chrisp65

2008 phoned, it wants it's doomsday scenario back. Population of EU currently stands at approx 510 million, europe as a whole at 750 million. Frankly, if 1 million, 2 million, 3 million refugees and migrants on foot can take that down, they deserve it.

I've dropped this in the history thread because I don't want it to be part of the whole ISIS refugee topic. A few days ago I saw a claim that British soldiers in recent history would use beheading as a tactic or methodology. It seemed a bit far fetched to me so I've done a little digging and there isn't much out there. But there are a few websites I'm less than confident in (such as wikipedia) that do appear to back this up. The main claims appear to be that post war, when we were still trying to hang on to Burma and Malaya, between 1948 and 1952, the army would capture and kill rebels and rather than have to bring back all the bodies they only brought back the heads. That in 1952 the British army were beheading the opposition in the jungle and that had it been a 'war' situation and not 1948, it 'might' at the time have been seen as a war crime. Never heard of this before - anybody out there know if there's any legitimacy in the claims? It's just a bit of a crazy contrast if 'we' were doing this 60 years ago and now we think it is beyond barbaric in 2015. Might be myth.

I thought it was interesting on that programme that virtually the last talking head was Tristram Hunt, a Labour MP famed by some for crossing a picket line giving the excuse that 'he wasn't in that union', son of Baron Hunt of Chesterton, and educated at Trinity College Cambridge felt that Corbyn could pull Labour to the left. Lord forbid that should happen. I don't mean to come over as an inverted snob, but, you know, come on.

I'd like to see the evidence. I'm also aware that it is likely that there are still active investigations happening which are likely to be jeopardised by releasing anything at this time. Time will have to tell on this one. yep agreed, but it feels a bit like a very very small side story, I don't think this one incident turns Cameron into Blair mkII

I can't say I'm overly upset by this. They had some friend of the relatives on the radio saying this was Britain killing Brits abroad and we will need an investigation. Yep, needs to be investigated, totally agree. Then in the afternoon after the investigation I'd like that investigation published.

You say 'of that age' and this has reminded me, in the unlikely event that anyone on this board has just purchased a metallic red Jaguar XE from the dealership down Swindon way, I can reliably inform you that your car is perfectly capable of 120mph plus and multiple emergency breaking manoeuvres. Followed it up the M4 as best I could but chickened out when it all got a bit crazy. Still had delivery plates and plastic wrap. Never has drove it like he stole it been so apt.

I'm sure the Greeks are mightily impressed with the recent show of German generosity.

Going back to the media reporting and whether these people are 'dirt poor'. Some will be. Others will be teachers and middle ranking public service workers, finding it difficult to justify staying in whatever country when your house has been shot to bits and the buses you are supposed to service don't run because the depot was burnt out and the pay stopped arriving around about February - not that there is a bank anymore anyway. But yes, by some measures, they are the middle classes. Certainly, the ones our media concentrated yesterday had to have two attributes to get on the tv. They had to be able to speak comprehensible english and they had to be marching with a GPS enabled smart phone held out in front of them. The dirt poor villagers of Afghanistan don't tend to speak great english. The dirt poor of Pakistan would find it difficult to keep charging a smart phone for 3 months whilst walking. So yes, some of them, the ones that make good tv pictures, tend to be english speaking with a smart phone, or face down on the beach. No time to show you the others. We've only got 20 minutes to do the news and there's been a grand prix.

looks to be retailing just under £200 - prime Christmas money these days as Xann has suggested there are already used ones on e-bay I suspect that whilst they've travelled through time and space to get here and are powered by a mix of jedi magic and apple software, they will be beaten by a decent carpet.

I loves a bit of Jonathan Meades. The visual gags along with the wordage make his output something you have to actually devote some attention to, and not half watch over the top of a laptop.

