Alex

This is mental stuff.

This is ridiculous now.

I definitely am.

Strewth!

Genuinely unsure how to react to this now

Can't abide these plastic Sassenachs

And another one. Shit the fucking bed

He's obviously a great player but he is a bit unproven in England against the moving ball (despite his 2 hundreds over here).

Canny start.

I sincerely hope it does it work well. I think we can both agree on that.

Another thing which makes me slightly suspicious about the 'planning' of this is that the 30 hours of free childcare was announced ONE FUCKING DAY AFTER Labour said they would increase it to 25 hours during the run in to the last election.

A sort of literary credit union?

OK. I find it difficult to believe that'll cover it though. Will it cover the extra amount of staff required? How do they know how many people will take it up? What provision has been made to train the extra staff required? Does that cover an ever increasing population? Where will the extra classroom space be found, etc., etc.? I think it's a nice idea in principle but I would rather have 15 hours of free childcare that is good than 30 hours of a far inferior 'product' (for want of a better word). Are the school and / or local authorities being given all this money? Where are the figures that show they've worked out how much they think this will all cost. I don't expect you to provide that but surely you can understand the cynicism around an announcement like this in a climate where efforts are being made to drastically reduce public spending.

Takes me back

So they've announced it without saying how it's going to be funded or implemented then.

CT is so interested in serious political debate that, when he asked about specific points he's raised in this thread, he tells people to read an article about voter patterns in America. And he thinks people go out of their way to try and make him look stupid. Why would anyone need to bother?

I would love to believe this is self-parody now, CT. Past experience suggests otherwise though.

You've just made my point for me with a perfect example of what I was talking about.

I would imagine lots of people will take up the extra childcare that has to be offered. Assuming they do, do you think there will be anything like double the amount of teachers, classroom assistants and, for that matter, classrooms? Will there be double the funding available? If not, how do you expect these nurseries to cope with the extra workload? The floor is yours, CT.

Aye, agree with both of you. They're making a bigger issue of it than they need to. In a way I think the press are often twats but you'll never beat them with those sorts of tactics because, when things inevitably go wrong, they'll be all over us like a rash.

Jeff Thompson was good crack on the Ashes roadshow the other night. He usually is though. Can remember him as a player but wasn't lucky enough to see him in his pomp. He was well down on pace when he came over here in '85. Had a fucking mint mullet back then mind.

That's a bit like us with Lillyhammer.

He raised several other points though. Also, the council tax 'freeze', as has been demonstrated, wasn't actually a freeze. It was a cap on how much council tax could go up. It's a slightly different thing. It's also debatable that it's a good thing. You've got councils having to double the amount of childcare they provide (something else you raise as a good thing) but, rather than being given extra funding, they are actually having less funding in real terms. So I would ask how they are supposed to find the money to provide something they've been forced to bring in. I've covered the Syria / Iraq stuff in the posts I've just made. You're not interested in proper discussion. Just saying you are and calling other people childish doesn't mask that. Continually repeating it when people are trying to debate with you is childish however. It's this reason (amongst others) why people tend to say you're not worth bothering with after a few attempts. You then hold this up and some sort of victory or 'scalp' Which is also pretty childish and precisely the sort of lack of interest in actual debate which you accuse others of.

Almost as funny as Duty Free that.