petercj
Super Plumbing Forum Contributor

Sorry ill rephrase that. I hate test cricket. Dont mind the one day stuff

I hate cricket!

Such a boring false stereotype that. Liverpool is the second safest city in the country after Newcastle, and that's from police crime figures

Liverpool - The Home of the Confederate Fleet - The Liverpool Wiki

Its not bad for shopping either ;-)

Liverpool had a massive part in supporting the confederates in the American civil war. Thomas Jefferson once stayed in Liverpool to create trade routes with the new world. When the confederates lost a lot of people in Liverpool where bankrupted.

Stanley dock tobbaco warehouse for the set of The Sherlock Holmes movie .

Exactly what happened it was big buisness in Liverpool, there are a lot of streets in Liverpool named after slave ships and there owners. Some silly politican tried to get then changed a few years back as a mark of respect. Most of Liverpool including the black community told her to leave it be, history can't be rewritten and shouldn't be forgotten. If your ever down again go to the new museum of Liverpool inbetween the liver buildings and the Albert dock and the maritime and slave museum in the Albert dock.

Been trying to find a decent website for you but can't find any to do it justice. Liverpool docks where the centre of the world. Sadly most of the slave trade did pass through it. It set lots of records for world firsts, basically most docks around the world are based on the systems developed in Liverpool. It all very nearly never happened. The original request to the bank for the money to build the first dock was declined, they had to source it elsewhere. The bank apparantky thought there was no future in it!!!!!!! How wrong they where, the entire north west and beyond owes its fortunes to liverpools docks, no cotton no mills! The city takes its name from very early docks called pools which where basically mud banks. Apparantky when you looked down on the pools from Liverpool castle the water looked liver coloured, hence liver-pool! The dockers umbrella was the worlds first overhead railway built to service the docks and also the first to be electrified. Stanley dock tobacco warehouse is the largest brick built building in the world! Stanley Dock Tobacco Warehouse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Theses are just a few of the facts I can remember.

Mad in it, the new museum of Liverpool is very good for all that. Fascinates me that the docks made Liverpool the centre of the world for a long time even if it was for a lot of bad reasons

Without giving anyone on here more ammo on me, I'd put up with anything to avoid hiking right across the site in the mud!

How much for a lift round the site?

Ill take my Liverpool fan head off for this. Massive respect for the man what he has archived is unreal. Quite simply the greatest manager in the history of football. Now that he's gone I reckon its going to open the premiere league back up and hopefully make it interesting again. Moyes is an outstanding manager and its clear fergie has hand picked him so my money's on him being good for them after all everything fergie seems to touch turns to gold. Lfc head back on. Thank god he's buggered off! Here's to moyes leading them into mediocrity and Everton reappointing Howard Kendall who will lead them into the first division. If carslberg did prophecies.......

Signed best of luck.

As always, nice to chew the fat SS, but I'm pulling out of the discussion now having had my post above moderated because I replied inoffensively to an insult from lameplumber. Note to who ever moderated my post: why not just ban anyone who's opinions you disagree with? ATB SS

Moderators note: INSULTS TO OTHER MEMBERS ARE NOT ON AND THIS MEANS BOTH OF YOU!

LOL .... well there's a Thatcherite fantasy if ever I saw one! In which era were you a school bursa? Did you extract money from parents by charging 50 pence, or was it a pound, for kids to be excused school uniform, and all the other scams schools had to invent to fund themselves? Pretty well read on Darwinian theory are you? No doubt you use the behaviour of Stickelbacks to justify the Falklands war - such was the nonsense peddled at that time. As you are so keen on Darwinian theory, wouldn't it be better to just let people drown, rather than spend money on rescuing them - survival of the fittest, and all that! <sic> Still, you have provided further evidence of my point re political illiteracy, i.e. that the only choices are between Communism and Thatcherism. BTW, China is a communist county, perhaps you hadn't realised! LOL!!!! Keep em coming!!!

