basshedz2

The McLaren team are responsible for the actions of McLaren employees.

I had no problems when they were Telewest, but I've noticed the service going downhill since they became Virgin Media. There has been a massive increase in broadband downtime since they changed, as well as constant problems with the TV guide service (and occasional problems with the TV). We originally went with Telewest due to the lack of a BT line in the house we moved into (and BT wanted to charge £100+ to put a line in) - but when we move I'd be very reluctant to use Virgin Media again. Plus the Sky deals are better now anyway!

Its apparently common in Switzerland as well. Clicky. I'm not saying it's necessarily a good idea (and its certainly not right for me! - the kids are out the door ASAP ), but its a possibility.

This happens in Japan - the mortgage is passed down through generations: Clicky.

However, currently interest rates are still fairly low (from a historical perspective) so we chose to go for a 5 year fixed rate. Now we know that we can afford the mortgage repayments for the next 5 years whatever happens to interest rates (although obviously if they drop massively then we'll be gutted!). Speak to a mortgage advisor - we used Eastwood and Company - and they can explain all your options to you. I think it is unlikely that there will be a crash - I do think that prices will continue to slow down though.

We spent about 20 - 30 minutes looking round for the first viewing, and then maybe 10 - 15 minutes when we went to have a second look at it. Personally i would have found it hard to spend longer than that looking round a house, once you've checked out the decor and the room/garden sizes what else is there to look at? b

Hi, We've just had a survey done on the house we're buying, and one of the things that came up was inadequate sub-floor ventilation. "Sub floor ventilation is inadequate and rear airbricks should be provided. This may have allowed defects to occur in concealed areas and you now need to instruct a contractor to open up the flooring to identify the full extent of the problem and the necessary repairs required." This is our first time buying (we're buying a turn of the century mid-terrace in Meersbrook), and we have no idea about any of this stuff - can anybody provide a rough estimate as to how much that might cost? Thanks, b

I go through this every winter when trying to buy decongestant. 90% of the sudafed type tablets are non-drowsy and contain caffeine. Since i generally want to take them before i go to bed, they are no use. It usually takes quite a bit of searching to find ones without caffeine (Boots are about the only place i've found them!) Hope you feel better soon. Alex

The problem with this guy expressing an opinion is that, as AtticusFinch said earlier, he is a policeman not a politician. It is not his job to make suggestions about policy - and his opinions about this should not hold any more weight than anyone elses. If you read the bbc article, this comes across as just a reactionary attempt to influence policy that fails to address any of the actual causes of the problem.

My friend married an Indian girl in India about 3 years ago, and on arriving back in the UK they had a hard time getting the Home Office to recognise the marriage. IIRC, they had to contact the HO after 2 years or so of marriage to convince them that it wasnt a sham.

And in Italy and France the minimum age to buy alcohol is 16. I dont think the drinking age is the problem, it's more the attitudes people have to alcohol in this country. Pretty much everybody I see fighting and behaving like drunken idiots on a Friday and Saturday night are mid to late twenties anyway, so, IMO, raising the drinking age wont make a significant difference.

Cheers for that!

The japanese car that you buy doesn't come from japan though - it was proabably built in Sunderland, Burnaston, or Swindon. We get our veg delivered as part of one of those organic vegetable box schemes - because i _am_ lazy and hate going to the supermarket. Surprisingly we found that, because we go to the supermarket less, we actually spend a considerable amount less on food than we were doing.

What is the situation if you are over 25 but have only just passed your test?

I'm pretty sure your not supposed to fish the bottom pond - I think its only the middle pond that fishing is allowed in.

Why would you buy from Virgin/HMV when play.com and amazon exist? I think this is the reason that Fopp had to cut their profit margins so thin. The best thing about Fopp, though, was the ability to impulse buy - something I find really difficult on the internet!

I believe there's quite a lot of tench and carp as well as the usual perch and roach (plus a few exotic escapees from peoples ponds/fish tanks). I've fished Wire Mill (no longer run by the council by the way), Crookes Valley Dam, and Graves Park and never seen a bailiff come round. This seems to be a problem with many of these free waters. As always, a small minority spoil it for the rest of us. I'll always clear all the rubbish in my swim and several swims around me, and i should think most true fishermen would do the same.

John Ashcroft (the US Attorney General) claimed that lie detectors had a 15% false positive rate. In truth, the interpretation of polygraph test are entirely subjective and can easily be fooled. Even results presented by the American Polygraph Association (APA) show that the results are wrong 20% of the time. It's actually quite scary that they are often used to vet candidates for jobs that require security clearances.

Totally agree. And here are some anti abortion campaigners in america trying to answer the question "If you want to make abortion illegal, what should be the punishment?"

At the moment me and my partner are looking to buy our first house. We are very unsure (and scared!) about the whole process. We have seen a couple of places that we quite like, and were wondering if we can put offers in on multiple houses (or is this considered bad form)? Is there any tips on house buying that forummers could share? Thanks, Alex

Alonso doesn't look very clever when he'd under pressure does he? I was shouting at the TV when Sato was closing him down - brilliant race from Taku. Alonso sounds well bitter in this interview. I think it'll be interesting to see how he copes with Hamilton now.

I have a Canon Ixus 800IS that i would thoroughly recommend. I paid about £200 for it a few months ago, and am well pleased with it. * 6.0MP * 4X optical zoom * Image stabilisation Heres some pictures taken with it: http://picasaweb.google.com/alex.shenfield/DiamondHeadCraterInHawaii The one downside is that it is pretty noisy at high ISO settings, so if you're thinking of taking lots of photos inside and in the evenings without flash the I'd recommend the Fuji F30. Supposed to be brilliant in low light - see http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilmf30/. Cheers, Alex

Personally i couldn't give a to$$ what you call the queen, or Dubya's little hand puppet Bliar. The reason we are all concerned about whats happening in your country because, due to the current imperialism of the USA, it all impacts on us now. Long live globalisation . I liked it more when the US was isolationist. This is a family forum, so i'm not going to repeat what I call Bush - i'll just say that I don't think "chimp" is going far enough.

If you've got a line out on your sound card (it'll probably be blue - mic is pink, and speaker/headphone out is green), try connecting the hifi to that instead. The speaker outputs are usually powered, and this can cause distortion (as the signal is amplified through the speaker output, and then amplified again in the hifi).

I was under the impression that the reason its been empty for so long is that the owners want to charge an absolute fortune for it. It would make a nice space as a coffee shop or similar, but extremely high rents will put anyone off.