Renton

All parties are agreed that the public sector has to be cut back, and this is going to hurt. But how savage do you want those cuts to be? There's very good economic reasons that there is proportionately more public sector jobs in the provinces - can you imagine what Longbenton would cost if it were based in the South East? Cameron has already said he will slash public sectors, specifically in the North East. He says they can be replaced by private sector jobs. But how? Where is this investment going to come from? He'll be a disaster for the North East, that is a practically a given. Of course, it was only a couple of years ago that a tory think tank said we should abandon Northern cities and all move to Cambridge, echoing what that odious turd of a man Tebbit said a decade or so earlier. Nothing's changed.

When have I said let the banking industry go bust? I said transfer the important assets to a national bank, the only people to suffer would be shareholders and employees. I have sympathy for the lower level employees, but how does it differ from Rover? Setting up a national bank would create jobs. My point was you have waved the massive debt off as just "one of those things". If you believe Gordon will make a profit on Northern Rock then where are you placing the debt? You think we should all the banks should have been merged into one National Bank? Sorry, you'll have to run that by me how that would work, it sounds more like a communist manifesto than a tory one. Here's a link to an interesting article by the Times btw, about how the government deftly saved all the major banks in the UK other than Barclays (who were bailed by Middle Eastern investors) - it wasn't just a case of the NR folding, the banks were toppling like dominoes. Needless to say the artcle was written before Murdoch ordered the editor to turn on Labour. How does our investment into the banks impact on our deficit? Honestly I don't know the answer to that one but I'd assume once they get back into profit (which is beginning to happen) the treasury will benefit nicely thank you very much. I'm no economist like but somehow I doubt you are either.

I don't think even the Conservatives would agree with you now that it was a good idea to let our entire banking industry go bust Phil. The country would have gone into meltdown - have you actually thought the implications through of even a small high street bank like NR going to the wall? Incredible. Anyway, the government will also recoup most if not all the money spent on the banks, and may even make a tidy profit. Thank God that Phil or Dave weren't in charge two years ago.

What do you base the bolded bit on? Do you not think you might be cherrypicking bits you like or seem acceptable to you? Most stories from ancient times have, at their heart, a basis in truth. A vast flood in a (by todays standards) local area would have been seen as a world event thousnads of years ago. Rationalise that out and you can easily come to a view that it happened and why not Noah. People have premonitions all the time. Maybe it's God, maybe it's not. I personally happen to believe it is. Stands by for much ridicule from the godless, science is all crowd. You haven't really adressed the point about cherry picking though have you? Can anyone decide what is true or false on their own terms? All the nice bits of the Bible story are true but not the nasty bits, which frankly show Yahweh to be a loathsome, petty, psychopath? In a way evangelical christians are more honest really. As for Science is all, the article proves that Christians cherry pick when to use that too.

Well, compared to Cameron he pretty much is actually. What would have happened if Cameron and Osbourne had let the banks collapse? Sorry, I should have clarified: the line needs to be that it's a bit rich positioning yourself as the great rescuer when you were complicit in creating the problem and exposing the country to the global crisis to a massive extent in the first place. True, but what's done is done now, and we are hardly unique in this aspect. I want to back the best man to get us out of the mess, and think Brown is still best qualified to do it. Daftest thing I've ever read. Brown got us into this mess by piss poor planning. We had the biggest economic boom in ages and rather paying off our debt and saving for future issues like the pension time bomb or banking collapse like the Australia did, he wasted it while making arrogant claims (e.g. 'end of boom and bust' etc...). We are in £848.5 billion debt (Feb 2010) and have to pay 42 Billion a year to service it. What baffles me is Gordon has the cheek to attack the Conservatives aim to cut 6 billion spending to try and reduce it, while claiming he will reduce it by half in four years. Wake up and smell the coffee mate, even Shepard would agree borrowing 14 billion a month is wrong. The conservatives have laid out their plan to regulate the banking sector and force them to lend, which will stimulate SME and grow the economy. Super Gordon wants to piss away more money on public services which has created an unsustainable reliance on the public sector. If you want the country to stand any chance vote conservative, if you want to work until you die and live in a crappy over crowed care home with a worthless pension, stick with Gordon - the debt is out of control. The debt was perfectly manageable until the ripple effect from the sub prime crisis in the US fucked up just about every economy in the Western world. We are not alone in this and would have been completely fucked if we had followed the tory plans during the peak of the crisis. And now its the same old story from the Eton brigade - tax relief for the super rich and specific plans to fuck the North East over as Cameron admitted last week. As for tax relief for married couples, parents setting up new schools etc, what a joke. Amateur stuff which hasn't been properly thought out. Your last sentence reeks of scaremongering, or perhaps you've just not had a very good time of it of late. For me personally I recognise all the good things Labour have done whilst in power - massive improvements to the NHS, to schools, minimum wage, working tax credits, winter heating allowance for the elderly, etc, etc. The fact that the tories in opposition objected to most of these things tells its own story. In the last decade since Labour has been in power our citiy centres have also been virtually rebuilt (for the better in general). We've had genuinely good times and now are suffering the hangover of a global recession, but it is NOTHING compared to Thatcher under the 80s.

Five Live has just described how an anonymous tech person at the BBC left a microphone on a particularly demanding and obnoxious diva when she went to the toilet. Apparently the resulting noises were eye watering.

Don't these Mediterranean types live to be 150 as well? On account they barely do any work during their lives probably.

