Can you suggest a non-voting question?
November 26th, 2009
Is there an area of opinion that we could test?
As part of its arrangement with PB, Angus Reid Strategies, have offered to include one or two non-voting questions in the weekly surveys they do from their polling panel.
These could relate to current issues or there might be more general points that it would be worth testing.
The idea is simple - we would play round with a few ideas on a thread and I’d put forward a couple for consideration.
Mike Smithson
MessageSpace Advertising
David Cameron two years ago:
The idea that anyone ever could be offended by a Christmas card that says “Merry Christmas and happy new year” and we’ve got to send one saying “Season’s greetings”; I think it’s just insulting tosh. ‘In fact, people – Muslims and Jews – are offended because it’s treating them in a silly and politically correct way.
Spool forward a couple of seasons Christmases, and there are more than a few red faces at Tory HQ, as The Times’s Ruth Gledhill notes :
Two years ago, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, said banning Nativity plays and replacing ‘Merry Christmas’ signs with ‘Season’s greetings’ risked offending people from other faiths by patronising them. Now the Conservative Party’s own Christmas card has been released – and it substitutes Season’s Greetings for Happy Christmas.
Thus has the ghost of season’s greetings past visited a one-time scourge of political correctness, giving bloggers around the world an early Christmas present.
1st?
FPT:
If anyone backed 2010 as the year of the next election with Ladbrokes, we’ve settled those bets today. Collect!
A losing result for The Magic Sign; we would have won a fortune had it been 2009 and at various points I was quite hopeful, but no luck.
The biggest price you could have got with us was 12/1 back in Sep 2007.
1. damn!
fpt
487. No, I think we should give tim a special award for sticking around, despite it all. Like those honorary Oscars they give for just still being alive.
Robert Smithson should get the overall Gong. VIPA was a serious piece of work.
ARS have offered to include one or two non-voting questions in the weekly surveys…
This should be entertaining, I’ll get the popcorn.
Actually, I have literally a non-voting question that I would like answered. I would like a question that explores why non-voters and potential non-voters are disinclined to vote. Perhaps the options could be as follows:
1) No party represents my views
2) All parties are the same
3) My choice would not get elected
4) It makes no difference to me who gets elected
5) I do not vote because of my religious or ethical beliefs
Possible questions
1) Would you describe yourself as
a) County/Area
b) English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish
c) British
d) European
2) Monarcy/Republic under QE2, Charles, William
3) Who would you like us to foster closer relations with?
4) Biggest Issue deciding your vote at the GE
Would you support fixed term parliaments of 4 years?
5 I don’t know whether you can bet on these things, but I’m told next year’s Honorary Oscar will go to Lauren Bacall…
Should we have PR for elections?
Should we stay have an EU referendum?
4 I am just too shibby, eat my glory
3 - Cheers, shadsy!
fpt. 445. Exactly right - the demographics of the catchment area affect school quality hugely.
Good primary schools are easier to find because they are smaller, therefore their catchment area is smaller, and can sometimes be homogeneously middle-class.
Bigger schools have bigger catchment areas, which ineluctably tend to encompass areas where savage illiterate scrotes with feral children live.
The handful of scrote kids then wrecks the local school for everyone.
It doesn’t take many. Frank Chalk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Its-Your-Time-Youre-Wasting/dp/0955285402/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259248678&sr=8-1) reckons two scrotes per class of 30 and that’s it, lessons are bugg3red.
This is why it is fundamentally misguided for lefties to argue that the middle class monopolises the good schools. It’s only the middle class dominance of the school’s intake that makes them good in the first place. All the teachers could be Matthew Arnold, but it wouldn’t help if 6% of the pupils are the Bash Street Kids.
It is institutional leftist dogma to ascribe the excellence of a school to its buildings, bureaucracy and the producers: to the state’s top-down involvement, essentially. Where the credit really belongs is to the users. Of course, where a school is cr@p, the left either insists that it’s not cr@p at all, or blames parents who steered their well-behaved children into better schools.
Bussing children all over town on a lottery basis into the “best” schools, a la Brighton, simply distributes the scrotes among every school and achieves nothing but to ensure none stays good for long.
Equality of mediocrity is of course a most satisfactory outcome by the left’s standards. But as far as most parents are concerned, it makes more sense to concentrate the scrotes together so that at least it’s only other scrotes’ education they’re wrecking.
If new political parties were formed
1) Would you support a centre-right party not linked with the Tory party
2) Woud you support a centre-left party not linked with labour
3) Would you support a liberal party not linked with the Lib Dems
4) Would you continue to support the existing parties
Perhaps on the Digital Economy bill provisions? Tax on broadband? increased copyright monitoring (possibly paid for through higher charges)?
What are your five favourite websites?
Well you know what they say about Blondes.
Mr Blond set out his vision of a “radical transformative conservatism”.
“(It) is nothing less than the restoration and creation of human association and the elevation of society and the people who form it to their proper central and sovereign station”.
Wow! that sort of party looks pretty good, would you get to be taller and have a bigger you-know-what as well.
Following on from the debate over whether people generally appreciate the scale of the fiscal hole we’re in, or whether they treat it as a fairly typical recession, I wonder if we could ask a set of questions like “If the Conservatives [Labour] win the next election, what do you expect to happen to the overall burden of taxation [spending on public services] over the next two years? Go up a lot, go up a little, stay about the same, fall a little or fall a lot?”
I think this would be interesting as it is not clear to me how much slack an incoming government will be given after May - will they be given leeway to make unpopular decisions, or will they swiftly run into resistance?
Public sceptical of Iraq inquiry independence
http://page.politicshome.com/uk/public_sceptical_of_iraq_inquiry_independence.html
With all the talk about hung parliaments it would be interesting to get a sense of the public attitudes ahead of time. Could you ask:
If the general election produced an indecisive result with no single party having the largest share, would you support:
(a) A minority government formed by the largest party
(b) A coalition government formed by two parties working together
(c) A government of national unity made up of all the major parties
(d) Continuation of the Labour Government until another election could be called
Would you support a switch from our current electoral system to a more proportional system?
5. Robert Smithson built the whole bleeding site. He is far above candidacy for a gong for poster of the year.
He deserves a knighthood.
[Dons Tin Hat, waits for hailstorm]
“What Social Class do you ascribe to yourself?”
19. Are the 21% who think that all pertinent questions on the war have been answered the same 21% who plan to vote Labour?
One that would interest me is the level to which politics does permeate out into the wider electorate:
So I would ask “can you name your MP - and their party?”
And then check on those who could name their MP and the party - to see how many got it wrong! I’m always curious to know what proportion of voters have no idea which party their MP actually DOES belong to!
FPT: 499 - one way to deal with it is to remove the troublemakers ASAP to allow the others to get on with their lives and education.
The next question is what to do with those who’ve been removed?
Which of the following party leaders would you most like to go for a drink with?
a/David Cameron
b/Gordon Brown
c/Nick Clegg
d/Other
1. Do you believe in anthropocentric global warming?
2. Has Labour in power been “whiter than white”?
3. Has Labour made lying, peculation and dishonesty respectable?
4. What has been the biggest lie told to the public in recent years?
5. What is the point of Scotland?
6. Which is uglier: Ed Balls, Gordon Brown, John Prescott, or a baboon’s @rse?
7. After George Galloway, will there ever be another fascist MP in Britain?
8. Do you support the reintroduction of capital punishment?
9. How many of the Queen’s children did Prince Philip father? (all / some / none)
10. How many of Prince Philip’s children did the Queen bear? (all / some / none)
11. What name should Charles use when he becomes King? (Charles III / Philip I/ Arthur II/ George VIII / Beaky / Mick / Titch)
12. What should be done about the Judenfrage? (this question for Labour core only)
13. Do you believe Grace Jones used to be a man?
14. Do you think the novel has run its course as an art form?
15. What is that thing Gordon Brown does with his jaw?
7.antifrank, excellent idea. You beat me to it!
Maybe also ask if the increase in other options would tempt them to vote even if their choice didn’t get elected.
All those heading to the pub tonight, have a great time.
26. Guantanamo?
10 She’s already collected it - bizarre but true
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/oscars/6575992/Lauren-Bacall-receives-Oscar.html
Afghanistan, in or out.
EU, as is, USE or trading block.
Immigration, on balance good or bad. Elected police chiefs, good or bad idea
Human rights act, protecting rights or protecting scrotes.
I can think of a million ideas where no party is offering a clear choice.
✵ Do academics distort research findings in order to qualify for research grants?
✵ Do charities distort research findings in order to attract government grants/public donations?
Do you beleive the BBC is:
1) Neutral
2) Generally tory supporting
3) Generally labour supporting
4) Generally liberal supporting
And (seperatly)
1) Is institutionally consverative
2) Is instituionally liberal
3) Neither
1. What is your understanding of Gordon Brown’s / David Cameron’s / Nick Clegg’s vision for this country?
2. Do you support the Conservative’s Inheritance Tax proposals for the next Parliament?
3. Which newspaper do you regularly read and which political party, if any, do you think it wants to win the next general election?
4. Gordon Brown, 5 more years - why?
27
- why do men have n1pples?
- do bears sh1t in the woods?
- is the Pope Catholic?
Questions for ARS:
1. How does the internet affect your political judgement?
2. How does the internet affect your politics?
3. How does the internet affect your vote?
A wide choice and of interest to PBers especially.
See you tonight!
Is Gabble Dennis MacShane?
Is Snowflake Yvette Cooper?
Do you vote for a party, or against?
Have you ever voted tactically?
Would you consider voting tactically at the next election, and if so for whom and against whom?
If you wouldn’t consider voting tactically, why not?
Is Jack W 107?
“Seventy nine per cent of voters think that there are still ‘questions on the war that need to be answered’”
I wish somebody would ask this 79% what these questions are. We could probably cut the inquiry down to two days that way.
Re 36. Delete last quetion as it concerns votes. Sooooorrrrryyyyyy!
7. Great suggestion from antifrank. Why people don’t vote is the great unknown of psephology.
Rather than “All parties are the same” I might make the option “All parties are equally bad”. (Strictly speaking, they all fall below some minimal threshold of acceptability that the person has.)
Do you think idcards are a good idea.
Is Copenhagen, the capital of
A) sweden
B) Denmark
C) some nasty foriegn place, who cares
Another question. Can you prove that Gordon Brown is NOT a frog?
43: YOu also would need
I can’t be arsed
and
Becuase I’m ignorant of all facts
option as well.
17 - This Blond bloke seems to have got his analysis of the Thatcher/Major years pretty much spot on. I can’t see him lasting long once the Tories get into power as there is no way they will tackle the problems that the last Tory administraiton caused and which this Labour government has shamefully failed to deal with.
23 “What Social Class do you ascribe to yourself?”
Might need different wording there.
God. Save me from the PR bore-a-thon.
As antifrank says I’d like to see questions which eek out non-voters views and a forced choice question. I’d also like to see the political opinions of voters views by nation:
(1) Voting is legally compulsory: you HAVE to make a choice. Who would you vote for?
(2) You have to choose between a Conservative and Labour government: who would you vote for?
I’d like to ask questions on “freedom vs. equality”/”prosperity vs. more equality” and “nations/internationalism” but I expect they’d be interpreted as “when did you stop beating your wife” questions and be meaningless.
35.
- What is the highest mountain in China?
- What is the longest river in Australia?
- African or European?
- In fight, who could you take who’s famous? Could you take
** Gordon Ramsey
** Gordon Brown
** Gordon Honeycombe (if he’s not dead)
** Gordon the Gopher
** all of the above
- missionary, margaret, doggy, mexican cartwheel, dick turpin, wheelbarrow, or reverse cowgirl?
- who’s a pretty boy?
- who would you rather do: Suzi Leather, Caroline Flint, or Nadine Dorries?
- when will I, will I be famous?
- do they know it’s Christmas?
- can you spare any change?
48 - the question is answered if it is understood
7 - It’s a nice idea but too few people admit to being NVs in a typical poll to give you an adequate sample.
Should pubs, bars and clubs be allowed the option of having a separate indoor area were smoking is permitted?
Are you an Yvette Cooper man or a Jacqui Smith man?
(Sorry!)
It seems to me that questions about subjects concerning ‘conscience’ issues don’t get asked enough, probably because they don’t directly affect the party political battle.
