emotion as the verdicts were given or as sentence was passed. He was sentenced to four years on each of the two charges, with the sentences to run concurrently. Mr Justice Simon said he must serve the first half of his term in custody and the rest on licence. He told Dizaei his conduct had been a 'grave breach of public trust'. How his bosses limply played along as he shamelessly played the race card . . . For almost a decade, the figure of Commander Dr Ali Dizaei dominated and poisoned race relations within the Metropolitan Police. His public face was that of human rights champion and defender of fellow ethnic-minority officers against prejudiced white colleagues. Dizaei felt their pain. After all, wasn't he the most unfairly persecuted 'black' policeman of them all? In fact, he was simply a self-serving crook; clever conman, bully, playboy, womanising misogynist, serial litigant and liar, who hijacked the issue of race and used it for his own ends. Under his presidency the National Black Police Association became a useful tool against those who dared cross him. Dizaei's jailing for corruption yesterday, seven years after being cleared of similar charges, closes one of the most troubling episodes in modern police history. Many viewed the Iranian-born officer as 'untouchable'. Certainly Dizaei himself thought so. One of the most telling moments in his trial was a witness's account of how the 'Teflon Commander' had shouted at him: 'Do you know who I am? I'm Ali Dizaei. Back off!' And back off they did, shamefully. Successive Met commissioners, home secretaries and independent police watchdogs were too nervous to take him on because of the race storm he would invoke. Dizaei grew up in Tehran, where his father and grandfather were both senior police commanders. At ten he was sent to boarding school in England, later studied law and in 1986 joined Thames Valley Police. He was fast-tracked through the junior ranks but his abrasive personality, self-promotion and readiness to find offence were already an issue with colleagues and public alike. In 1999 he applied to become a superintendent in the neighbouring Metropolitan Police. Britain's biggest force was in turmoil, damned as 'institutionally racist' by the Macpherson Report into the bungled investigation of the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence by a gang of white thugs. The Met needed more senior black officers. Dizaei was accepted even though Deputy Assistant Commissioner Barbara Wilding described him after his interview as the most rude and arrogant man she had ever met. Alas, Commissioner Sir Paul Condon was in no position to be choosy. Dizaei, with a PhD newly awarded for a thesis 'The Thin Black Line' on - yes - police racism, was in. Once, when he was questioned by a senior white colleague, he replied: 'You can't tell me what to do.' 'But I'm your boss,' said the startled superior. 'I have only one boss and that is Allah,' snapped Dizaei, piously. In fact his probity rather than his piety was already a matter of great concern. In 1997, while he was still at Thames Valley, a Scotland Yard informant had alleged that Dizaei was involved in drugs, interfering in court cases for money and consorting with prostitutes. 'From now on you are dead' The allegations were never substantiated and no disciplinary action was taken. But shortly after he transferred to New Scotland Yard his old force received new allegations about him which were passed on to the Met. In September 1999 Operation Helios, a multi-million-pound investigation into his life and integrity, was launched. Ian Blair was charged with oversight of the inquiry on his appointment as deputy commissioner in 2000. Dizaei was suspended in January 2001. Some 1,000 wiretaps had demonstrated that he was no ordinary police officer. He was monitored associating with a conman and four major criminals suspected of money laundering. Surveillance also suggested that he took £800 from a man on bail, in apparent exchange for help with a drink-driving charge. Other wiretaps revealed unauthorised links with a number of foreign embassies. Dizaei apparently stood to gain £2million by brokering the £24million sale of the Ethiopian Embassy in London. The sums staggered listening detectives, who wondered how a middle-ranking police officer came to be involved. Further diplomatic concerns touched directly on national security. Dizaei had contacts with senior staff in the Iranian Embassy and sometimes drove a Liberian Embassy car with diplomatic plates. On a more mundane level, he allegedly bullied a junior colleague into dropping an investigation of a friend. Unsavoury character traits were also exposed, in particular an appetite for philandering. Here was a man of powerful appetites. And dangerous if denied them. Most damning of all, perhaps, were the transcripts of telephone messages Dizaei left to an Iranian ex-lover, Mandy Darougheh. She had dumped him having discovered he was married, to his second wife Natalie. His reaction, left on her voicemail, was recorded by Helios. 'I will take such revenge from you, that like a dog, you will be sorry that you will never treat me like this again,' he declared. 'Mandy, I am going to declare war on you and I have declared it as of now. See what I will do to you. From now on you are dead. I will start with your mum first. I am so emotionally disturbed now that anything is possible from me. 'I give you an hour and see what I will do to you. If you think I am worried about my career, to get back at you, you must be joking. 'Just remember what I did to ******'s (name unknown) husband. You are not safe. I am going to come and catch you, on my mother's life. If you are at home, get out because if I see you, I am going to lose it right now. 