NJS

And as has been said a few times, started the ball rolling with the investment/retail separation abolition.

I'm surprised Cameron is pretending to be outraged given the complicity of private landlords in the scam. Of course you could argue that the legal obligation of councils to house people should be exempted in areas like Kensington - I know that would just pass the buck elsewhere but it would save money. I don't mind Cameron capping how much they'll pay towards rent. Seems very reasonable. Of course, that's the kind of costly bureaucratic regulation that they're insisting they'll put an end to. They could cap the actual rent but that's a whole other can of worms.

I'm surprised Cameron is pretending to be outraged given the complicity of private landlords in the scam. Of course you could argue that the legal obligation of councils to house people should be exempted in areas like Kensington - I know that would just pass the buck elsewhere but it would save money.

I wish someone had the moral courage to stand up to rating agencies and bring them to account for their part in what amounts to fraud (rating securities at triple A when they knew they were shit) over the last few years.

The ultimate precedent is the Kray twins - although Ronnie Biggs is another "hero".

They don't need a conspiracy - they're blatant about everything they do.

PZ Myers take on it:

You and your ilk refer to the public sector as if its a leperous black hole - you forget it outsources to the private sector as well as employing people who contribute to the economy. Private sector growth is not the be all and end all of a thriving economy - as we are about to find out.

I think the crime of telling Keegan we could sign him when it was a complete lie (I've always believed Isegrim on this) is a bigger crime than trying to sign him and getting some kind of cold feet as the op suggests. Lying about signings for me shows they were engineering Keegan's exit deliberately.

Adjustment for economic growth. As the economy grows (which it did massively under NL), of course we spend more on public services. Inflation is not the same as growth is it? Cant you see that growth was artificially caused by overspending? There fore adjusting for that growth is a totally artificial thing to do. If your quality of life is adjusted by how much you've f**ked onto a credit card the graph would be pretty flat, don't you agree? Marvelous - about 5 minutes in and your comparing one of the biggest economies of the world to somebody using a credit card/ The same principles apply. Every analyst you talk to will tell you the same. Surely you would need to factor in an increased salary analogous to increased tax revenues from a booming economy?

Tory philosophy in one sentence

Based upon what? Market sentiment, protecting the countries credit rating therefore interest cost, foreign investment rising (and the resulting ex rate affect), real measures on cutting the deficit without punishing business with an NI hike. The days of short term fixes seems well and truly over. Britain will be a pretty horrible place to live for the next 5 years, unemployment will rise, house prices will fall but GDP will increase and the deficit will fall. All this is essential for the long term financial health of the country. The prospects under the labour plan would have been a total disaster. We are all in this together, better get used to it. What a despicable piece of cockney shit you are.

I think Cast were better than The Beatles - then again hundreds of bands are.

That is one of the best illustrations of the sheer stupidity of religion I have ever read - teenagers (or anyone for that matter) not thinking about sex for 30 days is about as impossible a task as I can imagine.

I have a feeling it's their plan for it to be chaotic to excuse handing over surgeries to BUPA on a wholescale basis - probably with some kind of "the poor will be okay though" lie.

Breaking news that the Swiss have refused the extradition request.

I "love" the way they sell their shit - "putting the power in the hands of those who know best" - how the fuck do GPS know how to run presumably multi-million pound businesses with no training or experience? - It's the same as letting parents run schools instead of LEAs - fucking madness. The involvement of the private sector is their way of siphoning off ringfenced funding to their mates - fucking despicable.

I haven't seen any of the Twilight films as I knew they were teen lass fodder but I think he's wrong that the only good vampire is a cold killer. I think there's room for re-interpretation and different contexts like True Blood and Buffy/Angel.

I agree - my semi-defence of the Dutch does include an acceptance that Van Bommel was/is a dirty bastard and I agree about Bergkamp - as i've said before he made one of the worst tackles I've ever seen on Dumas and only got a yellow because "Hey, he's a great player".

I've never rated Harper and wouldn't give a shit if he was sold - if Forster or Krul aren't good enough then we can address it then but I'd rather either of them were given a chance.

My opinion of Webb's performance was that it was mixed - you could say one of Stevie's mates with a panic tendency could easily have sent 3 or 4 off but I thought he did well st stand up to the Spanish whingingand his attitude of not sending anyone off until he had to was correct. On the other hand I still think a couple of the cards were iffy - both of Hettinga's for example. The corner late on was almost Poll-eqsue.

Yep - neither of them ever said how they would have prevented the crunch - depsite blaming Brown on the issue. Incidentally Mandelson's stuff this weekend did nothing to stop me despising Clegg - whatever the merits or otherwise of Gordon Brown, a bloke whose party has won a quarter of the seats should not have a say in who the leader of the Labour party is.

I meant the Fabregas dive not the Xavi claim - which I agree as full speed view looked dodgy. I'm not condoning shit teams who do nowt but kick people - I'm just saying that in my view if players do ponce about looking for free kicks at every opportunity then I don't mind seeing them actually getting kicked once in a while. I also think that expecting anything else from the Dutch - who I'm no fan of - was a tad naive given that's how they've played all tournament. I also think people are over-hyping Spain's football - yes they retain possession well but they only score 7 goals for a reason - they don't have enough urgency which I think can be a part of good football.

Even if you think there was diving, the De Jong is s straight red all day, Van Bommel committed so many fouls you can pick two yellows out of them easy and Robben blatantly kicked the balla way on a yellow, sad way to be sent off but its a red. De Jong possibly - but I'd argue the ball was there and he could have had an eye on it. If Webb had booked Iniesta for his shove on Van Bommel any of his other dives would have meant no goal. There was also a fucking shocker by Fabregas on the edge of the box when they were trying to claim a pen for Xavi. The Dutch were a bit rough but no different to what Stoke or Bolton in the past do to the good teams and its the same whinging. The Spanish on the other had squeal like pigs at the slightest touch and I find it fucking disgraceful.

Most of the yellow cards were cheating imo - there were some nasty challenges as well but to talk of red cards is a load of shit - the one that was given was just a typical Spanish diving cunt.