In the light of the rise of the BNP and UKIP, it would perhaps also be interesting to ask a couple of questions that would indirectly cast light on the electorate’s latent authoritarianism/racism - ie. do you support the reintroduction of corporal punishment?, do you think marriages between people of two different races are sometimes wrong?
As somebody here boldly asserted yesterday that the public don’t believe in man-made global warming, that might be a good question to ask directly - I don’t know if there’s been any recent polls on that.
And perhaps a question that explains the personal wealth of the Shadow Cabinet, and asks if that knowledge makes any difference to perceptions of the party and/or voting intention.
Would you prefer a system that produces parties with a platform that you can completely agree with, and who then after an election moderate their platform to form a coalition which you may not completely agree with, or would you prefer a system whcih produces parties with a moderate platform which you may not completely agree with but which carry out that platform as put forward in an election?
Or something.
Or not.
Something aimed at finding out how many people seriously believe in alien abductions, intelligent design, stuff like that. The aim being to get an idea of whether we’ve yet arrived at the point of mass ignorance in which more people believe in little green men than in Darwinian evolution.
Really belongs on previous thread
Peter Kellner, Consort of the High Representative, offers this gem of simplification in the New Statesman, where he was once political editor and I was once a reporter:
Anything between a Labour lead of 1 per cent and a Tory lead of 10 per cent is likely to give us a hung parliament.
http://johnrentoul.independentminds.livejournal.com/212060.html
38
and can OGH reprint the photo which made Yvette Cooper look like Camille Paglia?
53 - can we pick and mix?
59
Not since Woolworths went bust…
Why do you think Gordon Brown is unpopular according to polls?
a) His handling of the election that never was in 2007
b) His handling of the country since becoming Prime Minister
c) The country will never accept a disabled Prime Minister
d) Labour has been in power too long
e) Another reason (please state)
55 - “or would you prefer a system whcih produces parties with a moderate platform which you may not completely agree with but which carry out that platform as put forward in an election”
Or are you happy with the status quo, where Parties put forward a platform which is completely ignored when they get into power?
58 Is Paglia officially out as a todger-dodger, or is it still officially unofficial?
Do you frequent PB.com?
Any other political blog?
1) Are you happier than your parents were at your age? 2) will your children be happier in the world they live in at your age?
In Chelsea & Westminster hospital, they treated 240 babies. Only 18 were British.
Celebrate the international diversity of the NHS
National Health Service.
National?
Are we paying for a National Health Service or International Health Service?
‘What would be the outcome if Roger was sealed in a locked box with Schrodinger’s cat?’
Is there any occasion fit to be marked with a bottle of Chilean Merlot?
After 18 British, the runners up were
Silver…Pakistan
Bronze…Indian
Come on India? You dont want to come 3rd to Pakistan. You can do better than that.
65 - International Rescue
49. “I’d like to ask questions on “freedom vs. equality”/”prosperity vs. more equality” and “nations/internationalism” but I expect they’d be interpreted as “when did you stop beating your wife” questions and be meaningless.”
The second of those would be good if it was phrased in a neutral way. Perhaps a variant on the Paxman question that Tony Blair refused to answer in 2001, ie. do you think it matters if the gap between rich and poor continues to widen as long as the country is getting wealthier?
56. Alien abductions are spontaneous hallucinations. A lot of the phenomena associated with Aliens abductions, such as being levitated, probed with medical gadgets etc, have direct equivalents with hallucinations experienced by Siberian and Amazonian shamans (or is it shamen?). Anyway.
37. It is the general consensus of opinion that Gabble is a p€nis based at Labour HQ.
In your own opinion, and using a scale of 1-10 (from 1 – “not at all” to 10 - “a complete and total” ) how much of a knob jockey do you think he has been *this* week?
66 - if Roger married Ms Toynbee, would the progeny be a champagne bottle?
On a more serious note. Dubai is sending the stock markets crazy world wide.
New York closed due to Thanksgiving, so we will se if any great damage after the holiday.
34.
1. Read 1984 / he doesn’t have one / Who’s he?
2. I would have supported the Conservative’s Inheritance Tax proposals seven years ago.
3. The Times and the Republican Party
4. Why are you asking me? It’s your nightmare.
66: In theory Roger would make a prediction which could be right and wrong at the same time, and would only be confirmed when the box was opened.
Unfortunatly it is scientifically impossible for Roger to make a correct prediction, and therefore this would create a paradox which would destroy the universe.
This is why roger must be kept away from boxes and cats at all times, and why he has never made an advert for Whiskas.
If you’ve ever voted Labour, what in Chr1st’s name were you thinking?
*Should the monarchy be abolished? Yes/No/Undecided
*Should the House of Lords be an elected body? Yes/No/Undecided
Richard Branson’s beard. What is that all about?
They are only now starting to build a baily bridge over the R. Derwent. Only a footbridge though.
78. Should Scotland be abolished and become a branch of the DSS?
Who should we be closest to? EU/US/Commonwealth?
Should Private Education be abolished?
Non-voting intention question (sort of)
- Who would you vote for if you thought all candidates had an equal chance of winning?
- Do you vote mainly to elect a candidate you like or to prevent a candidate you dislike?
FPT. This post was well received at the time. Modesty prevents me mentioning the author.
http://www2.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2009/04/17/whys-jacqui-still-fighting-her-corner-over-greengate/#comment-1012743
63
Go spoil someone else’s fantasy pantheon…
66
Schrodinger would be facing charges for animal cruelty
70. Yes. Not bad.
I’d like to modify that slightly: “do you think it matters if the gap between rich and poor widens as long as everyone is getting wealthier overall?”
Of course, the answer would generally be “yes” no matter how you phrased it but it would be interesting to compare this question with the opposite: “following on from the above; would you prefer it if the gap between rich and poor was reduced but everyone got poorer overall?”
80 - the wonderful Bailey Bridge. Designed by a civil servant in his spare time.
65. Ken
I make it UK 18, India 14, Pak 12.
Are footballers overpaid and over-rated?
May I congratulate posters above for some very amusing suggestions!
50.
-Do you really want to hurt me?
-Who let the dogs out?
-What’s the name of the game?
-Do you like marmite?
-Does your wife? DOES she?
-Wha’choo lookin’ at choo fookin c*nt?
-Should I stay or should I go?
87. Actually no!
UK 18, US 16, India 14, Aus = Pak 12
54. James Kelly November 26th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
James, thanks for your comments last night on pessimistic vs. optimistic SNP strategy. I fell asleep before I could reply.
I had previously assumed that it was independence or bust for the SNP as a whole. I can see how, with a more cautious strategy, a Labour victory would favour you. (Although maybe not. The Conservatives may not stick by their “no more devolution” position. Haven’t they been making positive noises about Calman recently?)
Fwiw, if were in the SNP’s shoes I think I’d be on the optimistic side regarding independence. So far as I can see, the only glue holding the Union together now is Scottish unionists. Very few people in England would go into bat for the Union these days. (Indeed, the “Scotland is irrelevant” posts you see here are saying, in effect, “The Union is irrelevant”, though I’m not sure the posters always see that.)
I have to stop. I’m stifling my laughs so much my shoulders are quivvering up and down and I’m going red as I try and maintain composure.
I’m not fooling anyone and I don’t want to get sacked!
90. Did you spill my pint?
Claret or Burgundy?
Port or cigars?
Question suggestion:
Do you believe fears of Global Warming have been exagerated?
94. Do you want to go outside mate?
- At the end of The Italian Job what do you the Michael Caine character’s “great idea” was?
- in an episode of The Sweeney Regan said to a suspect:” All right sunshine. You’re about to take the final examination for the Chinese Civil Service. There’s one question, and no time limit. Tell Me What You Know.” What did he know?
- are “friends” electric?
86 I noted that on the Wiki entry for Mabey Logistics Support Bridges, that someone posted when I asked why they couldn’t be used, that the Romanians put one up in 6 days to repair a lost bridge and the Hungarians & US Army Engineers another in 4 days to replace one damaged in Hungary. They are only a UK invention made by a UK company, why should we expect our services to do as well?
97. You and whose ****in’ army mate?
OT for those interested in Turnbull’s survival chances - he now has 13 resignations to handle
Is Schroedinger’s cat dead or alive?
Is Schroedinger dead or alive?
If Schroedinger is dead, who is feeding his cat?
Wasn’t Pete Burns Dead or Alive?
Is Pete Burns Schroedinger’s cat?
Was Schroedinger in Charlie Brown?
87 United States 2nd with 16.
Are you the arsehole who torched Martin Day’s car? (If not, can you give him a job?)
Are you talking to me or chewing a brick?
What first attracted you to the political blogger Mike Smithson?
- do you feel lucky, punk?
- don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?
Do you believe Manifesto Promises are public declarations of principle and intentions which allow mandated authority to implement new Laws and policy?
or.
1) A guide to choosing which party best reflects your own political and social aspirations.
2) An inconvenience, to be dumped at the earliest opportunity.
3) A means to hoodwink the electorate to win an election.
4) A bit of a laugh.
100. Is that what YOUR MUM said?
- Is you is, or is you ain’t, my baby?
Eric Pickles or Nicholas Soames?
Does swingback always occur for governments?
Is this recession ‘moderate’?
Considering that the Copenhagen Summit will be the big news until PBR I would think that a set of non voting questions on Climate Change would be useful. Probably a set based around Green taxes.
Do you believe that Governments should use taxation to change behaviour to meet climate change goals?
Do you think that the Fuel Duty escalotor is the best way to cut down carbon emmissions from car usage?
that sort of question (in as non leading a way as is possible)
Enjoy tonight, folks.
Do you think mossad or the CIA did 9/11
Have you ever believed anything you watched in an Oliver Stone film.
Would we be driving cars running on water if the oil companies hadn’t stopped it.
If I said you had a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?
Morris Dancer’s questions:
Which politician would you most like to fire into space from some sort of giant artillery gun?
What reform do you think would best improve the Commons?
Should the burden of restoring the public finances primarily fall upon tax rises or spending cuts?
Did you threaten to overrule him?
I’m shitting bricks here. I love you guys
Does it matter what type of school a Prime
Minister attended? Yes/No
92 “Very few people in England would go into bat for the Union these days.”
I think that’s partly down to McDoom.
As expected, PP have cut the odds on Labor to win the next Australian election from 1/3 to 1/5.
do ya do ya do ya do ya wanna dance?
SSSSH! QUIET! ….can you hear that? in the distance?
Ok, now. To the nearest 10 miles I’d like you to tell me; how FAR away is Brian Blessed?
Does Harriet Harman hate you?
Is Britain ‘Best Placed’ in this recession?
Are Plane Stupid aptly named?
Do you feel you pay too much tax?
Is Britain’s debt low?
Are Plane Stupid the lot who are opposed to Jet out of Gladiators?
Do you think video referees should be used to cut down on the blatant cheating in WWE wrestling matches?
1.Do you think all drugs should be decrimialised?
2.What is Chris Grayling for?
101 If he loses completely and the Oz Tories come out united in opposition to collective farming part 2 that could be the start of something interesting.
3. Thanks shadsy.
I hope the other bookies follow suit soon.
99. Footbridge to be ‘finished’ on Tuesday.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/8381395.stm
Is there going to be an equal opportunites assessment to make sure that the repair work contractors employ the requiste number of disabled one legged dark skinned dwarfs from Lesbos are give opportunities.
Non voting question.
If you saw Gordon Brown in the Thames.
a). Throw him a lifebelt.
b). Throw him a brick.
c). fill in risk assessment form?
Is Gordon Brown an ‘economic genius’?
Have you heard of Baroness Ashton?
Did you know that Harriet Harman is an aristocrat who went to private school?
Did you know Harriet Harman sent her kids to schools as far away from Peckham Comprehensives as possible?
Do you feel lucky?
Does particle physics give you a Hadron?
d). fill in risk assessment form very slowly?
If Cerri off CBeebies got together with Heather McCartney, what would they find to talk about?
Um.. I’ve noticed you around. Um.. I find you very attractive.
Would you go to bed with me?
Can Sumo wrestlers reach their own @rses to wipe?
tim, good qs on the drugs.
Have you ever taken illegal drugs?
Do you know anyone who has taken illegal drugs.
Which of the following drugs should be decriminalised? Puff, Pills, Charlie, Smack.
