Tim Barnes

That is of course disgusting, the minimum wage should apply to everyone and should be rigorously enforced

Where do you draw the line though mate ? minimum wage at £6 an hour people will want it to be £7, make it £7 people will be wanting it to be £8, there is not a money tree out there, push up wages too high then the employer has to get the money from somewhere and he will get the money by putting up prices and do that across the country = high inflation which will affect the economy and put more people out of work, far better enforcing the existing minimum wage and making sure there are no loopholes to paying it than make it artificially high Benefits are not supposed to be a way of life, they are not meant for people to comfortably live on they are meant to be a financial safety net till the person gets a job and in this day and age there is no reason for an able bodied person not to get one quickly, the only people that should be getting high benefits are the genuinely physically or mentally disabled, benefits take away the incentive to work You are right that I have never claimed benefits Chris, fortunately I am able bodied and have too much pride and self respect to sponge off the state, times I have been made redundant (1 compulsary and 1 voluntary) I got another position within 3 weeks in both cases because I applied for stuff morning noon and night I am not talking about people with disabilities here Chris I am talking about able bodied people so I am not talking about slashing incapacity benefit There are many many unemployed people who still wouldn't work if the minimum wage was £50 an hour mate because they are not motivated and prefer watching daytime tv while picking up my money every 2 weeks

Utterly ridiculous While I find smoking a vile habit there should be far more focus on drinking not smoking in terms of any public display bans How many men beat the $h!t out of their wives after too many cigs ? How many chavs smash up bus shelters or attack members of the public after too many cigs ? How many people puke in the streets after too many cigs ? How many people end up in hospital on a friday or saturday night through smoking ? Yes smoking is vile but far more money and educational programs should be spent on combatting drinking and reducing drinking in the UK

The problem isn't the Republicans themselves but the fact that Bush was a christian fundamentalist and surrounded himself with similar extreme religious nutjobs, Bush even said in an interview he heard god tell him to invade Iraq so the probem wasn't the party itself but the fact the top table had been hijacked by religious fruitcakes and that won't happen with McCain, the Bush stuff was a religious crusade, a holy war against Islam by christian fundamentalist Bush and McCain is not a particularly religious person so will not surround himself with them. McCain will undoubtedly speak some strong rhetoric in order to get votes from the religious right but that will be soon forgotten when he got into the White House, he is a centrist politician

I am uncomfortable with the idea For someone in a great deal of pain and suffering I could understand the benefits of it but I could also see a situation where families have elderly relatives "put down" so that they can cash in via the will etc so any decisions should be taken by doctors based on medical evidence and then decided on and ratified by other independent doctors

Then the only answer is to bring in big cuts to welfare benefits to encourage people back to work again I still think everyone has a duty to be working, duty to themselves, for their own self respect, duty to their families, duty to taxpayers, it is a sad indictment of the benefits system when people are better off on benefits than working

McCain unlike Bush is a distinguished military man who would not make the same military screw ups as Bush who was a draft dodger who got a cushy job in the Texas national guard McCain is nothing like Bush, McCain has lead the way in the human rights of military and political prisoners, has been the leading advocate of banning torture of suspects, has frequently condemned Guantanamo Bay McCain as a military commander would not make the botch jobs that Bush did

Merely as orators not as people Hitler while a vile vile man was probably the most outstanding political orator of the last 100 years and Obama as an orator I would say is right up with him as an orator, I am not comparing their personalities or policies merely their ability at making speeches

Even though I do not agree with their politics I always admired people who stuck to their guns no matter what like Robin Cook, Tony Benn, Dennis Skinner, George Galloway etc I fully support everything David Davis has said on this issue

Europe should go back to being what it was before, The Common Market, a free trade area instead of trying to impose a European United States of Europe on everyone when Europe is so full of different cultures and national identities

If it is going to help the lack of available organs that is a problem in this country then no objections but this whole idea does seem a bit unethical

Instead of the drinks themselves what needs to be banned is the special offers in bars that encourage binge drinking like happy hours, 2 drinks for the price of 1 and other similar promotions that encourage excessive drinking, while at the same time off licences and supermarkets refusing to serve anyone under the age of 21 and a passport or driving licence only acceptable ID

Zimbabwe gets the most publicity and Mugabe is the media bogeyman but what is happening in Zimbabwe is happening in many parts of Africa without the same level of publicity as Zimbabwe gets so if Mugabe was dealt with so would other vile dictators need to be too, many countries don't even have any sort of elections at all even though of course this one is fixed for Mugabe to win and I fully expect him to win even though he will probably get about 1/3 of the vote

I have done a lot of reading on the situation while I was away, took the time to study the conflict in more detail and my opinions of some Israeli politicians have changed somewhat

While Mugabe is vile I don't want to see any British troops sent to Zimbabwe, we have already had a lot of needless British blood spilled in Iraq and Afghanistan, Zimbabwe while unpleasant is not really our problem

I have yet to see a single actual debate so far out of all the threads that I have read it has been everyone almost in unison agreeing with each other in my absence, the board needs some alternate viewpoints to avoid going stale :) However abhorrent some people might find my views on Palestine the board needs me as I am the only right of centre/right poster

The same Arafat that was head of the PLO that committed numerous hijackings, bombings, mass murders of Israeli's in the 1970's ? the same Arafat as head of Black September that was responsible for the murder of the Israeli athletes in Munich ? He was no saint mate, the guy has a lot of blood on his hands regardless of the rights or wrongs of Israel/Palestine

McCain is the man that must become President Obama is a fraud, a great orator probably the best political orator since Hitler but absolutely no substance or political experience that makes him qualified to be the most powerful man in the world Obama's political experience is as a JUNIOR SENATOR, the guy is a freshman yet he is going to maybe be trusted with running the biggest economy on earth in the middle of a credit crunch and possible recession ? he is going to maybe be trusted with defending America from terrorists ? he is going to be trusted with protecting global security ? a guy that has 3 years of political experience ? As Richard Littlejohn would say "you couldn't make it up" McCain for President

Even though he is a Democrat Keith Olbermann hit the nail on the head there

Irrelevant Every able bodied person in this country has a DUTY to be working, if it is for less then they are getting in benefits then whatever, not my problem, as a top rate taxpayer I object strongly to my taxes being spent keeping people who should be working on benefits, the whole minimum wage thing is a totally different argument Scott

Both of the final candidates spend 6 months working for Sugar before the final episode is screened on tv

Glad you finally agree with me about something lol, I was hyping up the Fogerty version earlier on in the thread and it pisses over Quo's version, Springsteen's version too is a cracking attempts with some great keyboard playing etc

That is pure paper talk Jol presented 2 players to the board - Peter Crouch and Dean Ashton, Crouch didn't want to come and Liverpool refused to sell and Ashton was vetoed due to his fitness problems, Bent was 3rd choice after those 2 and Jol agreed to Bent The board made every effort to sign Crouch instead of Bent but he wasn't interested nor were Liverpool

More sci fi than out and out horror but see Alien if you haven't already ORIGINAL version of Evil Dead/The Hillls Have Eyes

That was 1 paper though and I can only loosely call The Sun a paper, the article about the Liverpool fans at Hillsborough was vile but not representative of the media as a whole, I don't recall a single other section of the media coming up with the stuff The Sun did