Reply to SS... That's the problem with Thatcherism, it created a huge pool of unemployed people (which she covered up by introducing Incapacity Benefit, surely you must hate her for that?) Smashing the Unions paved the way for the export of investment to overseas industries, and the exportation of British jobs! Rather than recapitalising British industry and negotiating with the Unions, Thatcher made British industry a thing of the past! Ironically, it's been foreign manufacturers who have recognised the skills and work ethic of British workers and put their money where their mouth is! For someone with such national pride, this must really cause you grief, i.e. foreigners showing more faith in our workers than British investors? As an ex copper, surely you must see the long-term results of Thatcherism on the police force, i.e. the deskilling of the workforce by creating look-a-like coppers with virtually no training. (Bearing in mind that it's not the Party but the model applied) Having sucked funding out of police forces across the land, the classic maneuver of handing over a broke service to the local community has been pulled - Thatcher did the very same thing when school Governors were created. Do you remember the days when schools didn't have enough books to go round and school buildings had leaking roofs? That was the period. All that money wasted by Labour: well a good deal of it went on restoring school buildings back to being inhabitable and providing teachers with the resources they needed to teach with. The latest asset stripping exercise is to be the selling off of police stations that have been closed down because they don't have enough coppers to make it worth keeping them open. Now they're talking about the return of the police box with a computer terminal in so that the public can report crimes that there will be no one to follow up on. Let's face it, if you are propping up a service that doesn't work anyway, just as well do it as cheaply as possible! Official statistics claim that crime is going down, whereas the reality is that having found the police to be of little help in the past, large numbers of people don't even bother to report crime these days. BBC radio 4 ran a program on this the other week, and various experts confirmed that crime has fallen, then the BBC were swamped with people calling in saying that statistics were false due to the lack of reporting, essentially because talking to the police has got them no where in the past. I've reported two crimes to the police over the past few years, and they didn't want to know - just made me feel like a time-waster. No doubt privatisation of policing is not too far off. In some areas people are already paying for private community "policing". It doesn't make any difference who you vote for these days, you will end up with the same political model, i.e. privatisation, privatisation, privatisation! Ukip have been on the box this morning talking about more slash and burn, and tax cuts for the wealthy. The tabloids will support the s&b with skewed and disproportionate anti-welfare, anti-immigrant, anti-public service reporting. A lot of people need homes, and there are a lot of people out of work, and a national house building program would meet both needs, but oh no!, can't do that, because it doesn't fit the ideological model. Now it looks as if the Tories might stage an early referendum to shake off Farage, which will cost a fortune and screw any chance of economic recovery over the next couple of years. I wonder how Farage will explain away a dip back into recession caused by a referendum? It's a nightmare for the ideological party faithful (which I can happily gloat over), however, any further dip into recession by the economy will hurt the weakest and the poorest in the land far more than the fat cats, who can move on to some other money spinning venture whenever it suits them, although most of them have several in place already. The antidote to the pantomime run by the tabloids and the political scoundrels at Westminster is to put grown-up economics and political studies on the school curriculum - starting at the age of 14 with home and micro economics, and moving into macro economics in the following years. Give people the education and thinking tools they need to make informed choices so that they are not victim to BS from the tabloid press and the political elite. Why should such education be reserved for the children of the powerful and the wealthy in their highly expensive Public schools? That's a rhetorical question, because the answer is bleeding obvious!

Funny enough, Enoch Powell made the quote: "When the Government cheat on the people, the people cheat on each other!" I disagreed with most else of what he said, but thought that remark was very insightful. Every time I hear George Galloway's name I get the image of him on all fours on BB - bad move that was.