What proportion of politicians have taken drugs?
Is it warmer in the country than it is in the summer?
How many Frenchmen can’t be wrong?
New Labour, what was that all about?
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
121 - Perhaps they expect the lunatics to take over the asylum.
It’ll be as if Redwood had won.
2 questions:
Can I borrow your credit card?
What’s your PIN number?
- What is the answer to the West Lothian Question
- What is the difference between morals and ethics?
- Have you seen my car keys?
- Do you mind?
118. lol. you’re funny mate!
Creme Eggs: Bigger in the past?
(can apply to Wagon Wheels and Monster Munch too)
- Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called blush response? Fluctuation of the….pupil? Involuntary dilation of the iris?
146, and KitKat crunchies (I think they’re killed that. The bigger ones. They used to be nice and big but now they’re pathetic).
Is climate change caused by human behaviour?
What amount of wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
“- What is the difference between morals and ethics?”
One conerns poor human behaviour and the other is a county in Eastern England?
Are you thinking what we’re thinking?
I was just wondering what colour your bush is?
Ed Balls vs Ben Bradshaw. Which invokes more nausea?
- who shot JR?
- was it the Mob or the CIA on the grassy knoll?
- bags or loose leaf?
How many pecks of pickled pepper did Peter Piper pick?
How much is a 0% increase?
153. No need to waste a question on that one. On women it’s almost always the same as the eyebrows.
153 - do the collar and cuffs match?
How many beans make five?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I’m 64.
Who is buried in Grant’s tomb?
- who’s the daddy?
- if you laid all the women in the world end to end, how long would it take?
From OGH’s POV this must be the most useless thread evah!
If you absolutely had to sh@g the wrong sex, but got to choose who, who would it be?
http://tinyurl.com/Why-is-this-animal-not-hunted ?
158. Follow up: Did you “get it” when you first heard Sean Connery say that to Tiffany Case in the James Bond classic ‘Diamonds are Forever’?
WHOOOAAAAA! My sex is on fiiirre! Is yours?
That’s a nice (poem,opera). Do you want me to set it to (words,music)?*
*Thank you Beethoven.
Interesting QT panel tonight…
“David Dimbleby will be joined in Edinburgh by Lord Falconer, David Davis, Nicola Sturgeon, Melanie Phillips and Marcus Brigstock”
1. Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?
2. Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods? Where’s the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
3. Who put the ram in the ramalangadingdong?
167 - yes, because he had just commented on her changing from blond to brunette (or vice versa)
167 - or were you too busy admiring the Aston/Walther PPK?
157. Never seen Men Behaving Badly?
167 I once had lunch in a restaurant in Chipping Campden where the two waiters were Kidd and Wint to a T, in looks, accent, and mannerisms.
170, hmm. Not sure I’d use that word. It’s a bit rough on the Lib Dems to be denied a spot again so that either Melanie Phillips or Marcus Brigstocke can pontificate.
I wonder who’s kissing her now - what part of the body is a ‘now’?
172. Outstanding
158. In answer to the question “do the curtains match the carpet”, a friend replied “I have hardwood flooring”
174 yes, but I thought the information would be useful all the same!
What time am I going to Dirty Dick’s?
Is that a gun in your pocket?
175. Did you try and strap a “bomb su-prise” between their legs at the end of the meal?
Diamonds are Forever is certainly the campest Bond film I’ve ever seen.
Was the Irish Catholic Church
a.A Religious Institution.
b.A Paedophile Ring.
180. Fear not, I am aware. I’m always looking at eyebrows.
Is dere more t’Ireland dan DIS?
Where is Leon Trotsky?
HOOOW can you have any pudding if you DON’T eat your MEAT?!
Do you know my name, my father’s name and what school my kids go to?
What is your favourite word?*
Mine is, often, but not always, “yes”.
Who was that lady I saw you with last night ?
O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?
Who had the alias A J Hidell?
191 - That was no lady, that was your wife. She still calls your name out, by the way…
On the topic of non voting questions it would depend of they were one offs or regular.
If regular then I would suggest the three topics which seem to be a genuine matter of debate where both sides of the argument claim they have public support.
Trying to put them as unbiased and simply as possible:
1. Do you believe humans are responsible for changes in the climate?
2. If there were a referendum on continued British membership of the EU would you vote for or against?
3. Do you support the introduction of ID cards and the associated database?
Obviously I chose those three because they are the ones which most interest me but as I say I do think there is a genuine divergence of views amongst the public on these questions.
Obviously I have just rattled them, off quickly so would be happy to see any modification to improve neutrality.
176. LIBDEM MP Jo Swinson has been revealed through her Facebook page that she has been dropped by the Beeb from tonight’s Question Time panel.
Do you bite your thumb at ME Sir?
4. What’s she going to look like with a chimney on her?
5. Y’all ready for this?
6. Where’s me jumper? (the correct answer of course being, “it’s alright saying things can only get better when you haven’t just lost your brand new sweater”).
196.I think that the Libdems should complain about this to be honest.
Does “PB” stand for “partisan bile”?
What was the best thing before sliced bread?
Who loves you, and who do you love?
205. Pillorying Bots
You’re sh1tting me, isn’t it?
How often is Jo Swinson on QT?
Surely the Lib Dems should put up a wider range of options, although clearly there should be a Lib Dem on.
Melanie Phillips should be on with Dorries and Starkey.
201, for Brigstocke, presumably. It’s off, if you ask me (not that anybody has).
200
Would you volunteer for an ID card?
Do you support compulsory ID cards?
Would you refuse to have a compulsory ID card?
Is Gordon Brown the worst Prime Minister evah?
- do you speak with Australian Rising Intonation?
- like?
Should Melanie Phillips do community service for the YMCA?
Should Polly Toynbee be rehoused in the Aylesbury Estate?
Who’s ready for ice cream?
If a barber, a man, shaves every man in a village that doesn’t shave himself, does the barber shave himself?
Is it cos I is black?
Why we are here? What’s life all about? Is God really real? Or is there some doubt?
Point is what is point?
205
“Partisan Bile” is a nom de plume of tim, in honour of one of the fiercest resistance fighters against the SS in Latvia
Is this real life? Is this just Battersea?
OMG - re AWG - this blog
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/ghcn-the-global-analysis/
has noticed that they aren’t just manually fiddling with the data to make it seem like its the Costa Brava here in Eastbourne…
They have changed the selection of data points so that for example in California - 3/4 of them are now located nr the beach.
WTF?
I’m appalled.
If a wheel is “the single simplest machine in the entire Universe!”, what colour should it be?
What didKaty do?
What did she do next?
What’s love got to do with it?
OT, Staffordshire again?
Serious concerns have been raised about standards of care at an NHS hospital trust in Essex, the BBC believes.
It is believed the concerns raised by the independent regulator include a higher than expected death rate among patients and poor standards of hygiene.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8381118.stm
Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?
Did you just drop one?
What is six times nine?
Oh, and in the spirit of by far the most worthy online petition seen on the No. 10 website thus far, do you think the national anthem of the UK should be -
a) God Save the Queen
b) “Gold” by Spandau Ballet
222- They’ve learned not to manipulate the data at least…
Now it’s just blatant rigging.
Where have you “done it” that Plato hasn’t?
230 a) should have the suplementary “and which version? Traditional or S3x Pistols?”
@230:
None of the above. Clearly the new national anthem should be “No Good Advice” by Girls Aloud.
232 - is there a definitive list?
Question 1. Is Question 1 a question?
Doyoulickadickaday?
Philip Blond, the head of the ResPublica think-tank, launched a broad attack on Tesco and other big supermarkets, suggesting they are too big and should be broken up.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6663401/Phillip-Blond-Conservatives-should-break-up-big-supermarkets.html
222 Lol, global warming through gradually moving the thermometers closer to the equator over the years.
235 - or has George Michael already produced one?
237. Or slightly more refined:
This question is about your television watching habits. Did you see that film last night, Gaylords Say No?
Who was the best Doctor?
Do you remember chalk hearts melting on a playground wall?
Queen’s “we will rock you” would be a good national anthem.
Why I am still here when everyone else is down the pub?
(No, seriously.. WHY?)
Did the ball cross the line for England’s third goal in 1966?
245 - Queen - or, “One’s Rock Band”
Who, or why, or which, or what, is the AKOND of SWAT?
I see that the Telegraph’s server has crashed when you try to load Delingpole’s first article about AWG
It has remained the most popular for the last week and is/was number 2 today.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100017393/climategate-the-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-anthropogenic-global-warming/
250 Star performance from him.
Poss Question for Angus Strategies
Do opinion polls at the time of a GE affect in any way your voting intention.
Apologies if someone has already suggested it.haven’t had time to read the thread
252. “Apologies if someone has already suggested it.haven’t had time to read the thread”
MTF: you really should.
92 Sunil… err, yep you’re right.
cockup on the postal-vote-count front.
OT - my youngest has asked me about politcal pollsters
He wants to take in a recent poll, with stats, for discussion at school. I suggested he prints off the latest ICM & Mori so he can discuss how a single poll can set the narrative in the media 
I think that most undesirable of Delingpole’s many character flaws, is his entirely misplaced belief that he’s a wit.
Judging by the overwhelming majority of responses, the answer to our host’s headline question is as usual “no”.
255.Kristin, don’t forget to get him to grab the front pages and coverage of these polls in the Guardian and Observer a week apart.
253
I just have! everyone is in loon mode!
We’ve topped 250 and nobody has raised the Schleswig-Holstein question ?
243. I was thinking about that the other day. I actually think tennant has done well enough to make that question moot for the first time ever. Obviously there is only one answer but at least now worth discusing. Though I still think Captain Janeway would take Kirk in a phaser fight on Deck 16.
Now to ask a question that once cost me a very dear friendship
” Within her cultural context isn’t Madonna as good as Mozart? “
259. C’mon.
Don’t you do SILLY?
Which way is up?
1. Dyed, someone else has pipped you to 1st!!!
256 - I can’t work out when he’s trying to be funny and when he’s just craving attention.
Which is this?
Australia is leading the revolt against Al Gore’s great big AGW conspiracy…
For the rapidly increasing number of us who believe that AGW is little more than a scheme by bullying eco-fascists to deprive us of our liberty, by big government to spread its controlling tentacles into every aspect our lives, and scheming industrialists such as Al Gore to enrich themselves through carbon trading, this principled act by Australia’s Carbon Five is fantastic news.
Can you spell potato(e)?
258 - already on it Christina.
Possible questions:
How do you fell about Tony Blair/Margaret Thatcher, very positive, positive, neutral, negative, strongly negative, no opinion?
This would be to see how much resonance attacking the record of past governments is likely to have. If, say, Labour claim Cameron wants to go back to the eighties, would floating voters think that good, bad, or view it with complete indifference.
Daily Mail - Climate change scandal deepens as BBC expert claims he was sent leaked emails six weeks ago
Also in the DM - Stephen Glover - I might not know the truth about climate change, but I recognise trickery and slippery excuses when I see them
261 only on Friday’s when there is a full moon
263 I just spotted that - it doesn’t count though as it is
a) somewhat anti-Tory and
b) appeared late and is therefore clearly rigged by OGH or one of his elves to stop my march to power - the power of FIRST!
Questions
How Green is your Valley? (ooer missus)
If all the girls lived over the sea, how good a swimmer would you be?
Where is the love?
225 - I seem to remember from “15 to 1″ that Katy smoked.
No idea what she did next.
83 said
“*Should the monarchy be abolished? Yes/No/Undecided
*Should the House of Lords be an elected body? Yes/No/Undecided”
perhaps we could add
*Should the monarchy have true power?
*Should the Life Peerages Act 1958 be repealed?
*Should Scotland be abolished?
*Should the death penalty be returned for Treason?
*Should the Blair/Brown Labour be tried for Treason?
*Should immigrants work in the Immigration and Passport offices?
*Should Lords & Monarchy have true power to prevent Commons abuses
*Should the spending proportions of the Welfare state budget & Defence budget be corrected?
* Should Immigrants wait 18 yrs to vote after getting a nationality - just like British people?
* Should unemployed muslims get extra large council housing with toilets facing away from Mecca?
* Should council houses be given to unemployed while working people struggle to get a house?
* Should benefits be deducted from people who smoke, drink alcohol and have Satellite TV?
