Sheaf Saint

Absolutely, yes. Why not?

lol at the swear-filter asterisking out the C L I T of ****heroe!

Well I love living in Sheffield, and there is not a force in this universe that could make me want to live in places like Nelson, Chorley or ****heroe. I do hope this doesn't cause you any offence.

Sorry, I should add Heysham and Morecambe to that list as well.

Apart from the hardcore nutters who want independence for Kernow you mean? Hey, I'm not arguing with because I love Cornwall, and I'm not blindly defending Yorkshire either because I wasn't born here or anything. I just think you're being a bit harsh. In my experience, people from Lancashire are just as bad as Yorkshire folk for the negative traits you have described, and they have the added disadvantage of having towns like Accrington, Burnley and Blackburn, which are just as bad as anything that Yorskhire has to offer.

It's amazing how different people's experiences differ so much isn't it. I lived in Basingstoke for about a year at the end of the 90s and the impression I got from it is that it is a soul-destroying, god-awful, chav-infested, depressing concrete sh*thole. Swings and roundabouts (and where Basingstoke is concerned, mostly roundabouts) I guess.

Yeah OK, but when you consider the size of Yorkshire (South, North and West altogether) it' fekkin' huge, so it stands to reason that there are more sh*tholes because there are more towns and cities, sh*tholes or otehrwise, in Yorkshire than in any other county in the UK.

This is sadly very true. I doubt that the ultra-conservative Christian communities of the deep south could ever even contemplate such a move. If people think that the right-wing reactionaries in Britain are bad, then just take a look at some of the craziness that goes on in the States!

well I've lived in Yorkshire for 6 and a half years now, and I couldn't disagree with you more Turkish, sorry. Yes, there are a small percentage (mostly the older generation) who believe that Yorkshire is the centre of the universe, but then again there are plenty of folk down south who think that them northern types are 'a bit strange' so it balances out really. Granted, Rotherham is a chav-infested hell-hole (a workmate who lives there once asserted that if you can't pull on a night out in Rotherham then you must be gay, and having seen the local nightlife for myself, I think I would rather be!), but it's no worse than the likes of Basingstoke. On the flip-side though, there are great cities like Leeds, York and Sheffield, which although all very different, each has a unique set of characteristics which marks it out from the rest of the concrete jungles in Britain. Then you've got the North Yorkshire moors which really is an area of truly outstanding natural beauty, and there is a definite charm about the seaside towns of Whitby, Scarborough and Bridlington. Where you see self-righteousness, I see pride in their community. Yorkshire really is a little bit different from the rest of the UK; it used to have its own dialect before the nationalisation of school curricula after all. But it has so much going its favour (with the exception of the weather I admit). Some of the local breweries up here, of which there are so may, make some of the best beer you can find anywhere in the world. Now all I need to do is teach them all to say the word 'bath' properly and we're sorted ;-)

Is it really any different from criminalising someone who picks and eats a wild mushroom?

Yeah, and tobacco grows naturally on plants and doesn't need to be fermented. Marijuana grows in the wild and does not need to be prepared in any way other than drying it out, and hallucinogenic mushrooms can be eaten straight out of the ground. The point is that any new substances that are found to have mind/body altering effects are immediately banned as a knee-jerk reaction. If the effects of alcohol were discovered tomorrow rather than thousands of years ago, it would be banned - simple as that. As for tobacco, I still can't work out what the positive side of it is, but it would still be banned if discovered in this day and age, because authorities simply can't have people getting out of their heads or, god forbid, actually thinking for themselves.

True, but the example still invalidates the argument that usage would go up if all drugs were legalised (IMHO anyway).

Not necessarily true. Portugal has decriminalised recreational drugs and the number of users has in fact gone down as a result... http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html

Apologies Jackanory, I must have missed the crux of your argument. I assumed that your lazy scum accusation was aimed at anybody who doesn't spend their whole careers trying to get ahead and is happy to sit back on a low(ish) wage. In my experience, although these people are honest and hard-working, they are the ones that get shat on the most in times of austerity and so they often complain, with some justification, that they are being hard done by.