I think there are probably a very high proportion of people just wanting a better life. But don't let that trivial sounding excuse trip you up. We are talking about countries where poor doesn't mean having a Morrisons £20 dvd player. It potentially means not having access to clean drinking water, lack of sanitation, sleeping on an earth floor. It might not, some people will just be chancing their arm. But they usually arrive on aircraft visiting relatives, having a holiday, being a student and then disappearing into the kitchens of your local High Street takeaways. Somebody mentioned previously that migrants were coming from countries like Mali. Not in the news at the moment, but cast your mind back. The overspill from the adventures in Libya was that armed groups suddenly had access to those A Team pick up trucks with guns bolted into the back of them. Many piled into the north of Mali. Already a mix of dust bowl and shit hole, arming the local bullies can't have helped that country much. If I lived in Mali, no health care, no prospects, I'd give getting to Munich a punt. Not saying its right, not saying we have to welcome everyone. I'm saying that if the UK was like some Nigerian shit hole with the risk of my daughters being taken from the local school by nutter rebels and the government too corrupt to do anything about it - I'd like to think I'd be man enough to try and move my family to somewhere better.

through the park.... and down to the beach

Tony likes a 'salty snack'.

more football in off topic: my local team have taken a player called Elvis on season long loan to beef him up a bit and get him playing he played 20 minutes last weekend, and scored, so we've started him today, twenty minutes in and he's just scored....this could be fun! * scored 2 more in the second half, 4 goals in one and a bit games

What was the long term plan and strategy that Milliband blocked? Was it as complex and assertive and brilliant as the one we had for Libya and Iraq and Afghanistan? Having waded in to Iraq a couple of times without a strategy I'd be interested to know what the long term plan was for Syria that the coalition put forward and Labour rejected? ha ha, I'm sure it wasn't just let's throw money and gear at some armed groups that don't like Assad, I'm sure it was far more complex than that... we dabble, we spend a little bit, we dabble and spend and discuss a little bit more, time ticks on, then we see everything unravel and our politicians become just as surprised by unexpected events as the last time we did exactly the same thing doubtless eventually there will even be an enquiry to make sure we 'learn the lessons', this won't happen until Chilcot has some spare time, obviously I don't claim it's easy. But we need to really consider what our long term plan is. Hopefully, the plan isn't really 'have a bit of a low cost dabble and hope for the best'.

Turn them around and march them back to Kobani. It's not a nice knee jerk twitter solution, but it might protect our house prices and pensions. Got to think with a long term strategy not just react to dead toddlers washed up on beaches.

Most of that queue will be old folks with nothing else to do. They could go there mid morning on a work day, but no, best we queue. These will be the same pensioners that then go to Waitrose at 6:00pm for a nice long chat with the check out girl when I'm in a rush to buy a readymade curry.

If Ismail realises his forward camera is always on.

I think people dropped Rico in the music threads. Rico the perpetual backing band man that got the biggest cheer. Last time I saw him was up at Brecon Jazz festival about 6 or 7 years ago, in a marquee tent. He was doing his stint with Jools Holland and despite my misgivings about going to a jazz festival to see Mr Holland's big band it was phenomenal, with Rico an absolute highlight. I'd seen him about 20 years earlier and didn't really know who he was back then. Ooh, he was also the inspiration for The Barry Horns*, who themselves have gone on to be great and recently played backing to the mini Super Furries tour. * The Barry Horns are an eleven-piece brass band, made up of fans of the Welsh national football team. Formed in 2011, the band's name is a homage to retired Welsh footballer Barry Horne. Wikipedia*

A question I have seen shared a lot here in Sweden is…when is it ok to upload photos of Carola and Emils dead bodies? Its the ones who got killed by an eritrean man when shopping at IKEA…think its a fair question... Yeah, **** 'em all, let them drown if they can't fight.

Yes, I might be forced into buying a new* car over the next few days (hence the BMW rental), mine either needs a £300 repair or it's a new Mercedes auto gearbox and therefore time to walk away. Right now, having had a little look around, I'd probably do the most boring thing possible and buy the same thing again. *I say 'new' but in truth it could be new or used, certainly doesn't have to be new new.

I was lucky enough to see Rico a couple of times. Brilliant.

the way I was posting up youtube has to be changed... was doing... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROLO2f2jIlc but that's not working....so... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROLO2f2jIlc nope, how about... ahhh, there we go, no more [ /brackets ] just treat it like a photo

yes, yes it was, well found (obviously an excellent description on my part) it was ok, I wouldn't turn it down if I won it as a prize, but I'm not sure why somebody would want such a hard ride on British roads, all that money and they left out the shock absorbers and made it look 4x4 but put low profile tyres on big alloys - all a bit confused, shirley?