269.MTF, with OGH off down the pub tonight it was inevitable.
Bearing in mind stovold’s 2nd amendment to the standard convention (1972) how can you apply hugo’s 2nd stratagem to defeat a move utilising trumpington’s variation from Acton Central to Pimlico?
262. The only way.
232 You asked for where they’d fiddled the data sources
Here you go:
http://chiefio.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/ghcn-the-global-analysis/
260 He has? I find Tennant terribly, terribly thespy. Every moment he’s on screen I’m thinking “There’s an actor, acting.”
Pertwee, Baker, Troughton for me.
Oh, and Connery. It’s hard to say who the second-best Bond was. You kind of have to come at it from the other end, and ask who was the worst. That would be a tie between Dalton and Lazenby, leaving one of Craig, Brosnan or Moore as the second-best.
It’s too soon to tell with Craig, Brosnan was bouffant and falsetto, and Moore had the huge misfortune to play Bond in the 70s when it was impossible to be well-dressed.
I’d maybe give second-best Bond to Craig because he and Connery were the only two who looked like they could and would happily kill you.
This is simple, but–What media sources do you get your news from? Which media sources do you find must trustworthy?
Are you bored of AGW links being posted?
Is it in yet?
How about now?
You’d prefer it if I left wouldn’t you?
264. I know James Delingpole. Slightly. Jolly nice guy, and very smart.
As a writer he is no Byron, as I am sure he would admit himself. At least when drunk. He is an agreeably essayist and light hearted columnist. However he has, almost by accident, stumbled into the position where is almost the *spokesman* for everyone outraged by this whole unravelling AGW hoaxafuffle.
He consequently has a chance to step on to the dais of journalistic greatness. But he needs to shed some of the humoristic tics of his previous incarnations if he is to do it.
279 - Do you like spam?
274:
Bingo.
277. Oh my God that’s so wrong I don’t know where to start.
Craig/Dalton tie for top spot for me.
281 - He’s having his Hannan moment.
Do you agree or disagree with Zhou Enlai “that its too early to tell” what impact the French reveolution has had?
OK, here’s a winning question guaranteed to get some press coverage (and maybe cause a few punches to be thrown):-
“In a forced choice, who would you support - the Israelis or the Palestinians?”
Tim Dalton was the best Bond.
How about
* Should homosexuals and lesbians adopt or marry?
* Should women who abort be sterilised?
* Should the National Speed limit be scrapped/raised?
* Should Lisbon Treaty be scrapped?
* Should an unelected CND executive represent Europe Foreign policy?
* Should an Mandelson be a minister?
* Should house holders be able to defend their homes with lethal force
I think we need to know what people think.
Democracy is a very interesting idea but I dont think it will be permitted.
284. You have got to be kidding. Dalton? Dalton?
Where in any of the books does it say Bond is a sulking fish-faced leatherboy nonce? Which was how Dalton played him?
280 !!!!
!!!!
“Do you think your wife should?”
280. He he.
Right off for the night. Might check in later for some more tomfoolery.
I also think Mike Smithson should include *one* random silly question at the end of each of his weekly surveys - it’ll make them fun and the MSM will love covering it
288 “Tim Dalton was the best Bond”
I dont think it is a popular view - but I agree. I shall come out of the closet.
I ALSO BELIEVE TIMOTHY DALTON WAS THE BEST BOND!
286 One of my fave quotes.
Do you ever get the feeling of “deja vu all over again”?*
Thanks to Yogy Bera.
how about:
‘do you believe climate change is happening?’
and if so ‘do you believe it is man made?’
and finally ‘do you believe it can be reversed or slowed down?’
284. It’s unfair to compare any Bond to the first Bond. i.e. Connery. The first person in an ongoing role gets to define it, in so many ways, and therefore becomes by definition *the* standard by which others are judged.
I reckon Craig is the most interesting actor to play the part - e.g. he’s a much better actor than Connery - and if it wasn’t for Connery’s iconic status Craig would take the laurels.
I can’t remember a serious fillum where Connery impressed as an actor rather than just as Sean-Connery-doing-something-other-than-Bond.
By contrast, Craig is the business, thespianly speaking. He was excellently menacing as Ted Hughes in the Hughes/Plath movie.
Do you have a copy of “Fly Fishing” by J.R.Hartley?
291 Classy I thought
How confident are you that you could help Rod Liddle and the MacIntyre identify their repsective arses from their elbows given their own utter failure to do the same in the national press?
290. Dalton gets it spot on. He’s exactly like the Bond in the books. Flemings Bond is full of tortured self-loathing and introspection.
It’s how the character is supposed to be. “Film Bond” is very different and people always tend to - irritatingly - compare every one back to Connery as the gold standard.
Except Connery wasn’t that good.
We need a Bond poll.
Vote here.
http://www.learnmyself.com/poll28751xc20748C3
Dalton? Dalton was an arse!!
294. Ken: I love you.
Right - seriously need to go home now!
294 Before his Bond persona, I thought he was a really sexy dark handsom type - after I thought he was a humourless ar$e.
He was a carp Bond - Connery was the best one IMO.
288. Wibbler - back of the net my man! Spread the love!!
Is Baroness Ashton a communist stooge and will she sue The Times?
Why do you think the supporters of the completely bogus global warming scam changed the name from “global warming” to “climate change”?
Why do you think they started adding “denier” to the end at the same time?
298 Connery wasn’t the first Bond.
ps. In French Connery means “Bullsh*t”.
Timothy Dalton, definitely the best Bond.
Actually having done a survey, there is an interesting personality type who say “Actually I think Timoth Dalton was the best”.
Independent minded thinkers not swayed by the mob.
304 A “Carp” Bond, Plato?
I am ready and available if required.
Sean Connery followed by a long vacuum, and then Danial Craig - quite simple WOW!
301 NO NO NO !!!!!
I love the Bond books, but Dalton is up his proverbial - Craig is much closer to the character as written - but I thought Casino Royale was totally carp
277. You may have a point about Tennant. I should have said the RT Davis reinvention as a whole makes it moot. I mean obviously Baker is the best Dr Who in the same way that its “Obvious” that Joan Hickson is the best Ms Marple ( Geraldine Mcewen is the Colin Baker… )
One day a tablet in Babylonian decreeing these things appropriately carbon dated will be found saying this is true because it clearly is.
Reinventing Doctor Who was like being asked to author a 5th Canonical gospel by the Vatican. I mean superfically easy in that all the material is there but Jesus tap dancing Christ where do you start?
The fact that the point is now moot enough to justify a drunken argument before concluding that it is Baker is a huge achievement.
Add to that the Queer Magnificat that is ” Queer as Folk ” and we arrive at a polling question of..
Should we put Russell T Davies in the Abbey when he dies?
310 ugh no, Craig was fantastic in Our Friends In The North though.
Quantum of Solace = biggest pile of crap since Goldeneye
310 What exactly are you doing when you are vacuuming, Christina?
309 I hear Milford garden centre is very nice at this time of year
298 SeanT
How dare you?
Connery’s performance in “The Rock” is the stuff of legend.
310 - How much would you pay for a photograph of David Cameron as Bond?
312 Hickson IS Marple - no others should even be viewed.
Ban all non-Hickson adaptations now!
Was a good time had by all at the PBer’s party in London? I think we should be told.
“I can’t remember a serious fillum where Connery impressed as an actor rather than just as Sean-Connery-doing-something-other-than-Bond.”
You should see “The Hill” (1965)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuQ63UBR1oU&feature=related
298 I recommend watching Connery in the film “The Hill” directed by Sidney Lumet. He was absolutely superb,as indeed was the whole film.
Roger Moore is indisputably the worst Bond. He’s frequently unwatchably embarrassing, when he isn’t playing the slowest moving sexual predator in the land.
“309 I hear M1lford garden centre is very nice at this time of year
by Plato November 26th, 2009 at 6:23 pm Your comment is awaiting moderation.”
I changed the spelling of a word to see if it broke the spam trap
If you imagine Craig in the old Connery Bond films i think he’d have been as good or possibly better.
Brosnan for me , only one I fancied. :blush: Connery wore too much mascara, Craig reminds me of a troll.
The news bulletins tonight are dominated by the Irish Church abuse story.
BBC has just has the story that as long ago as the mid 80’s the Dublin Diocese took out insurance policies against compensation claims.
Nice reaction that.
TWO QUESTIONS:
1. Should the UK leave the EU?
2. Do you support an English Parliament?
Zardoz?
211.Plato, I thought Casino Royal gave the Bond franchise a boot up the behookie and totally transformed it for another generation. It needed to become much more edgy, and Danial Craig cannot only act, but he did for us girls what Ursula did for Dr No.
321, agreed, although Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die is phwoartastic.
I rather like Dalton as Bond in Licence to Kill. Perhaps unsurprisingly they rarely show The Living Daylights anymore.
323 YES! Clearly the moderation trap knows all about my exploits all those yrs ago
319, 320
I would also recommend ‘The Offence’ (early seventies) - Connery is superb in it
325 - on Radio 4 news they said that insurance cover became the norm across the world.
301. Dalton’s not “exactly like the Bond” in, say, The Spy Who Loved Me, where he is described through a third party’s eyes. He is portayed as being every bit as scary / menacing as the bad guys, and although you could tell he’s a good guy, it’s not especially reassuring.
Dalton was about as menacing as something that’s not menacing at all. When Dalton attempted to do menacing, he merely resembled an irritable hairdresser who’s had a bad day at work and when he gets home his boyfriend has left the kitchen in a mess.
298. Connery was so successful as Bond that now, he is just Bond. Who can forget the immortal exchange in NSNA?
Bond Bird: Ooh, you are all wet.
Bond: Yesh, but my martini ish shtill dry.
It is impossible to think of him as anyone else, and one has to consider his subsequent career as a comedy, in which he playsh Shpanish noblemen (Highlander) and Irish-American copsh (Untouchables)with egshactly the shame acshent and preshumably the shame ill-fitting denturesh.
He was successful as Bond because, like Steven Seagal in Under Siege, even a broken clock is right twice a day.
332 - Its not often you hear a jaw dropping story on this subject but that is one.
325. Poor old God-logged Ireland. From Celtic Tiger to Catamite of Rome and International Bankrupt, in a few short months.
Begorrah.
330 I thought it was carp myself - too much blood and violence/little fun - never got over the fact that it was to be called ‘Licence Revoked’ and the US producers thought not enough peeps would know what it meant.
FFS
*still recalling Dalton on Wogan - was a worthy dullard he was, he is my sexy dark handsome type - shame he’s clearly a Guardian reader
My preferred question?
Is Gordon Brown/David Cameron/Nick Clegg the antichrist?
Well, if it’s good enough for American pollsters…
Colin Baker as Dr Who? During my student days the guy who ran the Dr Who Soc. (who later became a contestent on Big Brother and a Lib Dem local by-election candidate) said the Colin Baker was the best Dr Who.
Have you heard of the following, and if so, what job or position do you believe that they have?
Robert Kilroy-Silk
Ben Bradshaw
Caroline Lucas
Herman van Rompuy
Chris Grayling
Nick Griffin
Joe Biden
Michal Kaminski
Nick Clegg
Bob Ainsworth
321 Moore a less effective sexual predator than Dalton? No way, looking at Dalton in action, you could be forgiven for thinking he’d never fondled a woman in his life. And that’s not in the books either. Nor was the humourlessness. Bond is witty in the books, eg You Only Live Twice.
O/T
Over on ConHome we are informed today that Caroline Spelman is going on about:
“The Government’s attempt to avoid scrutiny over the new local government settlement….”
Surley not the same Caroline Spelman who had such serious scrutiny (NOT!) about her expenses in the days before these things were really looked at.
Nanny knows best!!
338 McCoy was a Doctor of two halves
First half of his tenure was achingly embarassing
Second half was getting interesting as the Doctor was being written in an interesting direction, quite dark with a hint of menace under the surface.
Russell Davies will undo everything in the last two specials this Christmas to hand over to Moffat with a clean slate.
340. Colour me credulous, but I’m ever-so-slightly getting the impression you think Timothy Dalton was a BUMMER.
Citation needed.
Delingpole’s Coward books are very good. And he had an amusing article yesterday (which has been despatched to Mrs Tabman) on the “Spanner Fairies” whodo all the “male” jobs around the house.