For once I am in total agreement with you dune. It should be down to the individual what substances they choose to ingest, not the state; particularly completely natural ones such as marijuana and magic mushrooms. If all drugs were legalised and controlled correctly (as alcohol and tobacco are) then it would put the criminals who currently make millions from the industry out of business overnight. It could be taxed, bringing money into the exchequer, and it would be much safer as people would be buying their stuff cleanly from licensed outlets rather than from dodgy dealers who will put any old crap in with their merchandise to make up the weight. There really is no sensible, logical argument for continuing with the policy of prohibition. It doesn't work. The war on drugs has been lost, and the 'druggies' have won. Time to accept it.

So that's 16 points from a possible 21 in our last 7 games. That's promotion form if we can keep that up.

So if everyone did that, who would do the menial minimum-wage jobs that are essential to the rest of society? Absolute tosh. There are a significant percentage of people who do not want the stress and the responsibility of the rat race; people who are not power-hungry and ambitious and have no interest in having a 'career'. After all, the only reason we go out to work is to earn money to support ourselves as this is the only way we can get by in a capitalist society. I know plenty of people like this and they are honest, hard-working people who just want to do what they have to in order to earn a living and spend the rest of their time as they see fit. According to you, people like this are lazy scum are they?

Honestly, if somebody decides not to invite me back to dinner just because I didn't follow some bizarre ancient tradition, then I would quite happily never go back anyway if those kind of things are important to them.

Not what I am saying at all. Where I work at the moment we have no dress code. It is an IT-based environment so, as you can imagine, there are some proper sweaty geeks working here. Nobody in the management of the company considers an individual's personal appearance as having any bearing on their ability to do their job, as it should be. Employing people, or judging people in any way, based on their appearance is completely irrational. I understand that it has become a huge part of modern society, but it is irrational nonetheless.

OK, in terms of applying for a job, I agree with you, even if I don't believe that it should be that way. But in everyday life, I constantly encounter people who are obsessed with their own image as if everybody else actually gives a damn, and I am reminded of a famous quote from Mark Twain... "You wouldn't worry what other people thought of you if you knew how seldom they did".

Do you not see the absurdity of that though?

Wrong. Image is nothing, it's substance that counts. The world is a f***ed up place because of too many people who care too much about their image.

No, I don't. Seriously dune, why is it important how people hold a knife and fork? To me it just displays a propensity to project an image of oneself other than one's real personality. It is conformity; a desire to fit in and be considered 'normal'. In my opinion, it is folk like you who pass judgement on others because of irrelevancies like this that have more to be ashamed of.

But who is to say what's 'proper'? Why is it important? I was taught how to hold a knife and fork properly by my mum, but I choose not to because it doesn't even register on my scale of importance what other people think of me when I'm eating. I consider it to be a load of old elitist nonsense that doesn't make a shred of difference to the world we live in.

I have just got of the phone to undoubtedly the most unhelpful and useless customer service team you could ever hope not to deal with. Basically, I booked a hire car for a holiday in France in August and when we arrived at the pick up point we were told that there was no reservation for us. Upon investigating, it seems that the reservation was cancelled in error. This resulted in us having to stay in a hotel overnight in Angouleme until they could get a car for us the next morning, and the new rental ended up costing more than the original one we booked, despite being for a day less than originally advised. I was told to contact the customer services team upon return to England who could process my claim for reimbursement for the extra cost I incurred as a result of this. Some chance. I have spoken to them numerous times and was given a case reference number to email my complaint to, and I was told that I would be contacted back in 3 days by a claims agent. FOUR WEEKS later, I finally got an email back giving me some waffle about their policy about not confirming a reservation immediately (despite the email 'confirmation' I got after booking) and completely ignoring the fact that a previous agent had advised me the rental was cancelled in error 3 days before the pickup date. I emailed back stating that I did not accept this and that I wanted the case to be escalated - this was two weeks ago. I called back this morning to find out what was going on and apparently it is their policy to close the claims case once they have responded, regardless of whether or not the customer is satisfied with their response, and that I had gone to the back of the queue and must wait for ten working days from the date of my response to get a contact from them. Basically, they are doing everything they can to squirm out of paying up for something to which they have already admitted liability, and the general ambivalence of the staff I have spoken to has been nothing short of shocking. So my advice is this... If you are planning to hire a car anywhere in Europe - DO NOT USE EUROPCAR.