fhain29

I went to school in Sheffield with a Sean Hoare, I hope it wasn't this Sean Hoare. The guy I knew went to St Catherines til 1983, he went to Notre Dame after that.

I went to All Saints from 1983 to 1990. It was a good school, good mix of pupils from all social strata. I enjoyed the cross country runs through Norfolk Park, but only because I was good at running and c**p at all other sports. My first form teacher when I started was Mr Sawyer, who now I hear is the headmaster.

I know you can't really do this, but I have added up the total votes and calculated who would win the individual Sheffield constituencies at the next general election. First of all though, a look at Sheffield as a whole. The LibDems won 45,449 votes, only 211 more than Labour on 45,238. In terms of percentages, the state of play was LibDem: 34,2% (max 56% Fulwood, min 6% Burngreave) Labour: 34,1% (max 61% Manor Castle, min 6% Dore) Cons: 14,6% (max 36% Dore and Totley, min 5% Hillsborough) Green: 9,7% (max 36% Central, min 4% Mosborough) BNP: 3,4% (max: 24% Shiregreen (!!!), 19% Southey, 17% Firth Park, 13% East Ecclesfield, 10% Stocksbridge, 9% Hillsborough, didn't stand everywhere) Others: 4,4% Transferred to the new boundaries, the results in a gerenal election would be: Brightside and Hillsborough: safe Labour Labour: 48,5% LibDem: 18,6% BNP: 12,6% Cons: 8,2 % Greens: 6,6% Respect: 5,6 % Central: new marginal seat, too close to call. LibDems should be doing better, Labour saved by the Manor with a projected majority of 381. Labour: 35,8% LibDem: 34,0% Green: 20,9% Cons: 8,6% Respect: 0,8% Hallam: LibDem safe LibDem: 53,0% Cons: 25,1% Labour: 12,6% Green: 8,6% Heeley: on local results a wafer thin marginal with a projected LibDem majority of 17 (!), my bet is it will stay Labour in 2009 LibDem: 35,4% Labour: 35,3% Cons: 13,2% Green: 9,4% UKIP: 2,6% BNP: 2,3% Others: 1,9% South East: safe Labour Labour: 48,5% LibDem: 18,2% Cons: 15,1% UKIP: 7,2% Green: 6,3% Respect: 4,7% Penistone and Stocksbridge: includes three Barnsley wards and is a three way marginal, difficult to predict because of independents in Barnsley. Penistone is naturally Tory. Should be a key regional rural Yorkshire target for them. LibDem: 28,4% Labour: 26,7% Cons: 22,7% BNP: 8,9% Ind: 8,4% Green: 5,1% We will know on the day...

We talked about this a good while ago. Based on the 2004 council election, Caborn would be in the pub and a LibDem would be in the executive suite. http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=194389&highlight=constituency#post194389 The final recommendation changed and keeps the Manor in the constituency. On the basis of the 2006 election is will be a marginal: LibDem: 35% Lab: 36% Green: 21% Cons: 9% Of course we can't predict general election results on the basis of council results, but it shows that Caborn might have a fight on his hands.

I see no reason why bikes shouldn't be allowed on trams. After all, wheelchairs are allowed. Letting bikes on would be a step towards an integrated transport policy too. There are plenty of tram systems that allow bikes, such as here in Düsseldorf. It just costs an adult fare, so the company earns on it. Of course, the owners have to be considerate, but so should all passengers be. Others towns I know just let bikes on at off-peak times. That's probably the best solution. Banning them is just short sighted.

Paul, James and Nicola Perrozzi all went to All Saints School on Granville Road in the 80s. In think Nicola is a high flying advertising executive in London.

I have the the greatest respect for Her Majesty. I sure she would love to retire, but she can't because of something a selfish uncle did when she was ten years old. And so she goes on, doing work far more strenuous and more tedious than most of us do. The debate about who should follow her is a red herring. Charles will accede upon her death, should he still be alive. There is no constitutional provision for chosing the head of state. If that's what you want, fine. But be aware of the result: republic. More jobs for retired politicians and their cronies.

Also Caesarian 1971, my brother too in 1967. Thank God for modern medicine - Think of all the women who used to die in childbirth!

I am not surprised that many of you have nominated the usual current darling of the right-on, Chavez. It just proves that media coverage can help. There is one omission, however, which astonishes me, especially in a place like Sheffield. So I nominate Clement Attlee as the man who led the best post-war government, imlplementing the welfare state, including, most importantly, the best of British, the NHS. He also reunited the Labour movement after Ramsay Macdonald had thrown it to the dogs. He never lost the "popular vote". The election of 1951, when the Conservatives under Churchill regained power, was the UK's Florida-2000. Labour achieved 49% to the Tories 44%. The Tories still won an overall majority.

Hull is Yorkshire. Local authorities have nothing to do with historic and ceremonial counties. You were obviously never in Hull when the ghastly Humberside existed. Humberside was never accepted, that's why it was abolished. If your argumentation holds true, then Sheffield is not in Yorkshire because there has been no County of South Yorkshire since 1986. Sheffield remains Yorkshire however, historically the West Riding. And it's not debatable whether the East Riding of Yorkshire is Yorkshire. The name says it all.

This isn't true, Abdul. I'm being pedantic now, but Wakefield is a city. The six cities in Yorkshire with date of royal charter are: York (time immemorial) Ripon (1836) Wakefield (1888 ) Sheffield (1893) Leeds (1893) Bradford (1897) Hull (1897) More on topic, Look North is certainly biased, but it's because the BBC is based there. People in Doncaster and Barnsley moan about their local BBC radio station - Radio Sheffield - being too Sheffield oriented.

Of course it was cheaper in Ireland. The place is much smaller and has hardly a road network. The total length of the motorway network is about as long as the M18. So that's not a good comparison. I used to be a great fan of Metric. In school I only learnt metric. my brothers children in Hampshire only know metric, they say they are 1m 30cm and 42kg. In Germany I use metric measurements every day. They work. But I don't see the point in changing systems that work and are understood. I don't think it matters whether miles or km. We may be the only country apart from the US, Liberia and Burma who uses miles. But is that a measure of being modern? A measure of being modern is surely free education for all, equal opportunities, good climate for investors, extensive broadband access and use, good health provision etc etc. Not weights and measures.

Oh, this is the sign of the times. There is nothing you can so, and there is nothing you should be able to do. Your neighbour is stupid to smoke, but he is doing it in his own house. Maybe when you bought your property or moved in there it didn't bother you much because you weren't aware of it. Now we are much more aware of smoking and treat it differently. In future I suspect surveyors will be required to check properties for such points. It's true though: Exhaust fumes do us more damage, yet we seldom complain about the roads in front of our houses because we have cars, want cars and use cars. Maybe in 25 years the middle classes will realise that the motorcar in its present form and the pollution it causes is so odious that it becomes anti-social. But I digress. Close your window.

This is a very difficult subject and one that has been spoken about many times before here on the Forum. If you take the administrative areas, then Leeds is larger. If you take the "core city" (the administrative area pre-1974), then Sheffield was larger in 1974. Sheffield has lost more people than Leeds since 1974, so Leeds may be larger on that scale now, too. If you take contigious built-up area (conurbation), then Leeds, as the centre of the West Yorkshire conurbation, is larger the Sheffield, which is only contigious with Rotherham. You might take the "city region" (travel to work area), where again, Leeds has a greater take in area than Sheffield. (Barnsley is in both TTW areas). We all know Manchester is bigger than Sheffield. Go there, feel it. Yet in the statistics it is only marginally larger than Doncaster. Which leads me to the conclusion: is it important?

That may be the case. However, when American English literature is translated into German, there appears the comment on the cover "Aus dem Amerikanischen von ..." (translated from American by ....) So there seems to be a differentiation between English and American in the written language when seen from a non-English speaking perspective.

Apart from English I speak fluent German (living here like Ally). Learned French at school to A Level, can still read it, but don't understand much when it's spoken. Learned Italian, which is easy, as was said here already. I also learned Esperanto. Also very easy, so easy that I've forgotten it.