'You want war, bitch, you're going to get some war. You will see now what I can do so you will cry for years. First I will start with your family, then I come to you and your reputation. I will spread all over London that you are a prostitute.' Even his barrister, Michael Mansfield QC, had to admit during arguments not heard by the jury: 'No police officer, no human being, should be talking like that. We all make mistakes, but it's unacceptable.' Luckily for Dizaei, the jury did not see these transcripts. And for all its wide-ranging allegations Helios resulted in him facing only two sets of criminal charges. The first concerned attempting to pervert the course of justice by falsely accusing colleagues of vandalising his car. During the Old Bailey trial Dizaei had to admit lying to investigators about the vehicle's whereabouts on the day in question. But the unexpected appearance as a defence witness of Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur - the Yard's highest-ranking Asian officer - probably proved crucial. Ghaffur claimed that Dizaei was targeted because of his colour. To the consternation of the Helios team, Dizaei was found not guilty. Other fraud charges were formally dropped by the prosecution in September 2003. Still, he was by no means out of the woods. Helios had exposed appalling errors of judgment if not gross misconduct. Nine serious disciplinary matters were still outstanding. With stupendous cynicism, Dizaei went on the attack. Helios, he said, had been a 'racist witch hunt'. He launched a claim for discrimination. The NBPA, of which he was then 'legal adviser', called for an ethnic minority recruitment boycott. Home Secretary David Blunkett panicked. The Met leadership was supine. Nearing retirement, Commissioner Sir John Stevens did not want his 'legacy' tainted by a race war. His ambitious and politically correct deputy Ian Blair was tasked to reach a compromise, personally brokered by Blunkett. The result? A shameful backroom deal which was to have disastrous long-term consequences. All disciplinary matters were dropped. Dizaei was returned to duty, given £80,000 compensation and a place on the Senior Command Course at Bramshill police college. Sir John announced: 'The investigation of Superintendent Dizaei highlighted some areas where his conduct fell far below the standards expected of a police officer. He has already publicly expressed his regret for these and acknowledged the lessons he has learned.' Stevens added, to the amazement and disgust of the anti-corruption unit: 'Superintendent Dizaei is returning to the Met with his integrity demonstrably intact.' This man of integrity then took his not-so-subtle revenge on Chief Superintendent Barry Norman, who had headed Helios. Some 120 complaints against Norman were made to the IPCC by Dizaei's family and friends. They all had to be investigated by Essex Police which, after three years and £1million in costs, found Norman's conduct was beyond reproach. After Helios, Dizaei became a favourite of the liberal media, putting himself forward for comment whenever the issue of race arose. Police Commisioner Sir Ian Blair A particularly devoted Guardian journalist attended his third wedding. The credulous BBC even decided that his autobiography Not One of Us was worthy of being Radio 4's Book of the Week. Dizaei himself read the daily extracts of a memoir which the Met was too nervous to veto. In the event, the book had to be withdrawn with substantial damages and legal costs paid out because Dizaei had libelled two former colleagues with inaccurate accounts of the Helios trial. There were still battles to be fought on his own behalf. In March 2007 Dizaei's application to be promoted to commander was turned down. Predictably the puppet NBPA, of which he was about to be made president, declared the decision 'biased and unfair'. After similar public agitation, he appeared before a second promotion board in early 2008. Once again he performed poorly compared with other candidates. But by then it had become simply too much trouble for the Met to turn him down. The Mail can reveal that between his first and second commander promotion boards, Scotland Yard's anti-corruption unit was warned by the Serious Organised Crime Agency that Dizaei was linked with someone 'of great concern' to it. SOCA's remit is to target the UK's biggest organised criminals, many of whom are under constant surveillance. No matter. Dizaei got his commander's badge of rank, a £90,000 salary and chauffeur. Almost immediately he steered the NBPA into a head-on collision with the Met and, in particular, the hapless Commissioner Blair, now Sir Ian, whose position was precarious following the shooting of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes. First a senior Asian officer, Commander Shabir Hussain, launched an NBPA-backed claim for racial discrimination against the Met. The same week it was leaked that Assistant Commissioner Ghaffur, Dizaei's saviour in the Helios trial, was about to follow suit with a litany of allegations against the 'racist' force. Cold revenge for Sir Ian's overseeing of Helios? Many feel that Ghaffur was encouraged against his better judgment to pursue the race claim by his subordinate Dizaei and the NBPA's 'legal adviser' Shahrokh Mireskandari, another Iranian expat. But Dizaei's offensive began to unravel. In July 2008 he made his false allegation of assault against Waad al-Baghdadi. A few weeks later, in September, the Mail revealed that his close friend Mireskandari was a convicted conman with bogus legal qualifications. We also told how Mireskandari, since suspended and his firm closed, had persuaded Dizaei to advise him on how to undermine a death-bydangerousdriving case against a client. This was a breach of the police code of conduct. Within days Dizaei, then in overall control of policing in ten West London boroughs, was suspended from duty for the second time. With wearying inevitability, he launched another NBPA-backed race discrimination claim. Given his conviction, that is now academic. Dizaei's power and influence within the Iranian expat community was a key feature of the trial. 'Ali was a senior London policeman behaving like he was a police chief in Tehran,' one Iranian acquaintance of the commander told the Mail. 'He had huge respect but people were afraid of him because of his power.' Dizaei undoubtedly tried to make this count. In court Iranian witnesses reversed their original stories to match Dizaei's own. To no avail. Nor could Ghaffur ride to Dizaei's rescue again. And given that Dizaei's accuser, Mr al-Baghdadi, was Middle Eastern, that well-worn race card was no longer a trump. In the end Dizaei's inconsistencies, evasions and omissions led the jury to believe that before them stood not a martyr but nothing more than a bent copper.