Ironic that you're an ex copper SS - as mentioned, I used to work with an ex Police Fed Sec, 3 years nearly, we were diametrically opposed on anything political, used to argue every lunch time about the pros and cons of Thatcher, etc. I get the impression that most people on here give such threads a wide berth lol It passes the time, but doesn't make a scrap of ruddy difference! But don't give up on trying to put the world to rights, it keeps the grey matter ticking over! lol

Benefit rates are available for everyone to see, i.e. subsistence level. Overall figures get banded around without mentioning that the majority of people getting benefits are working. The high levels of quoted (and now capped) joint family benefit payments include substantial sums for housing costs, which are high due to Thatcher's policy of selling off council housing stocks and blocking replacement, i.e. the policy of privatising social housing has cost the taxpayer dearly. You seem to be saying that your personal experience of benefits was that they are hard to get, but then you also seem to be saying that they are easily obtained by others. You appear to be indifferent to the loss of jobs to overseas manufacturing, but resentful of the unemployment it creates, which you blame on those without jobs. A lot of people might think that being paid at the 40% tax level was a sign of good fortune, but you resent it. You show clear signs of self induced cognitive conflict leading to personal stress, thus being predisposed to high blood pressure and hardening of the arteries. Recommend you cut all ties with Ukip and take up mindful meditation. Hommmmmmmmmmmmmm!

I did a Union apprenticeship, so I've seen what Unions were really about. But I went into business at the age of 21 on my own account, so was employing people through the Thatcher years. BL was a mess, but the miners were trying to defend their livelihoods. The Unions represented working people, so heaven knows why smashing the Unions was seen as a good thing by working people. People seem to forget that Britain was a prosperous country for many years before Thatcher came along, and paid off the cost of a very expensive war, i.e. WW2. Many of her ideas have failed, but the media skip over the downside of Thatcherism. She happened to coincide with Murdoch's battle with the Unions at Wapping, and consequently has had the Murdoch empire propping up her ideological schemes. People who had direct experience of Thatcher's hatchet policies tell a different story from the tabloid myths, e.g. the Welsh and the Scots are not so keen on her. If Thatcher had stayed in power the Irish would still be blowing each other up on a daily basis, she was a warmonger. The Falklands was a big political propaganda exercise that cost lives and a small fortune. All for the sake of a few sheep farmers on an Island thousands of miles away. Jingoistic Thatcherism fueled a great deal of racism and discontent across the world. Working folk that support Thatcherism are their own worst enemy.

If you mean the vote, I think much will depend on how the media presents: "the facts". In terms of economic stability and investment, I would think we need a referendum right now like a hole in the head.

Thatcher's old right-hand man, Lord Tebbit, is now calling for a referendum on Europe to get rid of Ukip (image of randy dog in a striped suit hanging on the leg of the Tories!) So stand by for even more cuts to pay for it. Be careful what you wish for!

