chrisp65

Gove is currently making all the right noises, but beware what end to what means lies behind anything Gove says or does. In his short time at MoJ Gove has appeared totally enlightened on giving prisoners a chance to turn their life around, on worrying about victorian conditions and about not having people on a generational cycle of habitual offending. At the moment all those commendable ideas appear to be wrapped up in one solution which is slightly less publicised. To close the old prisons with their expensive MoJ staff and open new large shiny privately operated super prisons. Why promise to pay out almost MP quality pensions when you can actually farm the job out to G4S and their rivals to race to the bottom and just employ £8 an hour agency staff. Why have expensive inner city prisons sat on expensive land in London and Canterbury, Dorchester and Manchester, Swansea and Bristol, when you can sell those for their land and build super prisons out of town. Then, just like the houses in the sky that were the answer to 1960's housing problems, then, the snips and cuts begin. This new super prison is going to cost £42 million. Clearly that's ridiculous. Well let's just slightly cut the visitor facility. We can trim two classrooms off the education block. The cells could be 125mm narrower and still be better than victorian. Then, somehow, in 10 years time we have no 'proper' prison staff, an american holding company owns the prison estate and the shiny new out of town prisons are broadly about as shit as the ones they replaced. Fine words. We won't see the whether the actions match for a long time yet.

There's not one of you I'd spit on if you were on fire.

Nah, load of hot air for now, possibly a gradual change on tax over a few years, but even then it's an extra £100 or so on a year's tax - would that really influence your choice of car? I pay the extra to have an auto petrol guzzler. Would I save the £100 and drive something half the engine size up n down the motorway every week of the year? No chance, I'll pay the extra £2 a week thanks. I was in a petrol station yesterday and there was a very shouty advert on the radio for a local car showroom. They were claiming in the advert that 'due to recent bad publicity on all german cars we are having a massive german car discounted clear out, all makes and models, if its german, we want it sold'. Or words to that effect. The advert was patent contradictory nonsense. But I guess they might get one person thinking, hmmm VW diesels are as dirty as everyone always knew, perhaps I can now get a good deal on a petrol BMW.

About 5 or 6 years ago I did part of my uni diss on titanium dioxide additives in concrete, bricks and road building materials. Essentially, it's the science bit of 'self cleaning' materials. It works like this: spatial design they've put TiO2 into roads in Belgium (from memory) and it reduce Nox by about a third to a half. it's not the answer, but it might be part of the answer, it's been sat out there for years waiting to be discovered.

How often do you open Windows really? At McDonalds drive-in, but anywhere else? seriously? you'd prefer to have help turning the lights on than opening and closing the windows? well good news, I've found the car for you...

Do both parties have to be human?

Actual Ladybird books to be published next month! Ladybird in the Indie

So, are Preston North End a bigger club than Swansea too? They won loads of stuff a hundred years ago. We are a much much bigger club than Swansea. But bloody hell, it wouldn't take too much for that to change.

Last February our boiler packed up. We'd only had it since 1984 so I was a bit upset. Anyway, we went the fairly lazy route of British Gas and also went for their Hive thingy. I'd have to say it's been great - and pretty much idiot proof. We've got the controls on our phones, so as well as having a fairly comprehensive programme of times and temps we can also over ride that remotely if things change. We don't change it often, but yeah, if we're away for the weekend we can knock everything down to minimal settings for 3 days from the passenger seat doing 70mph down the M4. Similarly, if one of us is going home early, school has knocked off, or meeting finished early, just tap into the phone and get the heat and water up and running whilst you're still on the way home. Not exactly science fiction. But coming from a beast of a 1980's boiler that basically had the functions 'on' and 'off' it's quite a leap forward for us. As a little extra, it sends us regular e-mails telling us how our energy use compares with similar families in similar houses. It also regularly tells us our house runs 1.2 degrees c warmer than any other house in the area. Which has been a great piece of ammo in persuading people to put on a **** jumper not dial up the heating.

next up, 'the bowler's Holding, the batman's Willey'

** nerd alert ** I've spent the last three evenings cutting up acoustic dampening drum pads to isolate speakers and to make a new turntable mat. I've altered the height of my tonearm, I've also acquired a new cartridge and other bits n bobs. I've booked a day's leave on Wednesday, to sit at home with the house empty, and listen for what difference any of that may or may not make. It's important to have the optimum set up when listening to Saturday Night Holocaust by The Dead Kennedys. So I'm perfectly happy to listen to music as a specific thing. Unless it could be argued I'm actually dicking about with tat - and listening to the result more than the music? But I get your point - it would be rare for me to just sit and watch a tv programme and not be doing something else at the same time. I'd consider anything on TV, a film or boxset on netflix, a dvd etc., to be the ultimate disposable leisure time. I'd almost always double up and do something else at the same time. Like sit on an exercise bike and do 20km, or cut up Ikea cork coasters to fill out the recess in my tt platter. oh, and p.s. I've just remembered that I also do a 300 mile round trip once a month to listen to music on someone else's stereo! 'cos he's got quite a good stereo. It's a little club of people that meet up to sit and listen to other's records. We don't touch each other or anything. Just take it in turns to make tea, and play records whilst swapping cables, valves 'n' shit around pretending it made a difference.

stop **** moaning and work more hours if you don't have the money for that medicine you need **** me, you don't see the good Chinese worker bees moaning work harder, faster, longer, or we'll stick you and your kids on a credit blacklist now, be good citizen and pass me the foie gras, I'm starving hungry, I've been selling your future all day

watching New Order on the red button that wonderful slightly off live feel (you know, where there's less hiding place for the ropey vocals) and I'm loving it it's a bit of a hi NRG disco in my house right now - but with pringles

Midlands based team hope to do well on new TV Quiz Show 'Universally Challenged'

I definitely don't agree with Mr Bazderevic! They should do the decent thing and lay down and take it. 0:1, deflected in off Joe Ledley's beard. Whilst I refuse to believe Wales could lose at home to Andorra, I don't personally need the stress of it still being nil, nil in the 63rd minute. More than happy to party hard on the back of the world's worst ever scoreless draw out in the Balkans. Nice to have some proper sport squeezing it's 30 seconds worth in to the local news.

1 point required from the last two games and somehow, somehow, Wales negotiated a home game against Andorra as campaign closer. Bosnian manager was on TV yesterday saying that it was better for Wales to lose on Saturday and qualify at home in their last game - better for the fans.

That's pretty much how I see it, he's a shoe in for the job (they'll let May hang herself with more and more extremist UKIP bantz) providing nothing comes out of left field - like the picture finally emerges of Cameron and it was actually gideon dressed as a pig, not a real dead pig.

stopped watching it after a few minutes, had that hateful Daily Mail woman on there and it was sucking all the air out of the room anyway...everybody dance now....dvvv, dvvv dvvv dvvv

all day long an actually interesting person wins every time

It'll still be a very very thin shell of bone, just about 10,000 years since creation, less all the stuff that's simply been eaten, destroyed, rotted away.