bridge too far

Gaydamak must realise his hopes of getting rich quick by developing FP have come to nothing with the credit crunch. He's bailing out fast.

We lolled when we saw this. Our cat is very old and very docile. But I think he'd have a vinegar fit if we tried to put these on him. He hasn't got any teeth so he needs his claws more than most. Surely you'd have to press the pad of each paw to expose the claws to fit the covers? Crazy idea IMO. Have you got a scratching post for your cats?

I believe that recently a number of deals were done with some of the drug companies to produce generic versions of some drugs. I know that drug companies DO spend a lot on R & D (Mr TF tests novel drugs and the labs works 24/7 with hugely expensive equipment). But they also spend a lot on 'corporate entertainment' for prescribing physicians (e.g. ski trips, conferences in exotic places). And if they think they're not going to make a lot of money out of a drug, they'll stop the research / trials, even if the trials are showing the drug to be efficacious.

And just remember, too, how badly run it was a decade or more ago (almost to the point of extinction). The 1995 version of the Patient's Charter gave a waiting time guarantee of 18 months. We now have a maximum waiting time of just 18 weeks, and many areas are way below that. The 1995 document states: "In addition, you can expect treatment within one year for coronary artery bypass grafts and some associated procedures." A year for a life-saving bypass? That's unthinkable now, with waits down to no more than a few weeks. There are always elements of any large organisation that could do with improvement, but I think the strides made in health care (both treatment and buildings) over the past decade are commendable.

Not necessarily. It depends on whether the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has approved the drug. If it's approved, all PCTs have to fund their patients who need it. In my mother's case, her drug was approved about 4 years ago. It's a tough one, though, isn't it? How on earth can anyone (PCT, doctor etc) decide who can have which drugs, given that there just isn't enough money in the pot to pay for everything.

Or if they come back down .......

And cancer patients to get free prescriptions in England soon. My mother has cancer drugs - they cost the NHS £30,000 a year just for her :shock: She doesn't have to pay ATM because she's a pensioner and also I imagine a lot of cancer patients currently get their drugs via the pre-payment scheme (£27 for 3 months / £102 for 12 months). Thank the lord for the NHS, I say

I think I also heard Claridge say (or maybe this was just wishful thinking on my part ) that HR will have to ship a lot of the expensive (in terms of wages) signings in January.

Listening to Claridge yesterday afternoon on 5Live, he was saying that the stadium plans have been put on hold because of the dire financial situation. They will never balance their books until they have a bigger stadium but they haven't got the money to build the blessed thing. They are in a Catch 22 situation methinks

I looked at a hospitality package for my son's upcoming birthday, Roswell. There were going to be about 15 of us @ £100 a head. I asked for a discount since there were so many of us. They wouldn't give us one. So I asked if they could do a little something extra, given the numbers I was bringing and the fact that it was a 'special' birthday. They said they'd provide a birthday cake for £50. We're now making other plans, not involving SMS.

So, Ron, this comes back to my earlier question: If we went into administration, would it be feasible for one group to buy the stadium (via the administrator) and another group buy the football club and rent the stadium from the first group? Or is that just plain silly

So could it be possible for one group to 'buy' the stadium and lease it to the club that could be bought by another group?

I speak with no knowledge here, but applying a little bit of logic, wouldn't Bovis lose their money because they've bought an option (to buy) and not the actual land itself? However, given the state of the land market at the moment, and assuming there's no Planning Permission or oil on the land, there probably wouldn't be much interest from other developers. If we can hang on until the option expires in April 09 (?) the question becomes irrelevant anyway.

But did he have access say every weekend? Had he been told that he couldn't have them stay after last weekend because he lived in a caravan? Had she told him she was going to live abroad? Was any of this enough to tip him over the edge? I don't know, you don't know, nobody KNOWS what had been going on there, do they? Speculation, that's all it is. I did say before that I think it's absolutely tragic and my sympathies are with the families concerned. But I'm not going to be so arrogant as to jump to conclusions without knowing the facts. If others want to be judgemental, that's up to them.

And I think that's the reason, Poshie. We mums can't imagine it but then 99.9% of the time we're the ones who have custody of the children and sometimes the dads clear off and aren't interested in their children anyway. Suppose, just for a moment, that your children's father had custody of the children (not you personally, Poshie - but I didn't want to put 'one's') and let's say he got a new girlfriend and they decided you couldn't have access to your children...... Any sane mother would be distraught and grief-stricken. A mother driven to insanity by this might do something totally irrational because insanity does horrible things to reason and sense. I think I would have been driven to insanity if I'd not had custody of my children when they were little. I shudder to imagine what my life would have been like without them around all the time. As I said earlier - desperately sad story for all concerned.

When a person's in 'a mental state', rational thought is the first thing to go out of the window. I'm not excusing his actions, of course I'm not. We're fortunate in that we're not experiencing mental breakdowns. We don't know what it's like.

Gotcha I think we ran a thread on what should and shouldn't feature as an Olympic sport a few weeks ago. I don't recall that ballet has ever or is likely to be considered for inclusion. It does however require dexterity (or, rather, suppleness), strength and stamina - more so than, say, cricket, and I think that IS being considered. But I've strayed ........

I don't understand it either and, as a mother, I can't begin to imagine the devastation those children's mother and wider family must be suffering. We don't know the facts so perhaps we should reserve our judgement on him until we do. I do know of men who are incredibly distressed when they don't have regular access to their children and can't imagine life without them. I just feel very sad for everyone concerned.

A Jumper of local businessmen...... :smt102

I hope, I really really hope, you're not implying that ballet requires 'no great level of physical fitness' :shock: A former dancer myself, I used to fitness train a local football club. There's a world of difference between the fitness of a dancer and that of a footballer, believe me

I can't WAIT for Mr TF to get home from work

His plan is for Glenda to come back

I wonder how much Lowe (in the form of W H Ireland) has suffered over the past week?

What you have to understand is this. When the system in the county where your children are being educated is selective, you don't have the opportunity to send them to a comprehensive school because there aren't any in the county. This is how it is in Buckinghamshire. But I quite agree with you when you say that selective education is wrong. In fact, I removed my youngest daughter from grammar school because I'd seen the pressure of such an education and the effects it had on my two other children. One suffered from petit mal and the other from anorexia. Both complaints are often brought on by pressure. My youngest daughter transferred out of county to a comprehensive school at the age of 14 because the 'broiler' atmosphere at the grammar school was getting to her. All three went on to get good university degrees - underpinning my belief that comprehensive schools are as good as grammar schools. Edit: I should add that it actually cost me money to transfer my daughter out of county to a comprehensive school as she no longer got free transport.

That's just plain silly Nick and you know it! My granddaughter has just started at a grammar school (because there is selective education in Buckinghamshire). My children all went to grammar school in Buckinghamshire. We didn't have money to pay for after school tuition and my granddaughter didn't get any either.