Your views are so obviously tabloid SS. The Human Rights Act embodies much of English Law, and vice versa. The tabloid press have given a massive amount of attention to a few difficult cases over deporting people, mainly due to the fact that the HRA protects people from torture. It doesn't allow exceptions to be made, so it has caused problems for the likes of Theresa May. I think the real issue to look at is why the Home Office keep getting it wrong and fail in their expensive attempts to override the law. The waste of money being that they have brought cases they can't win. I think the public have a right to expect that the HO show some awareness of what constitutes a winnable case. The tabloids give very little attention to the positive aspects of the HRA. For example, 'The Right to Family Life' has helped fathers who have struggled with keeping contact with their children. You may not consider that to be of value as I'm aware that you don't have children, but it's a positive use of legislation that has helped with a huge injustice as experienced by separated fathers over many years in this country. You accuse me of rambling on, but what I can say is that I provide support for my opinions based on first hand experience - not from the Sun, Daily Star, or the Express. I don't know how old you are, but I ran two businesses through the Thatcher years - the three day week was no big deal, and it was generally reported that production remained more or less the same. What I found quite disgusting was the way people in authority treated their fellow countrymen, i.e. the miners, car workers, etc. But then Thatcher gave the police one of best deals on pay and conditions they've ever had. My source on that is from an ex police Federation Secretary I used to work with. If he'd had the opportunity, I think he would have married Thatcher, such was his admiration for her. There is actually very little of the Left about me - other than "left' behind, because I have not shifted by political views over the past 30 years, i.e. I haven't swallowed the BS. Farage is a Thatcherite who left the Tory Party in the nineties to become an attention seeking maverick! They say: "every dog has its day", and Farage's time has come. He's doing far more damage to the Tory Party vote than Ed Miliband could ever do! The National Front pulled some dissatisfied floating voters based on playing up the tabloid agenda, and Ukip are just repeating the act. We live in times of consumer politics (another aspect of Thatcherisms and her love of over-the-pond ways) and all the main parties have dabbled with this anti-immigrant issue in response to tabloid taunting. It will be interesting now to see how they respond now, on the one hand, it is an incitement to racism, on the other, the tabloid press have been winding their readers up on it for the past five years or so, and all the parties are wary of declaring it to be the unpleasant scapegoating that it is. Farage often says that Mercedes will not stop selling their cars in Britain if we disconnect from Europe, which is quite true, but what about the foreign car manufacturers that have bases in Britain, and now represent the only type of that industry here? You say manufacturing in Britain is finished, being the classic Thatcherite approach that foreign manufacturers have ignored, so presumably you are prepared to see the manufacturing industry that we do have here disappear overseas? We have so many unemployed people because capitalist investment has been moved to production bases in places like Bangladesh in pursuit of massive profit margins. Most people will tell you that such clothes don't last anywhere near as long as British made goods did. So why not expect major companies like M&S to have clothes made here? At one time they used to boast that 80% of their clothes were British made, and it showed in how long they lasted. Just impose high level import taxes as other countries do. The big question is: WHO should the economy work for? The majority, or a small group of very wealthy people who control things to suite their own greedy aspirations? The Thatcher approach has failed, i.e. the economy has just flat-lined under a Tory administration using her economic model. So is the answer to that to turn to an ex Tory maverick? We need to start producing things to expand GDP and grow our way out of the financial mess we are in. Which has nothing to do with communism. If I was a communist I wouldn't mind saying so, however, I'm a pluralist who believes in an eclectic approach to solving economic problems, which is why I support the suggestions made by Hesseltine and Vince Cable for kick starting the economy. What bugs me is that so much tax payer's money has been used to bail out the banking system, and yet the Thatcherites running the economy insist on sticking to their ideological teachings and refuse to intervene. Small business have been starved of much needed funding due to the Banks that have been bailed out refusing to lend and leaving them to the vicissitudes of an economy that has been knackered by their actions. RBS is now making reasonable profits, so how about RBS returning some of the money back into the pot that was used to save it??? Ukip is not a solution, it's just a diversion from the real issue we should be dealing with.

You should try to avoid using words you don't understand the meaning of.

So if you're not a Ukip sympathiser, you're a communist? TY for confirming what I've been saying about the Thatcher power base, and the fact that anyone who challenges the brain washing will get branded in a negative way. You've responded as is sooo predictable SS! I think Mrs TP gave a very good answer - a far more intelligent answer than the question. Farage's scaremongering has attracted people who are not in the general run of things racist, but he will also attract many people who are racists. Racially motivated assaults are still quite a regular event in the Courts - most people of any years will remember the skinhead culture and their attacks on Pakistanis, who they blamed for taking British jobs. Farage is now quoting the number of young people unemployed and referring to the "Romanian invasion" he predicts will happen in the near future. He's walking a fine line re incitement to racism. He's playing the same game as Griffin, and the law got him, and I hope Farage gets his just desserts if he takes one step too far out of line.

You've been watching too much Jeremy Paxman SS, i.e. trying to push people into answering as you want them to!