It's called "transsubstantiation".

To be able to judge this properly, one needs to compare the figures who are killed or injured by other forms of public transport such as buses, trains etc. and indeed by cars. I don't have any figures, but I doubt very much that the tram would be more dangerous than buses, and certainly less dangerous than cars.

I find this discussion about British Day a bit difficult. If we were to have a proper national holiday, like Bastille Day in France or the 4th July in the US, then it should not be on November 11th. This is Remembrance Day for those who lost their lives in numerous wars. It is a day of commemoration. Commemoration does not mean celebration. We should not be making war a thing to celebrate, and we should certainly not be linking our national identity with war. That would be incredibly bad taste. I think the only reason Mr Brown suggested 11th November is the fact that we have no bank holiday in the Autumn. My solution: We have a national holiday already, it is, however, not a bank holiday. It is the Queen's Official Birthday. Make that a bank holiday (in lieu on the Monday after Trooping the Colour) so we can celebrate the crown as the unifying element of our nation. The Netherlands celebrate "Koniginnendag" as their national holiday. It is a great party, and, interestingly, is celebrated on the birthday of former Queen Juliana, not the birthday of present Queen Beatrix. The Japanese also celebrate their national holiday of the birthday of the emperor. What is good there is that the birthdays of some of the dead ones are also public holidays. Why do I suggest a royal occasion? Because the reasons that people state to celebrate are not singular to the United Kingdom. Most states in Western Europe are dynamic, multicultural societies. It's nothing special. The one element which, constitionally and historically, holds us all together, is the Crown. That's we should celebrate that.

A definite "no". Iran should not be bombed. It is out of the question. Iraq was a blunder, Iran would be a huge mistake.

The interior design of the Co-Op on Angel Street is fantastic. The great whooshing circular staircase is great. The gran used to swear by the Co-op and called it the "Stores". If they still have little women in the lifts pressing the buttons, they still probably issue stamps in the food hall instead of having a bonus card! And do they stilll have the Santa's grotto at Xmas? That was great, too!

I have a similar problem. I often find I fall asleep quite quickly and then wake up three or four hours later. After that, I can't get back to sleep. The reason: booze. Don't drink just before sleeping, leave a hour or so in between.

If you want to buy, then buy in the UK, it's cheaper than buying when you are there. If you buy in the UK, go to the Post Office, there is no commission there. Check with your bank if they have a cooperation partner in Finland whose cashpoints you can use free of charge. That way you get the daily rate (NOT the tourist rate) minus commission and fees. I don't know if any UK banks would have deals with Finnish banks, as it's a small country. Barclays customers can use Deutsche Bank ATMs in Germany free of charge though.

I had this problem last year. My partner and I had everything we wanted, we didn't want money. The thing is, people will want to buy you something. So my advice is make a small list of things you really do want. There is also someting you can replace at home. This is better than getting things that you don't want or need. Give your guests some ideas, it is very difficult for them. Without help, they get frustrated and buy anything just before closing time after running around John Lewis's for five hours. And you get frustrated because the bedding bought as a result is vile. Friends of mine had a better solution, which is placed above. They wanted to go to Cuba on holiday. Instead of people giving them the money (as they would have been embarassed) they arranged with the travel agents that guests could pay in to a special "Honeymoon account".

Great post! A few pet hates of mine: - "to pressure" something: "to pressurise" please. - we "grew" the firm: one cannot grow anything, things grow. - "get" as in "I get a hamburger": yuk! - my nephew speaks of "cookies" instead of "biscuits" and deserves a good slapping as a result - 24/7 - BBC newsreaders often say things like "The Cabinet met Wednesday evening to discuss...". I want to hear the "on". Prepositions, please! - BBC news also talks of "truck drivers". They are, if you please, "lorry drivers". - And the next time I hear the "the" omitted in a back-to-front date I will scream: "the 8th of November", NOT "November 8th" - of course, 9/11 is worse, yet "7/7" is tatamount to heresy. The bombs were in London. The worst Americanism must be the need to state the country or state after the town: "London, England", "New York, New York", "Paris, France".