ChezGiven

But the Scottish would get tax revenues presumably. They would, then they would have to trade the oil with others, which would impact the competitiveness of any other domestic industry through exchange rate effects. When the oil starts to run out, they'd be fucked as they would have no other competitive industries left. Better off being part of a more diversified economy. Its called Dutch disease if anyone is remotely interested....

I thought Oil companies owned the oil?

Not sure what Cliff Jumping is (it involves cliffs and jumping obviously) but surely the people organising the 'jump' are liable?

I nearly added 'stay tuned and find out after the break' but it didnt really make sense.

Did ewerk get into the US after all then? Did he have the right passport? Will the case end up going to Crown? Can one poster send a whole messageboard to sleep?

Sure this is correct, my Irish mate ended up not going to the US as he had an old style passport. Not sure tbh but i remember them changing the rules a couple of years ago and i had just had mine renewed so i was alright. It has to have a barcode swipe thing on or they wont let you on the plane. Wait and see i guess.

Isn't it just they want people to use less health care? By living to be 100? The single biggest issue that is facing healthcare policy makers is the 'greying' of the population i.e. people living longer. You have distinct camps as stakeholders though, the public health do-gooders and those with an eye on the money being spent.

One half of the healthcare debate is about getting people to live longer and the other is wondering how on earth we are going to pay for the future when people start living longer. Clever eh?

Then you'll not get in anyway, you have to have a swipeable passport as far as i am aware. And the Visa waiver card asks whether you have convictions, not whether you have been arrested. Dont worry about that, worry about having the right passport.

Not sure what 'options' exist after a takeover or why a debt repayment trigger is surprising when the owner of the debt changes. Apart from that you've already captured my thoughts on this matter.

Cool, i start making my own and make a killing (sic).

Am there on 7th and 8th. Lucky miss

Morphine you mean? Harold Shipman got there first. Everyday in the NHS there will be an old patient near the end of their life and a Dr could do something to prolong that life by maybe a few more weeks, even months if you are lucky and they dont. No difference in my mind between letting people die over the course of a week and just hurrying it along. If one is ok morally then the other should be as its still essentially a choice being made (albeit a do nothing one).

Easy to say when it isn't happening though. come off it alex man, it's blatant that this was never going to happen overnight. Nobody has given me one good reason against the inevitable ban. Personal freedoms are all well and good Chez, but surely a responsible government must, at some point, say enough is enough. The people are smoking themselves into early graves, smoking is not in anyway shape or form a good thing. The taxation of it does provide a lot of cash, but they'll find something else to tax so I don't see that being a problem. The amount it costs, even before the social restrictions were put into practise, was so expensive it made NO sense to continue smoking. I'd understand if it had the same social connotations as drinking but it doesn't it makes you stink, it makes your respiratory system break down, it's a god awful thing and people are railing against it's demise because... they don't want to lose personal freedom? Do me a favour. People seem to be saying they want to make their own choice, but alex, you HAVE made your own choice, you don't smoke. Now if everybody else made the right decision as well we'd not need this discussion. If smoking is no way a good thing then neither is drinking, or taking drugs as once you discount the individuals needs/desires then there is nothing of value to any 'harmful' pursuit. Discount the pleasure the smoker derives, then discount the pleasure the drinker derives, or the drug-take. What is left? Increased incidence of a truly early death in road accidents, fights and drug-related crimes. Great argument. As for early graves, life expectancy is already slightly beyond what we can afford to pay for. When you die its basically dead expensive, the older you are when you die, the more expensive you are to the system, with sky high palliative care costs and increasingly expensive interventions leading to marginal survival benefits. If we all live to be 100, then the retirement age would need to be 80 for us to pay for it. I've not had processed food for as long as i can remember, does that give me the right to preach who people who have that in their diet? As that stuff is a strong risk factor for many cancers and cardiovascular diseases too.

Business lounge looks nice, not that i use BA anymore.