Agree with the need for a major wake-up call for the main parties - the fact that Ukip can gather so many votes, even as a protest, shows how naffed-off the public are with being screwed by the political elite. I've watched BBC Question Time for as long as I can remember, and the fact that they trot out the same old politicians, with the same old platitudes, who smugly avoid answering the questions, gets me so frigging annoyed. The roots of the credit crunch can be traced back to Thatcherite/Regan economics. In order to get Britain back in good economic shape, we need a change in the economic model, not just a change in Political party. However, those who benefit from the current economic model, to the disadvantage of the rank and file, control the media, and so can manipulate perceptions of what root causes are, which keeps all the parties locked into the same old defunct economic model, which of course is an 'in-house' model for the Conservatives. Although, the rigidity of the current ideological allegiance to their now deceased idol, and her defunct economic model, has even caused frustration for people like Heseltine, who has been ignored by spoon-fed graduates of Thatcherism like Osborne. What chance does Britain have of recovery when we are in the hands of Public School boys who have been weaned from the cradle on Thatcher's ideas, and never done a honest days work in their life, having eaten from a silver spoon paid for by the sweat of other people's labour? WHY would they want to give up, or even modify the current economic model when it works so well for them? However, this ridiculously unjust situation can only exist as long as those in positions of wealth and power can manipulate the grafters into thinking they have a rightful place at the top of the pile, and that they are an essential requirement for the grafters to exist. Whilst providing a much needed wake-up call, Farage is also reinforcing the diversionary agendas created by the media, mainly the tabloids, which draws attention away from the real issues related to the ever-sliding standard of living for ordinary people, while seeing tax cuts handed out for the rich and powerful. Scapegoating immigrants, and blaming Europe, is to look in completely the wrong direction, i.e. away from the homeland of the economic crisis on the other side of the Atlantic. Farage has brought some colour into the political circus, but his agenda has been constructed by the same tabloids that work to keep ordinary people on the slippery slope by manipulating perceptions re the true underlying causes of our ever-sliding standards of living and public services. As far as working people are concerned, Farage is truly a wolf in sheep's clothing. Beware of the clowns! People like Boris and Farage may amuse, but they are really dangerous activists re the best interests of working people - they may buy you a pint over a laugh and a joke, but you'll find Thatcher's shilling at the bottom of the glass, being the currency of the garbage you so rightly mention.

We need to deal with the core problem instead of tinkering with the symptoms, i.e. to get Britain productive again through honest industry instead of relying on the service industry so much and dodgy capitalist get rich quick skullduggery. Ukip is just more of the same: simplistic promises that are clearly snatched out of the air. Never-the-less, Ukip is a thorn in Cameron's side, so it's not all bad. Whatever chance the Tories might have had at the next General Election has gone out of the window due to the split in the Right-Wing vote created by Farage's muppets. I don't have much faith in Labour, but I do think they are the lesser of evils. Ed Miliband needs to wake up and smell the coffee, hopefully Farage's blip will serve that purpose. The Ukip agenda has been created by the tabloid press, and my prediction is that it will be the tabloid press that brings Ukip down, i.e. they will die by the sword that gave them their very dodgy agenda and raison d'etre. Cameron will now have to call in favours from the Press he has been defending over the past few months. Stand by for some real dirt dishing in the next few months.

Obviously it wouldn't be fair to jump to conclusions just because someone wants to put a blanket ban on immigration and tear up the Human Rights Act, and divorce Britain from a union full of foreigners!

I'm not saying he is - just thinking how it might look IF we don't get a deluge of Romanians. Just wondering how many of them are gagging to come to good old Britain so that they can become scapegoats for the ills of Blighty's economy. We won't have to wait long to find out.

I wonder if Nigel Farage has got a plan B just in case Britain doesn't sink beneath the waves under the weight of the predicted Romanian invasion? Could leave him looking like a Right-wing racist nutter using alarmist tactics to stir up a following if he's got it wrong! Hmm!

Well in diamond! Where you been hiding?

Go the airport, pick 10 destinations from the board. Scribble them on a piece of paper, fold them up then stick them in a hat. You can guess the rest .....