tzijlstra

I posted here some days ago and what will you think? My Logitech G400 died! So, I went to PC World to see what they have on offer and all mice are either for people with tiny hands or over 60£. I was not impressed! Fortunately I managed to find another G400 online, Logitech replaced it with the G400S which is basically the same mouse with higher dpi and twice the price....

Like Tigger says, it is unlikely to need a bailout. But if it did need one (it isn't inconceivable that we get another wobble in the banking sector) than it shouldn't get it. In my opinion that would be subsidising hedge funds who are likely responsible for the current mess anyway.

Yep, I am pretty ****** about that too. Really dumb, with the link I am certain a lot of people would pick the train over the ferry/car or plane. Now you have to add an hour to get across and make sure you don't miss the train at the other station.

I always find people overstate the self determinism of Crimea, only 58% is Russian speaking and there is no indicator how many of them are happy to go back to Russia. It shows how effective propaganda is. I realise the Uk examples are stretches on the grounds that the UK is a democracy and if the people vote to leave, would let them leave. But it is the principle that is being discussed - should one nation be allowed to force a fake, rushed referendum on another nation in order to claim part of their sovereign estate?

You are partly right but it won't take a lot for Russia to get to the border.

I'm pleased you asked that because it is something that has been on my mind. I think the only conclusion at the moment is that it is time the EU finally realises that lots of splintered interests when it comes to foreign policy is leaving us vulnerable to foreign aggression. I want to see a strong integrated joint-defense policy to be the result of this. I want to see the EU take strong and affirmative steps to secure energy-independence from Russia and in the longer term from all foreign powers. Can we check Russia with force at the moment? No, not unless it is a NATO operation and that is very unlikely to happen as long as Russia targets non NATO members. But the EU in particular really needs to be wary of what is going on and adapt rapidly to cope with this new reality that is facing us.

It isn't about whether the population wants it or not, it is about legitimacy. Again, this sets a precedent nobody in the world wants, in the last millenium things like this were exactly the reason that entire countries got dragged into senseless wars for decades and decades. You might want to read some history books, they are rather perspective supplying. You might never have heard of Moldova, or the Krim (education is hard to come by apparently) but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't care. I've given a number of examples before that will affect you here in the UK: Malvinas to Argentina, Gibraltar to Spain, many of the overseas protectorates have native claims on them. If you let this precedent develop it will undoubtedly result in an era of warfare. The only real war that the UK has been involved in in the past three decades was chase-the-terrorist; under whatever pretext and whether right or wrong, that was a war that did not touch the sovereignty of the UK. This type of war that Russia is pushing will.

Can we keep the terrorism chatter put? Although not entirely irrelevant as Russia also has dealings with terrorists, it is irrelevant in that it is the same old discussion repeated in every thread by the same people, get a room, I say. Just as information for those claiming Transnistria has always been Russian, Moldova in its current form is considerably smaller than the medieval principality it has as predecessor. In the 19 th century when Russia was expanding its empire considerably it was deprived of almost all its modern day land by Russia, later the rest of the land was claimed by Romania. Currently the majority of the population speaks Romanian, as they also took land, doesn't that mean that when Russia is done, Romania can slide onto the table and take the rest?

Moldavia, another former soviet state, seems to be next in Putin's expansionist plans. NATO has observed a large increase in Russian military presence near the border with Transnistria. They are apparently waiting for the command to go. Anybody who thought Russia was going to play nice once they got the Crimea is going to have to think again. This is going to get out of hand very soon.

Apologies, you did not mention the word happy, you are right. It is late, so I am going to keep it brief, but the above quote is what you said. Now, my inference from that is, possibly wrong, that you feel immigrants have an unfair advantage because they are sharing rooms to survive. My point is that it isn't just immigrants that live like that.

Beep about it all you want, fact is that if you park illegally, you get a ticket. This is done on the request of residents, who are fed up of near-accidents and accidents occurring here because of inconsiderate parking.