That depends on whether you believe in individual rights and liberty or are a nanny-state fucktard tbh

Your disposable income would plummet. That enough of a negligible effect for you? What is responsible smoking btw? Surely that would entail people being considerate and smoking out of your vicinity? Therefore no danger? My disposable income wouldn't plummet at all mate or at least not so much that I'd notice, but thanks for the concerns. The government (whomever it may be) will find a different way to tax people, most likely on booze and petrol. only the booze will affect me in that regard and to be honest I wouldn't see cutting back as a bad thing. responsible smoking was a term I created to bounce off the "responsible drinking" that's in use at the moment. By this I mean smoking an amount of tobacco that is unlikely to have dramatic and rapid effects on your health. Instead of smoking 2 packs a day smoking a couple of fags a day. Similar to, instead of drinking 48 units every weekend, only having 20 a week. If the benefits outweighed the costs it would already be banned. As its my job to know these things, Sima is right, you're disposable income would fall under current demographic trends if smoking was banned. I'm not explaining the fiscal model for you either.

The incidence of lung cancer amongst women in pacific-rim countries is higher in non-smokers than smokers. Passive smoking clearly worse for you than normal smoking

Not sure the thread deserved it either, it should have died on the first page and shunted into Gold. A great lesson in checking your facts before posting something. Funny nonetheless. As for the right to express views (in this case about Sharia law or cultural integration) thats spot on alex and the problem i see is that debates like this are now characterised by 'well if you think that then you must be a racist/leftie/terrorist'. I find both sides of these sort of debates do that and its daft.

Here's a thought: France is so left-wing it fucking makes my eyes bleed, neo-marxist twats believe that the government hand is an efficient guide to resource allocation and that the invisible hand of the market is in fact the hand of the devil. Their universities are full of pseudo-commie twats preaching out-dated economic ideals and who can only bury their heads in the sand in the face of globalisation. Muslim women are not allowed to wear a veil at those universities though, thats a matter for the individual sphere of life and not the public sphere of life. The latter is governed by the 5th republic and fuck anyone who thinks otherwise. Quite right too and if you floated the idea of sharia law, it wouldnt last 10 seconds. Interesting that people equate 'left-wing' with tolerance, as that what leads to a confusion of the issues. The constitution of the land provides your liberties, rights and the principles of law. Tolerance is a by-product of these principles as it defines the relationship between individual behaviour and the role of the state. The state defines the right to protest, it doesnt 'tolerate' protest, if you see what i mean, I think the basic point is that, defined within the British constitution, there is a degree of liberty that allows different political, ethnic or religious groups to voice opinions and wishes about their lives. However, the sanctity of the constitution that allows that expression (wholly missing from Islamic cultures like Saudi Arabia) should be upheld beyond all other values in life. Sharia law doesnt allow this, as law and rights and liberties are defined within the Qu'ran. Not surprisingly, our moral codes and laws owe a great deal to christianity but with one key difference, the Magna Carta broke the papal influence over the people through the king and started the process of public rights. That was in 1215 btw. Protecting the great principles of democracy in the UK should be the focus, not distate for the principles of others. That means Stevie has the right to post those views without being called a racist and that muslims are allowed to propose Sharia law within Islamic communities in the UK. Shouting 'Racist' 'Leftie' or 'Terrorist' just stifles the debate.

I'll give it a month.

OK, so how did you work out that I was using Nick's username and password?

Jesus man, all you do is slag the place off and tell us how shit you think it is..... So why are you bothered you're banned?? Surely they're doing you a favour? Why was Stevie so desperate to use the site too? If its that shit, why bother going through the mental effort of working out Nick's login? Mental effort? Using the same password he uses for another site? Hardly Gordon Kaye's Krypton Factor is it? The reason I wanted to use the site is, if you ignore the draconian admin and the many, many wanks and cliques, there are some really good posters on there, the likes of kingdawson still get away with cheek too. If you wanted to speak to me that badly, you could have pm'ed me on here

Jesus man, all you do is slag the place off and tell us how shit you think it is..... So why are you bothered you're banned?? Surely they're doing you a favour? Why was Stevie so desperate to use the site too? If its that shit, why bother going through the mental effort of working out Nick's login?

Fucking hell lads this is pathetic as fuck. The media are right. We are a bunch of cunts.