You're going for a pizza????

Found this elsewhere. Great poem imo. "Goodbye to my England, So long my old friend Your days are numbered, being brought to an end To be Scottish, Irish or Welsh that's fine ... See more But don't say you're English, that's way out of line. The French and the Germans may call themselves such, So may Norwegians, the Swedes and the Dutch You can say you are Russian or maybe a Dane But don't say you're English ever again. At Broadcasting House the word is taboo In Brussels it's scrapped, in Parliament too Even schools are affected. Staff do as they're told . They must not teach children about England of old. Writers like Shakespeare, Milton and Shaw The pupils don't learn about those anymore How about Agincourt, Hastings , Arnhem or Mons ? When England lost hosts of her very brave sons. We are not Europeans, how can we be? Europe is miles away and over the sea We're the English from England , let's all be proud. Stand up and be counted - Shout it out loud! Let's tell our Government and Brussels too We're proud of our heritage and the Red, White and Blue Fly the flag of Saint George or the Union Jack Let the world know - We want our England back!"

this except i would have Enrique instead of Bernard

what kind of phone is it Stevie? my nokia came with software and a cable so i could attach it to the computer and read and transfer everything onto the hard drive.

Hmmmmm, not gonna suggest anything but the timing is perfect for the french gov. "Armed robbers disguised in burkhas carry out £4,000 raid Armed robbers disguised in burkhas escaped with thousands in cash after carrying out a post office raid in Paris. The crime – which took place yesterday in the suburb of Athis Mons – comes as the French government faces growing calls for the controversial garments to be banned. President Nicolas Sarkozy has described burkhas as a 'security risk' saying they provide the perfect cover for criminals and terrorists Now those fighting for the ban claim the robbery – which is the first of its kind in France – shows how useful the burkha is as a disguise. It took place at around 10.30am, when two robbers carrying pistols entered the main post office bank building in Athis Mons, which has a large immigrant Muslim community, mainly from North Africa. Once inside they ordered a bank clerk to take out the equivalent of £4,000 in cash by pointing a pistol at him. After ten minutes they fled to a nearby car park and escaped. Police fear that they will not be able to identify the robbers on CCTV cameras. ‘It was a perfect disguise,’ said one detective. ‘Their faces and bodies were completely covered.’ The robbery led to Le Parisien, the main daily paper in the French capital, to ask: ‘Will this first robbery using a burkha re-launch the debate about the Islamic veil being worn in public places?’ A government committee has already recommended that burkhas should not be allowed in civil buildings and on public transport, and a full ban could follow. In August in the UK a robber dressed from head to toe in a traditional Muslim woman's burkha raided a travel agent, and also made off with thousands in cash. There were similar raids in other parts of the country, with one burkha-clad robber getting away with £150,000 from a jewellers in Banbury, Oxfordshire."

fuckin hell, for a moment i thought you were going to say he had died.....................

just make sure you dont carry your 'homework' around with you...