341 Agreed - Moore was a bit of a Cecil Parkinson type but at least he was a smoothie.
Dalton would buy Fair Trade wooden educational toys for his kids.
Well as we’re not likely to be asked the question by our Lords and Masters, who seem to think it an entirely Scottish decision despite our stake in the matter, how about
“Do you support independence for Scotland?”
I prefer Dalton being humourless to Moore being cringeworthy.
345. MOORE SPENT MOST OF HIS TIME AS BOND WEARING BEIGE F**KING SAFARI SUITS.
On the Doctor Who question:
My favourite is William Hartnell. (with David Tennant and Tom Baker as close 2nd & 3rd choices)
I’d not be able to give an answer on James Bond as I’ve never seen any of the Bond movies and I have no interest in ever doing so. Does that make me unique around here?
343 I stopped watching Dr Who when Mr Vision On appeared.
I can’t think of a worse candidate for the role, I really can’t - even Dale Winton would be more credible.
348 The Roger Moore films have been described as ‘Carry On Bond’ by some film industry figures. George Lazenby had great potential - much better than Connery. Craig is excellent, but Quantum of Shoelace was utter $hite.
Tom Baker was the best IMO, then John Pertwee [I fancied the Brigadier], then Patrick Houghton/Peter Davidson.
If you’ve never read Tom Baker’s autobiog - I recommend it provided you aren’t of a sensitive disposition - full of colourful swearing and self-abuse. It did make me LOL and very sad too.
350 I thought some of the final stories were rather good before it was pulled, McCoy was starting to fit nicely in the role
And he did a good short stint for the handover in the TV Movie.
Your man Dalton is in Doctor Who this Christmas by the way
350, Mr Vision On?
351, Lazenby also had Diana Rigg.
* would you like to see Sarah Palin warmly greet Yulia Tymoshenko?
No/Yes/Niiice…
* would you like to see Angela Merkel warmly greet Baroness Ashton of Upholland?
No/NO/NOOOOOOO!!!
351 George Lazenby ?!!?!?!
He was terrible - no sexiness, no fun, no masculinity - he could be an MP AFAIC.
351 Indeed. OHMSS IMHO one of the best, but under rated by many.
should the Catholic church be banned in the UK?
356, which MP or ex-MP would be the best Bond?
Boris! He’s already a crimefighter
358 Come on. Why so selective?
* should the Catholic church be banned in the UK?
* should the Islam be banned in the UK?
* should the Anglican church be banned in the UK?
there. Much more balanced.
Plato at 352 “Patrick Houghton/Peter Davidson”
Or even Patrick Troughton/Peter Davison ?
358 Come on. Why so selective?
* should the Catholic church be banned in the UK?
* should the Islam be banned in the UK?
* should the Anglican church be banned in the UK?
* should Aetheism be banned in the UK?
there. Much more balanced.
358. Again?
359. Which Mp or ex MP would be the best Doctor?
I think the Lib Dems could win that election!
O/T Has anyone ever been to a pb.com drinks event? Are they civilised affairs? I’m tempted to pop in and buy Mike a pint.
363 Geoffrey Howe as the Pertwee Doctor
354 I am showing my age
Mr McCoy was the silent sub-presenter of a children’s TV prog that was aimed at the deaf. Tony Hart was the main guy and did a splendid job and also first showed Morf.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJg5bLQerys
The Dr Who of yore suffered badly in terms of budgets (same with other UK sci fi like Blake’s 7); you can look at other shows of the time, Survivors (seventies version), Doomwatch (what exists) and so on and the look is a lot better, being based in a more recognisable world. When you compare, say, Star Wars and Blakes 7 the difference is laughable, nowadays you can compare the look of the current Dr Who to most mainstream films and they are at least comparable.
Anyone seen the surviving episodes of the sixties/seventies ‘Out of the Unknown’? Those are pretty good on the whole.
365 Lembit as the LOVE Doctor
Lembit would be a terrific modern Doctor. I think Vince could be a Pertweeian. Perhaps a lot of velvet and maybe a hint of baker with a long scarf.
366 he was one of the ‘O-men’ who could be summoned if you said six double ‘o’ words in a row
369, Liam Byrne could guest as an alien that can only be defeated by repeatedly punching him in the face.
OT, interesting stuff from the Iraq inquiry today. This is the bit making the news bulletins
Gilbert asks about Blair’s meeting with Bush at Crawford in Texas in April 2002. Many observers believe that this was the meeting where the decision to go to war was effectively taken.
Meyer says that for much of the time Bush and Blair were alone. “To this day I’m not entirely clear what degree of convergence was signed in blood at the Texas range.”
but this is the bit that will be causing trouble in the bunker
Chilcot asks aftermath planning.
It would not have been impossible if it had started in the autumn of 2002.
He says he often thinks: “What would Margaret Thatcher have done? I think she would have insisted on a coherent diplomatic and political strategy and [planning for after the toppling of Saddam].”
That’s another key quote from the session. All Meyer’s Labour enemies are going to hate him for it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2009/nov/26/iraq-iraq
348 “345. MOORE SPENT MOST OF HIS TIME AS BOND WEARING BEIGE F**KING SAFARI SUITS.”
Sean Connery wore towelling.
Towelling.
Elasticate towelling polo type top.
In light blue, like some kind of paint scheme in a state instition.
366. My age too, Plato.
xx
Tony Hart went to the great Gallery in the sky, just this year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hart
What happens when you apply a second degree polynomial to temperature data?
Apparently you get an ever rising curve.
So they did.
Read the comments.
http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2009/11/26/smoking-gun.html
361 Argh! I blame the vino - the nice warm fuzzy feeling my veins are experiencing is clearly ruining my spelling
The O men was Jigsaw, not Vision On…
377 yes! thank you. Jigsaw.
Was McCoy though, definitely
By the way, would anybody be interested in a pb2 article about what factors I considered when making F1 tips, and what mistakes I think I made?
Very quiet compared to the last few days, has everyone gone to the pub?
I am surprised that people are making so little of the Iraq stuff coming out, to me that’s the major political news we’ve been hearing by far in the last few days. Okay, it was suspected but this is the sort of revelation that sinks Blair’s legacy completely.
I couldn’t be fussed even reading up on this Islamic school thing so, like most people, I will be just imagining what it is. A bit about Dubai, the Ango Saxon gold, that’s it really (The Irish church stuff isn’t a revelation in any sense at all really)
379 Sounds fascinating - yes please.
355 “would you like to see Sarah Palin warmly greet Yulia Tymoshenko?
No/Yes/Niiice…”
Yulia says OK…
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3QqO8EXd-II/Sw5DP6V80eI/AAAAAAAAt8s/Sy23Le8JwBQ/s1600/caption.JPG
380 I think they may have done. Since you are interested in AGW - why not visit some of these sites instead?
http://camirror.wordpress.com
http://wattsupwiththat.com
http://chiefio.wordpress.com
381, thanks
I’ll start writing it now. Probably won’t be too long, but hopefully not a disappointment, as the choirboy said to the nun.
Hey guys, I’ve got a abcess under one of my teeth. I’ve been to the dentist and I’m on antibiotics. Going forwards the dentists says I should either have;
1. An extraction.
2. She’ll take the nerve out 9the never has doed, which has set up the infection) and do a root canal filling.
As someone thats never had a tooth taken out or a root canal filling, I’m not sure which option would be best? Anyone have any advice?
385
Have the tooth out! Dentists do root canal filling, they don’t work, the abcess returns, then guess what? You have to go back to have the tooth out
385 extraction
Job Done, painless
380.
Hi Paul.
Some of the stuff coming out about Iraq is devastating, IMO. BUT, its only confirming what we already suspected, which is that Blair decided to join America in going to war against Iraq, at least a year before he claimed he took the final decision. The stuff about WMD was simly an excuse - A way of trying to soften up the British public. They all knew, or at least strongly suspected, that Iraq posed no real imminant threat or danger. But Saddam was a “wicked man” and for someone idealistic like Blair that was reason enough.
Whether Blair faces censure in the final report is another matter of course. I expect nothing more than a stitch up, despite all the evidence we’re hearing.
386. 387. Thanks guys.
Thats what I was thinking myself, but wasn’t sure.
385.GIN, just get the tooth out.
Root canal work can save the tooth, but, f*ck me, it’s Not Nice.
I had some done a decade ago, and at one point the dentist said, “I can’t anaesthetize this nerve, it’s too inaccessible, so I’m going to drill straight through the last bit of tooth directly into the nerve, and it will be VERY PAINFUL.”
So that’s what he did. The pain was so bad I nearly fainted: a kind of white-out of pain. But when he stopped I was so flooded with endorphines it was like an orgasm.
Hope that helps.
Can anyone recommend a good book on the life of Robert the Bruce?
383 - Thats the same few nams that I’ve seen cited by all of these types of blogs.
I want to see a broader range of support from people whose political positions I trust more (being on the same side as the Beck’s and Bachmann’s of this world isn’t exactly credibility boosting). To get people to take notice you need much broader support, MPs for example, get a lib dem or two and some labour ones to support you. Monbiot is interesting but I’ve always had him pegged as insufferable.
It’s why I can’t stand the debate, it’s just people shouting the same stuff at each other. You aren’t going to get anywhere until you get governments to agree with you and that’s where your energies need to be directed. Start with Cameron, he clearly doesn’t agree and he’s going to be PM for a pretty long time. You can think that you’re right all you want but it’s not going to make a blind bit of difference if the people in power think otherwise.
(this message was brought to you in the hope that if I keep saying the same thing people might start to realise what I mean)
390. Cheers Christina.
391. OK Sean, decision taken after that story. I’m having it out!
When you came out of the dentist did you take some of your own painkilling substances?
371. Gordon Brown could be Styggron
http://nzdwfc.tetrap.com/archive/timeandspace/g/1978-12-30.jpg
I had a root canal extracted in 1992, the pain was so bad I haven’t been to a dentist since! I’m have cleaned my teeth rigorously 2-3 times. Day since so I won’t need to go back!
The tooth and most of the filling broke apart apart a year ago so in hindsight extraction would probably have been better!
394 - GIN, please don’t demean the young ladies by terming them “substances”
This does not look good for the High street chains
http://www.accountancyage.com/accountancyage/news/2254033/predicts-street-bloodbath
Hat tip Insolvency watch (Order order)
394. I think I was in one of my soberer phases, so I just got massively drunk.
But he did save the tooth.
And before you go for the whip-it-out option, I have an equally horrific extraction story. Another tooth of mine crumbled one weekend (this was before I had money, and when I didn’t look after myself). Being skint and desperate, I had to go to the trainee weekend emergency dental unit (at Guy’s Hossie, I think)
The dentist there was a student, maybe about five years old. He tried to take the tooth out in one go, but f*cked up. Then he ended up dragging it out bit by bit, with pliers, with basically his boot on my shoulder and me screaming.
It was like a Hogarth print of the Toothpuller. Blood everywhere.
Since then I have learned to take care of my teeth.
How about the philosophical: Is this a question?
BTW Connery WAS Bond but Dalton was underrated IMO.
The other issue it might be interesting to ask, on a more philosophical bent, is about people’s motivation for voting a particular way:
Q. How will you chose which party to vote for?
a). I will chose the party that will make me and my family better off
b). I will chose the party that will be best for people overall, but may make me and my family worse off
c). I will look at a few key issues and see which party closest matches my views on those issues
d). I will look at the parties in the round, and consider their motivations as well as their policies.
e). I will chose the party in my constituency that stands the best chance of defeating another party that I dislike
Just throwing some news out there that I haven’t seen picked up - both ITV and channel Five are planning to charge for their channels (ITV1 “likely” to remain FTA).
396. Good grief, it sounds like the most painful thing you can have done (as far as dentistry goes)
397. Me demean?
400 - would like to second thomaspaul’s suggestion. Interesting.
Who the hell would want to pay for ITV or channel five? :O
385. I had root canal work done by a specialist in the US 10 years ago, and so far I still have the tooth. I had another one done today by a regular dentist here who claims to have a good record. Sill waiting for the pain to subside…
394. Fairnuff. But I have an equally horrific extraction story.
When I was in my 20s a tooth of mine just collapsed one Saturday: totally crumbled. Being skint and desperate I had to the emergency weekend dental unit at Guy’s Hospital, staffed by trainees.
