chrisp65

Is there anybody on this forum that can actually vote for anyone that was on that panel last night? None of them appear to be standing in my constituency. Is the idea that we vote for a Prime Minister via proxies?

We had a bit of an outage here, no TV no internet. So we watched the film Captain Philips which one of us had for Christmas. Very good.

I was on a 12 person fishing boat just about in sight of the coast and two basking sharks came in from the side just below the surface, just dipped under the boat and up the other side and on their way. Just stunning gorgeous things. When my life flashes by I reckon that'll be in the highlights.

well, here's a story for you - and if somebody else told it, I'd dismiss it as piffle: I was awake late one night when I heard a noise out the back of the house that was sufficiently 'wrong' for me to get up and go out to investigate. We have a large conservatory and once out the back of the house I could here the almost flat roof section of it creaking. Now, it's construction is such that I can stand on it, but it gives and creaks. Birds and cats can't be heard. But the roof was creaking and the creak was moving from left to right. I realised someone was on the roof and being a brave / aggressive soul when in the mood I quietly reached for the door keys to get out there and confront the intruder. I ever so quietly turned the key in the lock and when I was ready, on my terms, at about 2:00am in the dark..... I leapt out and did this sort of 'Ahaaa!' but less Alan Partridge than it looks when written down. Well **** me. It was a big black cat. By big, I mean bloody big, dog big. It just looked at me. I looked at it and just thought, oh, right. Then it sort of trotted off at jogging pace off my roof on to the neighbours and away. Seriously, if it wasn't a stupid thing to suggest, I'd have said it was a panther. I never reported it, but I did tell the missus. I didn't report it because that sort of stuff is stupid. But I did start buying local papers for a while to see if there were any other odd reports. But there weren't. True dat.

sorry, though the thread title was 'have you got a penis' I was just gonna check out the photos

Yep, big drinking session a week before to avoid needing my suit brought to me in A&E or the police station. Smaller 'inner circle' drinking session the evening before just to be fashionably 'rough' on the day. Church wedding was free, my missus made her own dress (which was a stunning piece of art, she has a talent), reception was at the social club of my dad's factory*, buses laid on for guests was a present from a friend that was a coach driver. Old school collective community activity back then, 25 years ago (and cue hovis music....). *er, the factory where he worked, he didn't own a factory.

T minus 4 hours to 10 days off ....

It's interesting that Cameron made his VAT promise and Clegg made his tuition fees promise. Both promises were broken, somehow the Cameron one has gone away but Clegg just never recovered from his. He's been bizarrely singled out as a politician who's word cannot be trusted. Which when you think about it. Isn't logical. He will be replaced after the election, it's just a question of who they still have in Westminster that they can use as a replacement. We could potentially end up with Beaker as Deputy PM. Presuming it isn't Sturgeon of course.

yoof of today when I was a kid looking at getting married I had a stag night in my local pub with mates and we saved for a house deposit now people appear to be planning trips to Nepal, waxing the hair off their arse, driving beemers and complaining they can't afford a house deposit world's gone mad

I'm not a seasoned million mile traveller, but I did once go to Edinburgh for a pizza. The taxi from the airport cost more than the flight. The pizza cost more than the taxi. So yeah, it is possible, if you are flexible, to go interesting places and find 'value'. I drove 3 of us to London yesterday because Great Western wanted just over £200 EACH to get us there by train. It cost £40 in fuel so we 'saved' £540. I don't believe this is relevant. But I needed to say it.

The sad thing is, some minority parties stopping the worst excesses of the two big ones should be a bit of an ideal consensus politics world. The last election, planting the Lib Dems in the centre and able to negotiate and veto either the red or the blue team should have been just about ideal for the status quo. Somehow, they've gaffed that and managed to make themselves less popular at the same time as the main two are at their least popular. I'd imagine that one way or the other, after the election, Clegg will have to pay for that. But however it pans out, don't worry about Cameron, Clegg, Milliband or Farage. Something tells me that they'll be able to scrape by financially. After all, if they do ever need to top up their wealth, they could always take a convenient zero hours contract to fit around their modern lifestyles.

I always think Barry Island is a nice place for a stag do. Chips, beer, sand and a fairly reliable bus service.

what's radiohead?

From memory: The Shah of Iran was your typical arab despot, squandering his country's oil wealth on his own family and palaces. Backed heavily by the U.S. that wanted to make sure more of the world was capitalist than communist. The model wasn't sustainable - a 'western' model imposed by military bullies. This meant an educated elite that wanted real liberal western values and an oppressed majority that saw the elite overlords taking the piss. The only organised opposition was the established religion. Once the U.S. decided it wasn't prepared to put boots on the ground to prop up their Shah his days were numbered. If you want to know why any other part of the world turned to shit, just change the three words I put in bold with the relevant title from Nicaragua, Chile, El Salvador.......

Jay Kay, Sandi Toksvig, Alan Carr

I can't substantiate this with a source or a reference. Back in the day, my local team was forced out of the english pyramid and in to the new welsh one against all economic and popular judgement. The reason given, the reason cited, was that many nations and most vociferously, the African nations wanted less european footballing nations thus making more space for them. Wales had been singled out by CAF as a non state that didn't even have it's own national league but took a place and had a vote. From that point, lots of subsequent shit has flowed.

post it anyway I'll give it a like

tap

Well yeah.....but the real moral of that story was don't ask your wife to commit perjury if your sexual proclivities lie elsewhere. have we established that about Genie? Genie, if your missus is banging someone else and currently considering an upgrade, don't feel under pressure to take a speeding ticket for her. If on the other hand, she's a decent chap and not working her way through work colleagues, then yes, try to remember who was driving.

You're I'm already on 4 points so I can't fully express myself here. But good spot.

you get used to them once somebody has posted them enough times

pics of the missus please I think the rule is something like 10% leeway (Bicks will know!), which is why so many people drive at 77 / 78mph so, without wishing to be too much of a doom monger, 37 & 39 could be more than just a course 2 at the same time is, I believe, just tough but I'm no expert....

The use of the word 'quite' to prefix good shows the Brit's native instinct to avoid the sort of superlative inflation which litters American speech. I think it was that profound philosopher Sir Edward of Izzard, who identified the problem the American's have, of having declared a hamburger awesome, they find they have run out of appropriate words when they come to describe a cosmic event. I think it was Bill Bryson though who commented on the reason why our colonial cousins are so prone to hyperbole and it dates back to the old frontier spirit. The argument goes that it's difficult to use the same restrained language that was used back home for describing the majestic Thames or the serene Peak District when confronted by the muddy Mississipi or The lumpy Rockies for the first time.