NJS

Cheers. As has become sort of normal I had a few days holiday left over which have to be taken by the end of March so I've got into the habit of taking the week off which makes for a more pleasant day even if I do nothing.

Daft question but I have to send something first class and I have a few gold-ish first class stamps with no price on which must be a good 5 or 6 years old - can I still use them?

Project managers = box-ticking bastards - put them together with internal auditors and they're a death knell for the IT business and I'd imagine anything else you'd care to add.

Thousands of pink seats have turned up before the end.

Mackems losing it en masse.

Not really "stand-up" but I'd like to nominate David Vaughn.

When I had the shits just after new year, I lost about 7 pounds in 2.5 days. All came back when I started to keep it down so be prepared to win fat cunt of the week next time.

My Asus tablet has upgraded itself to 4.0 - slightly funkier font but fuck all else that I can see so far.

I'm in a good mood - have the week off and have made good progress in all the things around the house I need to get done.

The 4-3-3 looks better when it does involve Ben Arfa and it doesn't involve Shola and Best.

It should be pointed out that he was only a few inches away from being the one who put the first goal in.

That's my view - all instinct and better when he dosen't have time to think (though Coley did improve). I'll feel happier when I see him score a one-on one though.

Hope Chesterfield hang on - anyone else see Di Canio saying when he wins the champions league winning this trophy today will still be special as it will be his first. Arrogant fascist cunt.

The only downside is the increased birthrates in the third world which the religious try and sell as a positive for their particular brand. The only real hope is education as Chez says.

The West Wing?

Never going to happen but an admission that the only way to growth is an increase in demand sourced by government. For example Cameron is talking of a new airport but he'll want it to be private - that and other schemes like it would get things going better than giving a few quid out which won't. I would also say that this shows what I've always said - if a Tory government had had the tax boons from growth that Labour had, they would have given it all to the rich as tax cuts - the idea they would have kept it for for when the shit hit the fan is absolute shite.

Getting back to the start of the topic, I just remembered I read this earlier so thought I'd pinch it - one for Luke and Cath:

The quote function is still erratic for me so excuse the medieval layout: "But not scientifically? I never said it was for better but you must admit that Christianity was one of the causes? It goes against all historical logic to deny it." I don't deny the churches set up universities and were involved in education (with an ulterior motive as ever but that's by the by) but the men you mentioned weren't in science at the behest of the church - they were just keen minds in their own right. I know people like Newton are held up as "good Christians" but that just has to be seen in the context of a time when just about everyone was so I don't hold much stall by it - as well as the fact he dabbled in the "heretic" alchemy. I think the diversity berwtten religion and science is a more modern thing as apart from astronomy there wasn't much "conflict" until Darwin. I think now that we know so much (but I realise just scratching the surface) about the universe its harder to find any kind of common ground. As I've said on here before in the context of a 6000 year old Earth, christianity "makes sense" with less actual questions to be answered than when you start accepting the truth and our specie's place in it. On philospohy I admit to a being a practical bloke - I don't mind intelligent thought if its from a "reality" based viewpoint but as soon as it it strays into theology then I tend to call bullshit.

When it was raised to 50% it was made crystal clear it was a temporary measure by Darling and it wasn't in the country's interest to have a 50% tax bracket. Labour have said today they wouldn't reverse it at the next election. The HMRC and the OBC have both said the amount it raised was a pittance and under the other "tycoons" taxes launched today this group will end up paying 5 times more. Everyone should see the benefit of a low corporate tax when we are trying to gain inward investment. As for the rich not spending...... How do you account for all the posh houses, posh cars, rolex's, etc etc. Some even buy football clubs! This would be the OBR which said growth would be 2.5% when its 0.8%? They've been spinning the amount raised to the point of lying. TBH even if the amount raised was trivial its about messages - "we're all in this together" shouldn't be a shit soundbite. I'd also say that the argumnent that "talent" is discouraged from moving here then they can fuck off somewhere else. As I said if you really think vague "loophole closing" will worjk then you know even less about big business then I thought which is incredible. The changes to the corporate tax laws are not about innward investment - they are about multi-nationals taking money out of the uk. Even now ULK compaies are sitting on an estimated cash pile of £750bn which they aren't "investing" - they are just watching it stagnate. What I mean is that wealth can only be spent up to a point - once you have the nice house (or two) and all the toys there comes a point where the only way you could spend it is to chuck it away - hence the football clubs.

CT can you tell me how often miilionaire buys a £2m house compared with how often they get paid? The idea that closing a few loopholes (which they'll get around anyway) will in any way raise money shows how gullible the cunt thinks we all are. Also on "trickle down" - the reason the rich are rich is because they don't spend money - if you give anyone on this board 40k they'd go on a fuck off holiday or buy a daft car (not counting mortgage pay-off as that doesn't apply to the rich) - if you give 40k to someone who's rich they stick it in the bank and wank over their statements - it doesn't go back into the economy at all (as the banks won't use it now either).

The rise of Christianity happened in parallel with technological and societal progress - I don't accept that Chrristianity was the cause - other civilisations over the same period also developed morally. Ever heard of the Greek philosophers - the Islamic scholars who invented algebra or all of the the inventions from China and the far east - Christianity was only ever happy with science when it didn't conflict - when it did it was declared as heresy. Lovely mention of Galileo of course. You can't engage with religion on a sane level - its fudamentally insane by nature. You can line all up all the pseduo intellectual bollocks you like but until I see some actual evidence for any kind of God or show me any argument that goes against the nano-second reasoning that it takes to realise that's its all man made I'm happy where I am.

Where did I mention inherent evil - I thing that was Sloop John. I don't believe in "evil" as an entity but people who could be described as such are usually the result of nature and nuture - psychopaths who exhibit no empathy are usually found to have miswired brain chemistry. "the degradation of society due to the media and excessive liberalism" - you do realise that taking the UK or even Europe as an example, society is easily the safest and most tolerant its ever been - violent crime and murder rates are tiny compared with even a hundred years ago. I would agree however that the last 30 years has turned society a bit more nasty attitude wise - but that's down to conservative values (as practiced by Thatcher and Blair) rather than "liberalism" whatever that means. You also won't find me defending Sharia - I abhor all religions equally.

Fine for me on Android

I'll reply fully later but your suggestion that by nature we are all bastards any only religion saves us does not reflect the reality of our history or that of our primate cousins. Cooperation works far better than conflict and that all started before we could even speak.

If you're taking about something you signed in a contract, it's been laughed out of court a few times now. I've been thinking about going back to contracting lately. I'm quite happy where I am but I've been thinking about why I moved south in the first place. Being comfortable but only having 25 days holiday to enjoy it wasn't really it. It's in my contract, and also in terms of my industry without that, I'm pretty sure it's legal too. What is it you do again? Anything I can help you with? Ah sorry I forgot you hate consultants haha. Test cases suggest it isn't legal. I did meet a couple decent recruiters last year but they were the minority - probably more about the location than the breed as a whole.