The guy there decided to take my tooth out. He was about five years old. He had one go at the extraction - but the tooth failed to emerge in one piece; so then he wrenched it out bit by bloody bit, with his pliers. The entire mightmare scene ended up with his boot on my shoulder and me screaming in agony.
It was like a Hogarth print. The Toothpuller. Blood everywhere.
Since then I have taken better care of my teeth.
393 Then try http://www.realclimate.org
ukpaul - you either have to decide if you want to read those who have been shut down for yrs and are now rebalancing the argument or if you want to read more of the same ‘the world is about to end’ stuff.
Before this all kicked-off, I was agnostic but irritated by the sensationalisation of the media and pressure groups like Plane Stupid’s 9/11 polar bear ads.
I considered it to be like SARS and swine flu - lot of uber media hype. As someone who trained as a chemist, I’m appalled at what these guys have done and the actions of their peers in NZ etc that seem very similar.
I sincerely hope that the activities of the CRU are a rogue - I suspect that they are not given the latest revelations.
It diminishes all science in the eyes of everyone else.
382 I like her bread hat.
388 “But Saddam was a “wicked man” and for someone idealistic like Blair that was reason enough.”
I think his ego went international because McDoom gradually blocked him out of everything domestic.
385 - my advice is if the infection can be cleared by antibiotic - try that first - if the abcess returns have the tooth out. I learnt from experience this year that by leaving the abcess treatment a bit late it has caused me no end of health problems.
396 - keep an eye on your gums also. The old joke being ‘teeth fine but the gums have to come out’ is that as you get older gum disease is the worry.
Now to cheer my self up I’ll have a piece of chocolate.
How about:
“Complete this sentence:
The Tories have shot themselves in the foot badly in Bedford by……”
timbot? tim lite?
385
Gin
The others have crap dentists. I had root canal treatment last year and it did not hurt. At all. One bit. It was a big molar.
My dentist does lecture to other dentists and does QA on teaching hospitals so may be a bit special (He’s certainly not cheap:-(
I see Mr Blond doesn’t like supermarkets.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231248/Tories-new-guru-says-Britains-big-supermarkets-broken-big.html
406. :O My dentist is pretty good, so hopefully she’ll get it out better than that.
These things are all part of life’s experiances for Tom Knox, anyway.
408. Theres probably something in that. I think it did have a lot to do with getting an ego boost. After Kosovo Blair started to see himself as “The Great Liberator”
Three general knowledge question:
1. At which academic institution was Gordon Brown a Senior Lecturer in Trade Union History?
2. How much does the Ed Balls/Yvette Cooper “partnership” spend on food each month?
3. Where does occupier of social housing in East London, Baroness Uddin, have a marble palace?
any sign of this evening’s poll?
F1 rambly post: http://politicalbetting.blogspot.com/2009/11/f1-tips-factors-successes-and-mistakes.html
410. Well she says after the antibiotucs have cleared up the infection I’ve got to have some treatment because the nerve is dead and the infection will just come back if nothing is done.
412. My mum always used to say if you’ve got a good dentist your set up for life!
366 (Plato if you’re still about!) I’m only 38,but can hazily recall the last couple of series of ‘Vision On’,around 1977/8 -rooting around youtube t’other day,I was reminded of the speech bubbles that talked to each other -’The Burbles’.
My last recollection of this was around early 1978,when Kate Bush had a No.1 with ‘Wuthering Heights’!
70 - I am begining to believe Immigration might be a huge problem for Labour come the election
OT, but might wake up the Nats
Controversial plans to introduce a minimum price for alcohol have been killed off, in the first part of a double blow to what Alex Salmond had planned as the highlight of his political year.
On Monday, St Andrew’s Day, the First Minister will unveil plans for his other remaining flagship policy, an independence referendum, but this will also be unanimously rejected by the other main parties.
The double setback will leave a hole at the heart of Mr Salmond’s legislative programme, with the prospect he will have no ‘big ticket’ achievements to boast of in his first term in office.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/6663458/Minimum-pricing-killed-off-in-first-stage-of-Alex-Salmond-double-blow.html
403 - Agreed, excellent questions, but I think a & b should be one question (which do you feel is closest to your view) and c,d and e put in a second question (similarly).
407 - Hardly shut out of the blogosphere and independent news sources though, I don’t think there are many who don’t know the competing arguments.
The ‘real climate’ blog is better as it focuses on the science but ironicaly that’s also, in the long run, its drawback. Scientists are not the catalysts on changing the political debate, politicians are, and without broad political support then there’s no real debate. As I implied yesterday, ‘truth’ is not enough, you have to engender a widespread belief in that ‘truth’ for governments to take notice.
I loved the music to VisionOn
Left Bank Two
http://www.dewolfe.co.uk/musicsearch/track_detail.php?primaryid=27866
Accroche-toi, Caroline
http://www.dewolfe.co.uk/musicsearch/track_detail.php?primaryid=27981
Java
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcfCvsl47-A
416. Probably won’t appear until after 10pm.
ironicaly = ironically.
OT. EdP. You were nonplussed by ‘An Education’! Sometimes happens if it’s been oversold. For me it was the opposite. I knew nothing about it and was very pleasantly surprised.
Tim. You asked if Alfred Molina was really good in AE. He was good but not exceptional. It was odd casting in that he played an anti-semite (slight) when he could easily have been cast as a Jew and Peter Sarsgaard was cast as a ‘Rachmanesque’ Jew when in another film he could easily have been cast as an archytypal SS guard!
UKPaul. ‘White Ribbon’ was brilliant but as excruciating a two and a half hours as it’s possible to have at the cinema. No violence but brutal. No music but you could hear the silence.
Truly shocking news from the Iraq enquiry.
Apparently Blair was contemplating removing Saddam a year before the war.
Wait until they find out it was 3 years earlier.
Shhh, its a secret.
http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page1297
Truly shocking news from the Iraq enquiry.
Apparently Blair was contemplating removing Saddam a year before the war.
Wait until they find out it was 3 years earlier.
Shhh, its a secret.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/international/jan-june99/blair_doctrine4-23.html
Sorry double post.
421. Never mind there’s still the big issue of getting the power to ban airguns….
400 The problem with 400 is that (a to e) isn’t the finite set of possible motives, plus there’s far too much scope for loading the questions with emotive language, and it’s not really headline stuff.
I like Augustus Carp’s Israel/Palestine choice upthread:
287 In a forced choice, who would you support - the Israelis or the Palestinians?”
It would be good if it could be complemented with a couple more equally snappy and concise big questions. But I can’t think what they might be.
426 - Thanks Roger, I really must see it. It sounds like it’s in the same world as Wedekind (Spring Awakening, Pandora’s Box etc.).
429
tim. why apologise for a double post, its what you do… endlessly and repetitively…
422. RealClimate.org is not objective.
It was set up by the inner circle of The Team to counter MacIntyre.
http://www.populartechnology.net/2009/07/truth-about-realclimateorg.html
What prospects the emergence of a new party in the USA?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6664168/Republican-candidates-face-Ronald-Reagan-test.html
421.ScottP, going to be interesting to see what the Tories come up with regards Calman. I see that George Osborne is involved. Could get interesting from a fiscal and political point of view.
435 - Makes the 1983 Labour Manifesto look sensible.
434 - I said it was a matter of degree, only because it wasn’t aggregating information in the endlessly circular manner of many blogs (I’d be interested if anyone knows of a similar scientist focused group site/blog for the opposite argument). Frankly, though, both that and the earlier suggestions merely cancel each other out, leaving the lay person none the wiser.
227 - when I had to go into hospital a couple of years back I was told be some people in no uncertain terms not to go there, so I went to a different hospital in a different trust.
422
“The ‘real climate’ blog is better as it focuses on the science”
As does the Watts up with that site. In fact they have far more in the way of proper scientific data than RC. Of course this is because they make a point of ensuring that the raw data as well as the models are available to all. Unlike RC which won’t release the raw data and just wants everyone to believe what they say because ‘we are the scientists’.
Is democracy worth dying for?
438
“Frankly, though, both that and the earlier suggestions merely cancel each other out, leaving the lay person none the wiser.”
Not true. As I said, at least the WUWT site makes the raw data and graphs available rather than relying upon the ‘edited’ versions. If you had actually looked at the site over the last few days you would have seen plenty of data and discussion revolving around the station measurements from Australia and New Zealand along with clear analysis of exactly how they have been doctored to give the results that the AGW alarmists wanted.
441
Personally I would say yes. However I am not sure it is worth sending someone else to die on my behalf.
440 - It reads more like a mix up of news, views and data to me. If you compare the front pages you can see what I mean. If the Watts blog separated out the scientific stuff from the rest it would gain in credibility markedly.
“Tories admit David Cameron Islamic schools claim ‘had mistakes’
“The Tory leader’s aides admitted that he had made mistakes in raising the issue of funding for two independent schools run by the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6933158.ece
442 - And the other side would disagree, stating how they are not doing so; result, stalemate as far as the lay person is concerned.
I can sense the old arguments and entrenched views trundling over the horizon so I’ll go and watch the telly now.
443 - Were you a troops out of Ireland man or did you fight.
445: “Although the schools did receive money for the provision of free nursery school places as part of routine allocations by local authorities, there was no evidence it received cash from the fund to tackle extremism as alleged by Mr Cameron, they said. ”
” Jack Reacher wrote:
Ofsted is run by Christine Gibert who is Tony McNulty’s wife. Tony McNulty is a NuLabour Minister and a close colleague of Ed Balls.
It makes a change for ‘bullying’ Ed Balls to accuse someone else of “divisive smears” because he is the one usually making them!”
Don’t know about which MP would make a good Doctor Who, but for James Bond, there is surely only one candidate.
- selectively educated
- thug
- irresistible to women
- bon viveur
- frequently saves the world
it’s got to be Gordon.
441 Is democracy worth dying for? Problem of definition of democracy. I’m not sure I’d die for the EU version for instance.
Would you *serve* the Queen if Her Majesty was so minded?
Should voting at general elections be made compulsory?
436. Interesting exchange between Osborne and Darling in the house today. There is a suspicion that Darling is going to u-turn on the previous IHT commitment to try and get back on the right side of their own dividing line.
tim chump 411
Nothing from Henry Macrory on this evenings expected poll;
http://twitter.com/henrymacrory
That usually means its bad news for the Tories.
451.Will try and catch up with that later on BBC Parliament channel. Not surprised there might be a U turn from Darling, their own policy is doing more to blunt their attacks on the Tory policy than anything else. Be interesting to see if they do it, cos it ain’t the millionaires that they will hurt the most.
‘Ed Balls creates smokescreen over extremist school funding’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/6657185/Ed-Balls-creates-smokescreen-over-extremist-school-funding.html
448 - Camerons confusion of Anti extremism funds with nursery vouchers is covered here.
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/969924/Confusion-nursery-education-grant-Muslim-schools-row/
438. At the moment there are almost no scientific blogs that are not all over CRU and climate ‘adjustments’ like a rash. It’s seen as an insult to science and scientific ethics. No one believes that there hasn’t been at the very least unforgivable gross errors or at worst outright fraud.
Lots of blogs teasing apart the data and how it appears to have been manipulated, but to understand it fully it needs more than a little experience of the various flavours of Fortran, since that is what the data was coded in. They do give the benefit of the doubt to some aspects of what they’re finding, but overall there seems to be more than a suspicion that another Lysenko-type scandal has been exposed.
Hmm, questions that might add to our knowledge about voters.
Something on women MPs e.g. are the major parties right to take measures to try to increase the number of women MPs? Even better, half the respondents should be asked first whether they believe the mix of MPs should be more representative of ordinary people.
Questions on the separate aspects of PR, for instance is this a deal-breaker or an advantage: Would you like several local constituencies to be joined together to send a group of MPs (possibly from different parties) to represent you in Westminster?
And when should referenda be used? Maybe with a list of possible topics.
453 - or they haven’t told him because he keeps jumping the gun
441. Are you volunteering Gabble?
Can anyone please explain why this man is still an MP.
Cash for Questions, Cash for Homeopathy and Astrology.
Now this
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231225/Tory-MP-ordered-pay-2000-using-taxpayers-money-party-political-purposes.html
457
I think thats unlikey,I hear he didn’t know about the ARS poll until he was told about it.