I once nearly swapped my car for a really nice 850 T5, my car at the time was worth about 1000£ more but I was prepared to take it on the chin. I saw it in a car park and hung around until the owner came out, I told him I really like his car as I had owned one before, proposed the deal to him (and was serious about it, he knew I was) and he considered it for about five seconds before rejecting it - he knew it was a nice car as well

There, you are basically saying that because they are foreign and here for a limited time they flout the laws, basically inferring that they are happy to share rooms with more people than the British are. I can assure you they are not, people don't come to the UK to live like pigs in a pen. I agree however that a large part of EU immigrants tend to come for a limited time and are here for earning money, that is because there are opportunities to do so, as they are here with that specific purpose they are more likely to temporarily live in less than optimal circumstances, but here is the shocker, so do many lowly paid Brits chasing the dream in London. A friend of mine shared a two bed flat with 7 people (5 Brits) where they had agreed in a sleeping-rota as there were only three beds in the house. These were all people with a degree at the start of their careers. 5 years later he is living in a shared house where he has his own bedroom, it is positively tiny and he is paying £150 per week for the pleasure. This is a guy with a Masters degree earning £18,000 a year, he still can't afford a better place though as long as he insists on living in the centre of London. Unfortunately, if he chose to move to the outskirts, he would pay a bit less for housing but that would be off-set by ridiculous transport costs. So the point I am making is: why is it relevant whether these people are British or not?

Ah yes, that massive distinction. Semantically quite similar to being a bio-chemist and being a bio-scientist.

If I recall Arsene came out and said he had 100 million pounds available last summer, quite a bit more than any UK team other than City. He decided to not spend it where it was obviously needed (defense) and instead got yet another attacking midfielder. Than this winter he moaned that Man U had signed Mata, an attacking midfielder. If I was an Arsenal fan (I am not) I would be extremely peed off with the complete inability of Wenger to bring in good first team players. He is brilliant at finding young talent and developing it, but his first team signings have all been rather dreadful.

If I am not mistaken these days you pay for a grave to be maintained and not cleared for a certain time (50-100 years?) after that they recycle the plot.

I always like it when people call Farage Nigel. I assume you worked as a banker with good ole Nige in his days before being a politician? Especially coming from people that started posts on here about petitioning for a public enquiry into the behaviour of bankers. (Quod erat demonstrandum, I presume you had Latin classes at Dulwich college with Nige?)

Really, your failure to tolerate other forms of road-use are rather disconcerting. I am fairly convinced that there isn't a single cyclist in the UK that gets on a bike with the aim of harming themselves or others - just as there isn't a single motorist with that agenda. However in both categories you get people that aren't paying full respect to their respective modes of transport - that doesn't negate the fact that one category is using a machine that weighs over 1000 kgs and can go at speeds not imaginable to Victorians whereas the other category uses a machine that can quite easily be crushed by many of the other road-users. You tell me which category is more likely to pay heed to safety?

poppet2 - I know plenty of people that live in cupboards in London, all English (and the odd Welshman), I still don't see how your argument works though. You are saying that because people are foreign they should be happy to live in rooms with 4-6 people?

If I deduct this incorrectly I apologise, but are you proposing a two-tier system where Brits get paid a higher minimum wage than immigrants? Because when it comes to the low-skill jobs that immigrants tend to take that is already implicitly true: there is plenty of low-pay work out there that Brits simply refuse to take on.

Hi Jon, Not sure what the policy is regarding helping students with research on the forum, I know threads in the main-forum areas are generally locked with a request to PM you directly. Having said that, you will get a reply of me anyway as I find your topic interesting I would go for house B for two reasons. When we moved to Sheffield we bought our first newly built house. Before we lived in an Edwardian era house and the difference in bills is astounding (about 80% reduction). So the first reason is simple economics. The second reason is that it is part of our ambition in life to reduce our energy dependency to as low as possible. When we move again we would prefer to build our own house, energy-efficient and if possible completely self-sufficient in terms of energy. This is not so much driven by economics but more by an uncertainty about the energy future.

Just listening to the game now, I can never work out what it is with Arsenal, I seriously think it must be a case of Wenger not having the tactical skill to outwit people like Mourinho, Pellegrini or Rodgers... Every time I decide to listen to an Arsenal game they seem to just fail.

People still wrongfully moan about TalkTalk, very tiresome. I decided to swap to them from BT years ago (at least 5) when I had serious doubts because of what the consensus of 'experts' (who have never used TalkTalk but just copy what they hear) was. Fortunately I am not too shabby when it comes to knowledge about things internet and I decided to simply go for the best price. Haven't regretted it since.

These threads about cyclists always seem to get derailed, simple fact is, the majority of people in cars haven't got a clue what it is like to bike, they're ignorance is what causes dangerous situations.

It can go either way, if we show up I think we could take it, but if we think of them as Yeovil Reserves we are going to get done hard.