[Will Hunt]

Oh for goodness sake, not this guff again. The thread about the cow kicked up a hell of a stink.

[Jaspersharpe]

Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere.

[john horscroft]

Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere.

A typically thought provoking piece from Mason, one of the few BBC journalists still worth listening to.  As one of the comments avers, how will the political establishment react to this effective loss of power?  I think that overall, the coalition govt's manipulation of the news cycle has been woeful.  Too slow, to heavy-handed, too predictable and challengeable.  Only time will tell..... 

[slackline]

Twenty reasons why it's kicking off everywhere.

I read a write-up somewhere after the student protests/kettling in London detailing that police forces around the country are slowly but surely being armed/trained with heavier "crowd control" equipment/tactics, can't for the life of me find it again, but was rather worrying.


Work on an advisory panel to the government?  Déjà vu.

[Jaspersharpe]

I read a write-up somewhere after the student protests/kettling in London detailing that police forces around the country are slowly but surely being armed/trained with heavier "crowd control" equipment/tactics, can't for the life of me find it again, but was rather worrying.

Was it this?

[slackline]

I read a write-up somewhere after the student protests/kettling in London detailing that police forces around the country are slowly but surely being armed/trained with heavier "crowd control" equipment/tactics, can't for the life of me find it again, but was rather worrying.

Was it this?

Thats the one cheers....

All across the country, law-enforcement agencies are buying weapons systems used in Afghanistan, including Heckler & Koch G36 machine guns. They’ve got a range of more than half a mile and can fire 750 rounds per minute.

[Jaspersharpe]

Wasn't sure what to make of that article. There are some sound points but also a lot of sensationalist crap it seemed.

[slackline]

Reading it I thought there was some clear biases, but as you say some interesting points.

[Jaspersharpe]

The "Big Society" in action!:

http://www.itv.com/anglia/armed-robbery-footage07521/

[slackline]

Thats brilliant, good on her, lucky not to have got twatted though.

[Jaspersharpe]

Yes luckily they were the crappest robbers of all time! 

[slackline]

The muppet who fell of his Vespa must have felt like a right twat. 

[Jaspersharpe]

I like the way everyone else only piled in once the granny had shown what a bunch of pathetic twats they were.

[aLICErOBERTSfANkLUB]

The "Big Society" in action!:

http://www.itv.com/anglia/armed-robbery-footage07521/

I've been roundly (and quite rightly) upbraided for reposting that elsewhere.

You should of [sic] posted it as "Supergran"...

[slackline]

Eddie Izzard eat your heart out

[Jaspersharpe]

Some good news for a change:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12389512

[Jaspersharpe]

NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!!!

Another triumph for prohibition. No change in numbers taking it but they're now paying more for a lower quality product.......oh and they're buying it from criminals.

 

[galpinos]

The "Big Society" in action!:

http://www.itv.com/anglia/armed-robbery-footage07521/

Just seen this. Glad they were shite robbers as Micheal Jones the Jewellers (the shop being attacked) is a very good local jewellery co-op. My mum would be gutted if it got done over!

(I was a bit worried it was going to be footage of my mum getting involved as she's aleady got into one sticky situation this year when challanging some "youths")

[slackline]

Some good news for a change:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12389512

A bit more (at least its a start).

[DaveC]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/spectator-killed-by-bird-during-cockfight-2207708.html

Delicious irony. Maybe it'll catch on with the birds?

[Jaspersharpe]

A bit more (at least its a start).

The coalition says the levy on bank balance sheets is a better way of making sure companies make a fair contribution to tackling the deficit

£2.3bn a "fair contribution"?



The timing is certainly interesting.......

http://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/34911899841732608

[slackline]

As mentioned in the article does this mean teenage mums < 16 shouldn't be left alone with their own children (disregarding whether they were careless in the first place to get pregnant at that age).

[Jaspersharpe]

Madness. Only skimmed the article but (as it mentioned the 30 minutes passed without incident) how were the police ever even involved? And "haven't they got anything better to be doing" etc etc.

[john horscroft]

A bit more (at least its a start).

The coalition says the levy on bank balance sheets is a better way of making sure companies make a fair contribution to tackling the deficit

£2.3bn a "fair contribution"?
I think they're pretty rattled at the moment, pretty universal condemnation of the proposed changes to the NHS, student fees, forest sell off, mixed reaction to economic policy etc etc.  Long may it continue....


The timing is certainly interesting.......

http://twitter.com/faisalislam/status/34911899841732608

[slackline]

I think they're pretty rattled at the moment, pretty universal condemnation of the proposed changes to the NHS, student fees, forest sell off, mixed reaction to economic policy etc etc.  Long may it continue....

I read an interesting fact the other day (from Ben Goldacre's blog)...

There have been 15 major reorganisations of the NHS in 30 years so how the fuck does anyone know whether one is better than another when there has been insufficient time for each reorganisation to take effect before the next one is ushered in and more importantly little to no effort has actually been done to objectively quantify the "performance" under each of these.  Healthcare is clearly an emotive subject for a lot of the electorate at any given time, but it shouldn't be used as political leverage as thats a huge disservice to those its meant to be helping and healing.