“The Conservatives were forced to back down today after it emerged that they had confused nursery education funding of more than £100,000 with Government money to prevent violent extremism…”
“During prime minister’s questions David Cameron claimed that both schools,…had received £113,000 of Government money, some of which came from a pathfinder scheme Preventing Violent Extremism.
It later transpired that Mr Cameron had confused the name of the scheme with the pathfinder funding for the free entitlement.”
http://www.nurseryworld.co.uk/news/969924/Confusion-nursery-education-grant-Muslim-schools-row/
Good spot, yesterday, tim.
459 timbot see 411
OT
The Prime Minister attacked the Act of Settlement, again, and it got me thinking (this doesn’t happen often). In the Commons at PMQs on Wednesday he restated his view that the 1701 law which secures the Protestant succession and bars a Catholic from the throne must go, on the grounds that it is discriminatory.
Perversely, the PM’s intervention almost certainly proves that the Act is safe. You see, denouncing it and then not bringing forward legislation to overturn the Act has become a favourite Gordon Brown stand-by. Looking for something to say? Then denounce the Act of Settlement.
He did it here. And here. And here in 2008, where he promised a review. Back in 2007 his aides briefed that he would be determined as PM to do something about it. But another Queen’s speech has come and gone and still there was no legislation on the subject. After all these years it is said it will be in the next Labour manifesto. But political leaders can put anything in manifestos: pledges to hold referendums on European constitutions/treaties, that sort of thing - it doesn’t mean anything will happen.
http://blogs.wsj.com/iainmartin/2009/11/26/act-of-settlement-denounced-act-quite-safe/?mod=rss_WSJBlog
I think we should test the intelligence of the electorate with our questions. I suggest the following:
1) How long did the Hundred Years’ War last?
What color is a purple finch?
2) Which country makes Panama hats?
3) From which animal do we get cat gut?
4) In which month do Russians celebrate the October Revolution?
5) What is a camel’s hair brush made of?
6) The Canary Islands in the Pacific are named after what animal?
7) What was King George VI’s first name?
9) Where are Chinese gooseberries from?
10) What is the color of the black box in a commercial airplane?
These questions are good for the Tories.
ukpaul - it strikes me that you want to find a blog/web source that gives you the answer you are after. You don’t like the sceptical ones despite their pretty reasonable incredulity about Phil Jones et al emails/Harry’s database records and comments.
I don’t know what sort of source will change/convince your opinion/
What I can guess is that you aren’t very interested in the current debate about the veracity of whether AWG science has been subverted. There is pretty damning evidence written by their own hands here - plus new stuff emerging about the records for NZ, Tasmania and California to mention a handful.
As someone trained as a chemist, I find the whole debacle appalling - I really do. It’s not petty point scoring against rivals - it’s trillions of tax pounds, squelching the poorest countries with carbon taxes/making fortunes for carbon traders…
Possible questions:
Would you support the creation of a nationalised “People’s Bank” run in competition with high street banks?
46
7. Great suggestion from antifrank. Why people don’t vote is the great unknown of psephology.
Rather than “All parties are the same” I might make the option “All parties are equally bad”. (Strictly speaking, they all fall below some minimal threshold of acceptability that the person has.)
by MichaelK November 26th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I agree. (Hope Mike can pick antifrank’s one out from the vast list of jokey ones!)
“Tory leader under pressure to make a statement in the Commons correcting the record”
“There were recriminations from some MPs towards shadow schools minister Michael Gove’s team for failing to spot the elephant traps.”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23775290-balls-accuses-cameron-of-smears-over-muslim-schools-cash.do
Former Labour minister rebuked for branding Tory donor Lord Ashcroft a ‘monster from the Caribbean deep’ who is ‘corrupt’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1231177/Former-Labour-minister-rebuked-branding-Tory-donor-Lord-Ashcroft-monster-Caribbean-deep-corrupt.html
464 - I want to see a broader range of support for your position. If it doesn’t exist then you’ll have to make sure you get one otherwise people will remain on the fence. I don’t have an answer, there is too much conflict, too much hot air for me to be able to see through it.
The debate over what has been subverted is interesting but a sideshow; the people you need to convince are in government, we have little power or access to it.
463. Add another…
Who was buried in Henry VIII’s sarcophagus?
466 - Canary Islands in the Pacific?
11) How long did the Thirty Years War last?
459. Entertainment value.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/5580983/MPs-expenses-David-Tredinnick-tried-to-claim-for-intimate-relationships-course.html
David Tredinnick, the Conservative MP for Bosworth, attended the four-hour seminar, which included learning how to “honour the female and also the male essence and the importance of celebrating each”.
The invitation to the course, which he submitted with his office expenses, also said: “Where did the magic go? Discover how to recreate that again. Attend this course and find out how to make things better and develop tools for taking your relationship to an outstanding level of love, fun, laughter, passion and intimacy.
The course offered to teach those attending about “polarity and neutrality” and the “deep passions of our intimate relationships”.
An official in the Commons fees office wrote to Mr Tredinnick to explain that “costs relating to Intimate Relationships courses do not fall within the remit of this allowance” and the claim was turned down.
…
Mr Tredinnick, who is married with two children, was educated at Eton and Oxford and has an MBA from Cape Town University. He is a former Grenadier Guards officer and was first elected in 1987. He said: “I attended the course on ‘intimate relationships’ because I thought it would help me to better understand the complex relationships that so often featured in the cases of constituents who had asked for my help.
“At that time I was not aware that attending such a course would be outside the scope of the then office costs allowance. It was not claimed under the additional costs allowance.” “
IIRC the black box is Orange.
I just had a terrible journey to work. We had the car serviced today. They must have done a terrible job as I broke down in the middle of the junction outside Euston.
Apparently, according to a nice chap who helped push me out of the way, they left the spark plugs loose.
Bstrads
471. You’ve just confirmed my suspicions about you. A disconnect with reality, I think.
Ah well, another poster to ignore in future.
That makes…. um… 5.
Gary McKinnon set to be sent to America after Alan Johnson says he cannot block extradition.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6663920/Gary-McKinnon-set-to-be-sent-to-America-after-Alan-Johnson-says-he-cannot-block-extradition.html
It wouldn’t surprise me to see Cameron make a virtue out of his recent mistake, by admitting to the error and publicly committing to, “Frankness with the British people when we gets things wrong, unlike the current administration…”
453. Gin
Who said there is a poll tonight anyway ?
470: ‘Former Labour minister rebuked for branding Tory donor Lord Ashcroft a ‘monster from the Caribbean deep’ who is ‘corrupt’’
Ha! I take it MacShane was trying to crawl back into the affections of his colleagues and leadership with a bit of puerile Ashcroft bashing after his abject performance on Newsnight. I feel sorry for tim, who’s spent months trying to keep the Kaminski thing on the boil only to see the issue killed off by MacShane, who treated it all as one big joke!
ukpaul
you have too many abstract entities in your philosophical worlc view. You think there are theories of Warmism and Coolism and that the actual science is just one of the underpinnings of these theories. In a way you are absolutely right; most of the comments on Monbiot’s article are from knuckle draggers to whom being Warmist or Coolist is like supporting West Ham or Milwall. But what should determine the issue is the science, and there is no scope for politics until we have that. So in practical terms the thing to do is keep testing the science and that means subjecting the CRU data to a microscopic examination. A consensus will emerge as to how badly the warmist case is fecked; and that should please them cos we know they like consensuses. So let’s just wait and see.
Gary McKinnon appeal rejected - nice 1 Labour
474 - Perhaps thats an idea, we have 12 seats reserved for Etonians like Tredinnick, Wiggin, Rees Mogg et al purely for comedic reasons.
Like the Archbishops in the Lords, a dozen kings of comedy who can’t be voted out.
484 tim bot see 411
Ed Balls demands schools cut back on heating to save £750m
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6932990.ece
Nick Palmer at 403 - Thanks!
ukpaul at 422 - Yes, two sub-sets of questions would work better and force respondants to make a decision.
Sparky at 432 - On it’s own perhaps it wouldn’t be very news worthy. However, once correlated with the same individual’s responses on voting intention we may see some interesting patterns. We’d be able to explore issues such as:
- Are Tory voters more selfish than Labour voters?
- What proportion of voters vote against a party rather than for a party?
- How does the tactical effect, above, affect party vote shares? For this you could strip out everyone who says they vote tactically and see what the overall % for each party is then.
- Are people who vote for minority parties more ’single-issue’ focussed than the norm?
485 - Yes I’ve seen it.
The answer is “allowing the meeting to be packed”
Now up the wooden hills to Bedfordshire with your fantasy banner, in a fantasy language, on your fantasy road, to your fantasy mosque.
John Rentoul is a hero for doing this:
“Iraq Inquiry Misreporting Rebuttal, Day Two”
http://johnrentoul.independentminds.livejournal.com/211268.html
The craven mis-reporting of the Hutton inquiry reached extraordinary levels. Rentoul really has his work cut out for him if he’s going to keep pace with the MSMs lies and distortions of the Iraq Inquiry. Good luck to him.
I was always a concern that Hutton would be swept along and influenced by the deliberately dishonest narrative written and broadcast by the MSM. He stood firm and delivered his conclusions based on the evidence presented. They’ve never forgiven him.
Can all 5 members of the Iraq Inquiry resist the pressure? I doubt it.
Gin. Root canal work isn’t always painful, modern anaesthetics do help, but it can be a long job.
486
“Ed Balls demands schools cut back on heating to save £750m”
Quite right too. They need training for the time when they are pensioners (85) and can’t afford heating because they are still paying back Gordon’s debt.
488 lol you chump. Thanks for smearing me earlier in the day.
tim = chump
489: ‘John Rentoul is a hero for doing this’
Goodness. I didn’t realize there were any lefty, pro-war, Blair Mini-Me’s still alive in captivity.
Who won the Second World War, and who came Second?
tania wiltshire - haven’t seen you posting before, welcome if this is your first.
446
“And the other side would disagree, stating how they are not doing so; result, stalemate as far as the lay person is concerned.”
Absolutely not. These are not relative states we are dealing with here but absolutes. This is where you continue to misunderstand the whole basis of this argument.
Eiether they release all the data for comparison and repetition in which case they are following scientific procedure, or they do not, in which case they are not. It is black and white and is not a matter of opinion.
So your attempt to protray the two states as equally valid is absolutely wrong. By releasing all the data, code and models they are using sites such as WUWT are practicing proper sceince. By refusing to release their raw data, code and models RC and the AGW alarmists are failing to follow basic scientific procedure and their claims, whether they or anyone else believes them right or wrong, should not be treated as science and should be discounted. There is no middle ground.
421 ScottP
Your post doesn’t wake me up
I don’t think you understand the idea of “minority government”. If the SNP don’t get “big-ticket” legislation through because the Unionists combine to oppose rather than be constructive, then that’s a matter for the Scottish people at the next election.
It’s that strange Scottish idea of democracy as opposed to the Brit obsession as to which elected dictator, we’re going to have suffer for the next 4/5 years.
Hundreds of patients died needlessly at NHS hospital due to appalling care
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6661925/Hundreds-of-patients-died-needlessly-at-NHS-hospital-due-to-appalling-care.html
Harry’s place has more on the Hizb story.
They also had this
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/11/26/is-a-senior-home-office-‘prevent’-employee-an-islamist/
“Asim Hafeez, the head of the ‘Prevent Interventions Unit’ at the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism, has recently been profiled by Martin Bright of the Jewish Chronicle, who quoted Home Office officials as describing him as a ‘hardcore salafi’.
A number of Hafeez’s talks are available online which appear to not only back up Bright’s accusations but also to suggest that Hafeez might additionally be a hard-line Islamist who wishes to replace the British constitution with ‘the Quran and the Sunnah’.”
I’m a bit annoyed about this on Football365:
Non-Football Story Of The Day
‘A ‘jealous’ woman has been questioned by police after allegedly tearing out her lover’s testicles with her hands. Helen Hodge is accused of attacking Billy Duncan’s genitals after a heated argument in which she accused him of cheating on her. Mr Duncan, 49, had to have emergency surgery after the alleged attack. A source told a newspaper: ‘Billy was only wearing his underpants at this stage. Helen grabbed his testicles and pulled them as hard as she could. His scrotum had been ripped open and his testicles were dangling by his legs. There was blood all over the flat.’ The dust-up reportedly took place after Mr Duncan celebrated Dundee football club’s victory against Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the final of the Alba Challenge Cup on Sunday’ - The Metro.
AHEM
500
just imagine what she would have done if he supported Spurs!!!
467
“As someone trained as a chemist, I find the whole debacle appalling”
You think you have it bad Plato. I trained as a geologist specialising in palaeo-environmental and palaeo-climatological modelling. Having suffered years of criticism because I have questioned the scientific basis of AGW I am bloody furious to have it confirmed that these guys weren’t just innocently wrong but potentially fraudulent in their claims.
This from 498,
Concerns about death rates at the foundation hospital trust were first raised a year ago, but an internal investigation failed to find anything wrong and managers dismissed the concerns.
But the new report found “systematic failings” in the trust’s management, all of whom are still in their jobs. The CQC said its confidence in the management’s ability had been ’severely dented’.
The watchdog report comes just months after an investigation into Mid-Staffordshire NHS foundation trust found similar problems, with up to 1,200 avoidable deaths.
Ministers assured patients at the time that it was an isolated incident, but the similarities with the failures at Basildon will raise concerns that there are widespread problems in the NHS.
500 - I think video replays of handball are, err..err
500.Lousy result, got a soft spot for Inverness Caley.
Mike,
Although someone up thread may well have suggested it, I will risk repetition and suggest a poller’s question about the desireability of RENATIONALIZING the rail system. I might suggest too the name “British Rail” for the company.
505. Case of playing the balls and not the man.
503 - As I posted earlier I was hospitalized Jan 2007 ans even then I was strongly advised by several people to make sure I did not end up in Basildon Hospital.
I went elsewhere and that hospital was dirty as well!!
498,what happened to the deep cleaning labour ?
The important fact is that it was a SCOTTISH SUN EXCLUSIVE the day before! GAH!
I was so proud of splashing it on the website and then F365 credit the Metro rip from the next day.
And it’s hardly joined up media. Pretty sure F365 is News Corp!
503. “We have had an investigation and found nothing wrong.”
How many times have we heard that?
o/t. Looks as if the concerns about Borders’ future were justified.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8380268.stm
478 johnno - So Tony Blair’s ego claims another victim.
512 - When a company stops being supplied or taking orders it is pretty clearly fecked.
512. Oh FFS. The Borders in York is great.
502, 467 and many others:
The climate issue involves pure science to an extended and difficult degree. Of its nature it is also social, political and psychological. Just about everyone seems to have a vehement opinion, from carpet bagging egoists to ordinary worried memebrs of the public. Now we have a climategate. But what I want to know is this: Are there not competant and hard scientists out there studying and modelling the climate, at MIT say and/or elsewhere? If so, who are they, and where can I read about their data and (presumably developing) conclusions? Can anyone refer me to information that is based on hard, measured, scientific research? Proper science tends to be self-correcting and convergent, but there are strong destabilizing forces in this issue.
514. When the website was locked off yesterday, it can’t have done the cash flow much good.
Del Potro (v. Federer) is playing a very naive style of tennis: hitting the ball as hard as he can into the corners.
re 380 ukpaul, both Hutton and Butler had some harsh things to say about Blair in the evidence gathering sessions but when the final reports came to be written the sun veritably shone out of his arse. You know he’s a war criminal, I know he’s a war criminal, but no official enquiry is ever going to be so bold.
These things were ever thus: “For 338 paragraphs he painted a splendid picture, delineated the light and the shade, and the glowing colours in it, and when Franks got to paragraph 339 he got fed up with the canvas he was painting, and chucked a bucket of whitewash over it”
Who do you think said that? It was James Callaghan, Father of the House about the Falklands enquiry.
re 385 GIN some RCTs do work. I had one done about 20 years ago and still have the tooth, but as Sean T says they’re not nice. The tooth can be so swollen that the anaesthetic doesn’t penetrate. When I had mine done I hadn’t realised at first the the dentist’s assistant was actually pinning me down at the shoulders. I passed out shortly after.
519 Well said. The thing about Hutton that really stuck in my craw was him defending Blair for flat out lying to journalists saying he had nothing to do with the leaking of Kelly’s name.
496
Richard Tyndall is right. These CRU emails (whether hacked, leaked or carelessly made available) are potentially devastating. They strongly suggest that the small coterie of scientists, employed at public expense at the heart of the global AGW enterprise (essentially controlling and interpreting data used by the IPCC, hugely influential within the IPCC and peer reviewing each other’s papers), consists of people driven by secrecy, arrogance, intolerance of dissent and personal prejudice. If valid (and it certainly seems to be), that suggestion could undermine the entire dangerous AGW hypothesis. To clear the air and reinstate public faith in climate science, all CRU data and methodology must be made publicly available and subjected to independent review. After all, that’s how science is supposed to be done and there’s no reason why this should be any different. The crowds about to gather in Copenhagen would do well to take note.
518 - It’s bloody good. I’m on him at 2/1.
Terribly off topic, but so utterly brilliant.
Who is your favorite muppet…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgbNymZ7vqY
re 483 that’s a good one
“Is the US/UK extradition treaty fair or one-sided?”
re 509 johnno they went the same way as the army of ex-unemployed loft laggers who were meant to have stopped the pensioners freezing to death last winter.
Is this group called CRU the only major player in climate research? Forgive my ignorance.
524: What a joke of a treaty.
524,this might help you decide.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDfvi1Kd2ro
re 380 ukpaul, both Hutton and Butler had some harsh things to say about Blair in the evidence gathering sessions but when the final reports came to be written the sun veritably shone out of his a-rse. You know he’s a war criminal, I know he’s a war criminal, but no official enquiry is ever going to be so bold.
These things were ever thus: “For 338 paragraphs he painted a splendid picture, delineated the light and the shade, and the glowing colours in it, and when Franks got to paragraph 339 he got fed up with the canvas he was painting, and chucked a bucket of whitewash over it”
Who do you think said that? It was James Callaghan, Father of the House about the Falklands enquiry.
466 - the October Revolution is (now) in November, due to the post-revolutionary change from the Julian Calendar.
Here’s another one: in what month does May Week take place?
re 530 now May week always confused me. As a rower I always maintained it was the week the May bumps took place, whereas others maintained it was the next week when the balls took place.
530 June
530 - June
Perhaps we should have been banned from answering that as it was very easy for a small group of posters.
531-4: depends whether they’re Clive James fans
531 - May week is the week in which th eballs take place. May Bumps, Suicide Sunday, Monday - Clare and Trinity, Tuesday - St Johns IIRC.
front pages so far,
http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Fridays-Papers—Newspaper-Front-Pages-Friday-November-27-2009/Media-Gallery/200911415472133?lpos=Home_Left_Promo_Region_0&lid=GALLERY_15472133_Fridays_Papers_-_Newspaper_Front_Pages_Friday%2C_November_27%2C_2009
new thread
526
No shame in not knowing this stuff Toms. For 99.9% of the population the CRU was unheard of until a few days ago and probably for about 99.7% it still is.
There are three main centres for climate change study around the world. CRU at the university of East Anglia, GISS (which is a subsidiary of NASA set up by James Hansen, the godfather of AGW) and the NOAA in the US. There are many other isntitutions and universities doing climate work around the world but almost all of them feed their data through CRU and GISS for modelling purposes. Some such as Michael Mann at Penn State do their own modelling and a number produce results which disagree with the concensus (although not Mann who is notorious for his now discredited ‘hockey stick’).
The problem is that the science communinty - and this applies to all disciplines - works on the basis of peer review. You do your experimentation, produce a paper and send it to a journal for publication. That journal will send the papaer to a number of eminent specialists in the field and ask for peer review. Basically they are asking is this paper good enough to be published. The problem with the Climate Change science is that over the last 20 years a small group of specialists have come to dominate the peer review process. They have mercilessly driven out any other reviewers who disagreed with their position and have even gone so far as to attempt to have an editor of a respected journal sacked because he published papers countering their views. In fact that editor was indeed sacked and it was only with the release of the CRU emails that we now know these ’scientists’ has an organised campaign to discredit him. I cannot say for certain that he was sacked as a result of their campaign per se but he was certainly forced out as the result of having published papers that argued against the ‘mainstream’ view.
This small number of AGW proponents also control what goes into the IPCC reports and it is intersting that a couple of years ago the foremost specialist in hurricanes resigned from the IPCC after his section which said there was currently no provable link between global warming and increased hurricane activity, was completely rewritten by the section editor after final submission so that it showed a clear causal link.
re 537 of course it could be the 7 days starting on the Wednesday and take in the rowing and most of the balls. IMHO suicide Sunday is a modern invention, I don’t remember it from my day.
477 & 482 - The only way that I can keep sane over the debate is to look at it at an abstract level. It might make it less black and white but that’s where I feel I am at the moment.
496 - Richard, I know you believe that you are right but the problem is that others vehemently disagree with equally convincing arguments. As a lay person it’s how I see this and I’m sure I;m not alone.
516 (Toms) - Hurray, a post about the subject that I can wholeheartedly agree with!
542
It is not about belief. It is about facts. These scientific rules are hard and fast laws. If you break them then what ever you might believe, what you are doing is not, cannot, be science.
Others may disagree with the hypothesis but they are cannot argue with the basic principles of science. Their position is the same as the creationists or Intelligent design nutters. Science does not allow any leeway in this.
543 - And both sides dispute the facts, surely that is at the heart of this debate.
thomasjpaul
Thanks for your reply. I still think we know the answers to your questions already though:
1. Are Tory voters more selfish than Labour voters?
That’s one way of putting it. Bit loaded, no? Another is that Tories take responsibility for themselves and socialists leave it to the State. And anyway, you could argue that people on less than the average wage who vote Labour are doing so selfishly because they know that Labour’s longterm aim would be to equalise all incomes - they’re not acting out of concern for the poor, just out of concern for not having to work hard and still have money in their pocket.
So, nothing discovered there.
2. What proportion of voters vote against a party rather than for a party?
Why not just ask: “When you vote, will it be so that one party wins or so that one party loses?”
3. How does the tactical effect, above, affect party vote shares?
I agree that it would be interesting to know what % of votes are affirmative and what % are tactical, but it would be better to just ask people straight.
4. Are people who vote for minority parties more ’single-issue’ focussed than the norm?
Your question wouldn’t discover this. And even if it did it would not be interesting to learn that TPA voters rate tax as a v important issue; Greens rate recycling as a v important issue; etc etc.
It seems to me that Cameron should return to the issue of extremist school funding at next week’s PMQs (and the week after, and the week after):
Balls is not playing a straight bat. He says the Foundation has told him “that it no longer has any links with any of the individuals who are alleged to have connections with Hizb ut-Tahrir”.
Firstly, as Balls ought to recognise, that’s not the point. The point is the situation prevailing at the time the money was paid. And at that time, the lead trustee of the Islamic Shakhsiyah Foundation and “proprietor” of one of the schools was Yusra Hamilton, who definitely does have “connections with HT.” She’s spoken at HT conferences. She’s the wife of HT’s main media spokesman, Taji Mustafa. Even the Foundation refuses to deny that she’s a member of HT.
Immediately after my story appeared, last month, Mrs Hamilton resigned as a trustee of the Foundation - although she may still be “proprietor” of one of its schools. But the Government money was paid around 18 months ago, a time when Mrs Hamilton was still very much in charge.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/6657185/E..
If you were asked in a referendum - ”do you wish Britain to remain INSIDE the EU as a member, or do you wish Britain to get OUT of the EU, and become an independent country?” - what would be your reply? IN or OUT?
I’d be interested to test opinion on the outcome of the election - testing ‘who do you think will win the next general election,’ or ‘who do you think will gain the most votes…’.
This is still a vote-related question, but over time may test the validity of any ‘big mo’ argument.
> Creme Eggs: Bigger in the past?
> (can apply to Wagon Wheels and Monster Munch too)
Also Golden Nuggets.
Should the monarchy be abolished with the Queen’s death or abdication and replaced by an elected head of state?
Thinking of the Political parties you are not voting for, who is your favourite politician?
All 3 political parties have said they will makes cuts to public spending, if you could stop spending cuts in one area what would it be?
If you could choose a celebrity independent mp who would it be