Hmmmm, now where exactly could these Eastern Europeans be coming from? 'Flocking' is quite an unusual word to use, any chance it could have been misheard? The comment itself wasn't bigotted, but it did remind me of 'I'm not racist but....'. It's likely a speech about how they're taking our jobs etc was likely to follow had she been left to go on - I reckon that's what Brown thought anyway. Pretty much a non-event blown up out of all proportion at the end of the day. People complain about politicians being too guarded, boring, and not saying what they think. Well, this illustrates why. Anyway, the election should be about policies rather than personalities, and this is where Labour are clear winners imo, I hope that comes out tonight. Actually, I reckon he was feeling sorry for himself and blowing the thing out of all proportion to the aide or whoever it was he was talking to in the car. In the way her question wasn't bigotted, the encounter wasn't a 'disaster'. As for the lady herself, I think she was just trying to express as many concerns as possible, including immigration (which she only briefly touched on) in the short, chance of a lifetime, opportunity she had to question the PM. The daft part is he handled it all pretty well. Shame it overshadows the real issues but he only has himself to blame for that. Yeah, I thought he might be blowing off steam to his aides as well. It's something most of us do all the time if we're honest I reckon - I was a 'bit negative' benind some GPs' backs following a training session yesterday, difference was I wasn't wired up (and I'm also not the PM in an election campaign!).

Hmmmm, now where exactly could these Eastern Europeans be coming from? 'Flocking' is quite an unusual word to use, any chance it could have been misheard? The comment itself wasn't bigotted, but it did remind me of 'I'm not racist but....'. It's likely a speech about how they're taking our jobs etc was likely to follow had she been left to go on - I reckon that's what Brown thought anyway. Pretty much a non-event blown up out of all proportion at the end of the day. People complain about politicians being too guarded, boring, and not saying what they think. Well, this illustrates why. Anyway, the election should be about policies rather than personalities, and this is where Labour are clear winners imo, I hope that comes out tonight.

I know. They should get their own fucking thread.

Good old Sven. Is that still open? Laz?

Quite. I doubt I could ever get through a book recommended by Parky personally. Never seem to get time to read nowadays in any case - I don't like scan reading when I'm reading for pleasure so it takes me too long.

Well, compared to Cameron he pretty much is actually. What would have happened if Cameron and Osbourne had let the banks collapse? Sorry, I should have clarified: the line needs to be that it's a bit rich positioning yourself as the great rescuer when you were complicit in creating the problem and exposing the country to the global crisis to a massive extent in the first place. True, but what's done is done now, and we are hardly unique in this aspect. I want to back the best man to get us out of the mess, and think Brown is still best qualified to do it.

What do you base the bolded bit on? Do you not think you might be cherrypicking bits you like or seem acceptable to you?

Well, compared to Cameron he pretty much is actually. What would have happened if Cameron and Osbourne had let the banks collapse?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politic...010/8649012.stm She shouldn't be such a bigot then should she. fuckin hell.....I'm no Tory but you are talking left wing looney shite man. Nothing she said is bigoted and having concerns about immigration isn't bigoted either. Get your head out of your arse. the dictionary definition of a bigot is someone with no appreciation of the opinions of others......pretty much all of us then from the PM down whatever. Point is the PM has been, as said in the article, caught out and shown the difference between his private and public face, which is very different it would appear. He's an old CND flag waving idealistic idiotic buffoon And Cameron is an upper class out of touch wanker. so politicians are leading the country on?....hardly big news, but if you want to lap up senationalist bollocks that the media are wanking themselves into a frenzy about then go ahead. and how many elections have you voted in ? What relevance this has is lost on me but I was 18 in 1987 so go figure. And I've voted in every general election since then. Regardless of my personal opinions of politicians in general its important to vote, too many of our forefathers died trying to get it for us or defending it. Todays politicians do little credit to their memory. So you've never had a tricky situation at work and then called the other person a twat once their back has been turned?...thats what hes basically done. Can't see the fuss about it myself but politicians act like fuckin bairns trying to point score off each other trying to get our votes at election time and ignore us the rest of the time. No big deal. Thats what they do. Exactly.

First to paraphrase Brown himself - get real, all people who work with the public, whether they be a politician, a doctor, or a telesales rep, are two-faced about the people they represent. I'm sure you know this, so what's your point - he was careless with a microphone? Second, what are you on about? Who is proposing to renew Trident again? Brown is far from being an idealist, he's a pragmatist who lacks PR qualities (the perceived buffoon qualities).

In think The Inspiration is sometimes willing to debate but he's at the more sensible end of the spectrum and not a creationist. We probably need Parky to lend his unique viewpoint. People are overlooking the fact that 'God' can create as much water as he likes, whenever he likes. FACT. No, I think you'll find NJS covered that in post #31.

Drying meat to preserve it is pretty ancient like. Possibly older than the world according to The Bible But what about the 'reconstituted' bit? Doesn't that mean they made tortoise nuggets KFC style? Good point. Colonel Sanders looks a bit like God, mind. True, Morgan Freeman does a good black Colonel Sanders in Bruce Almighty. Talking of which, Freeman was also God in the truly awful film Evan Almighty, which was a contemporary version of the Noah's ark story.

Love to the know relavance of her being a University graduate. Also love the describing of her Dad not being 'in the least bit happy'.

Do we have any christian evangelists aboard the good ship toontastic? I feel this deserves serious discussion.

I'm sure this has been justified by saying there must have been more water in the past which has evaporated into space. I think some physicists have claculated the excess water would have severely affected the Earths tilt and orbit though (apart from the evaporation bit being bollocks).

Bit harsh on the tortoises like.