ecuk268

If an American company was polluting our beaches and killing our wildlife, I'm sure that the more xenophobic tabloids (Sun, Mail, Express) would be doing exactly the same.

Mrs T was scared of being dependant on those nasty miners so encouraged the "dash for gas" by building gas-fired power station and buying cheap imported coal for the coal-fired stations. So now we are very dependant on Russian gas and could be held to ransom if the regime changes in the USSR. With the new cleaner coal-fired stations, a prudent government would consider re-opening some of the more productive mines.

I met her once. She's shorter than you think. She visited a company where I was working during the '83 election campaign, along with Dennis and a rather portly Carol. She treated the whole thing as a big photo opportunity whereas Dennis was an amiable old duffer, chatting happily to anyone and everyone.

Anyone who's read "Dell Diamond" will know that Mary played an important role in running the club. In an era where women were seen as only good for making the tea and typing, Mary was a very able administrator and I believe that she was Club Secretary for a time. They say that behind every good man there's a good women. That certainly applied in Ted's case.

Yet Cameron and crew campaigned for other Muslim clerics to be banned from doing lecture tours and criticised Labour when they were allowed in. Now they have the chance to do something about it, they bottle it. Personally, I've no problem with it, free speech and all that. It's the hypocrisy that I dislike.

Good to see that call-me-Dave is cracking down on who gets into the UK. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7140235.ece

There are only 2 sports - football and cricket (and maybe women's beach volleyball). The rest are mere games.

Does this mean that it'll be hard to find a decent plumber? I hope the guys who run the car wash in Paynes Road don't go home. They do a first class job.

Also there's the question of economy of scale. At the moment, all the Hants schools payroll, purchasing etc are dealt with centrally at Winchester. Will all the opted out schools employ their own payroll clerks and buyers? Who does buildings maintenance, cuts the grass etc. It's more cost effective to buy these services in bulk. As the local authority will presumably will need less money for education, will my council tax go down?

Grew up in Romsey. My Dad took me when I was 7, lifted me over the turnstile and I sat on his lap up in the East Stand.

I tried to join but they said that I was too intelligent and, also, my neck wasn't wider than my head.

He hasn't done too bad. A few months ago, he had a 20 point lead in the polls. Combine that with many millions of funding from a tax dodger in Belize, a massively biased print media, a tired-looking government that has been in power, for 13 years, a PM that insulted his electorate and a deep recession and he's landed us with an unelected Prime Minister. You'd better pull this off, Dave, or your party will crucify you.

Outsourced call centres are the work of Satan. I either seem to get an Indian or a Scot and I struggle to understand either of them.

I think that Labour have come out of this OK. They have by no means been wiped out and, many Labour supporters that I know are glad that they don't have to take the extreme measures needed to tackle the deficit. The Governor of the Bank of England has suggested that the cuts will be so extreme that the party in power could become "unelectable for a generation". Although the average voter may say that they understand the need for cuts and increased taxes, when it hits them in the pocket, they'll blame the Government.

Do you mean that there's a suggestion that he "bowls from the pavilion end" ?

She looks like she should be running in the Grand National.

Well Germany - the economic success story of Europe. Oh, hang on, they're ruled by a coalition.

Not quite. England imposed severe trade embargoes on Scotland in the late 1600's to "discourage" their attempts to have a separate monarch and also stated that property in England owned by Scots would be confiscated. This persuaded the Scottish aristocracy and the big land owners that the Union may be a good idea. It was strongly opposed by the Scottish people and violence broke out in many towns, so much so that martial law was declared in order to restore order.

Sadly, Jack White went to that great car park in the sky a couple of years ago.

It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out. Clegg has to get a referendum on PR or his career is over. If Cameron agrees, his party will turn on him although it was Cameron who said that the first-past-the-post system produces a clear result. If Labour were smart, they would offer an alliance with the Lib Dems and the nationalists with a guaranteed referendum and with Gordon Brown to stand down. The problem with this is that the Labour leadership process can take many weeks.

Presumably, one of Clegg's main demands will be reform of the voting system. Cameron has always been against this so it'll be interesting to see his reaction.

Both Ford and Nissan have said that they would withdraw from the UK if we leave the EU. We would still need to retain much EU legislation if we wanted to continue to trade with them. As the company I work for exports about 70% of our product to Europe, the last thing we need are trade barriers. Approx 72% of EU legislation comes from the elected Council of Ministers. The not-very-bright leader of UKIP mis-reported this as 72% of UK laws are "forced upon us by the EU". Seeing as how UKIP will only get any influence under a changed voting system, does this mean that their supporters will vote Lib-Dem?

That may still happen. They owe Simon Jordan 20m and Selhurst Park is owned by Lloyds Bank (rent 1.2m per year).

I bet that he got bullied at school - he's got that sort of face.

The Alternative Vote system is simpler. The Independent has a fascinating couple of booklets in the paper this weekend about elections, full of interesting facts like - no government has had a majority of the people who voted since 1931. Also, bearing in mind Bigotgate, Winston Churchill once said "The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter".