Will the chancellor cane house owners in the budget?

[Andy Hall]

I thought that that was your forte.

I don't recall her use of the F-word.......

I wonder if it was the same millions who can now see through the current regime.

Not from my observation.

Not my observation, and I typically spend around a third of my time outside the UK.

I don't think so.

Which I suppose leaves millions who do.

I don't believe that any government has that fine level of influence.

A worldwide issue. I don't believe that MT, even in her wildest dreams imagined that she had that level of influence.

When is your next trip to the optician's?

The root cause is the regular changing of policies by successive governments on issues that take at least a generation for an effect to be seen.

Don't get out much, do you?

I'd never seen our "first lady" in quite that way.

I would ask around about that if I were you, but you might want to wear a cricket box when doing so; assuming that it is relevant of course.

I don't disagree with you about the integrity of the family, but there are numerous causes of juvenile crime and antisocial behaviour.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[IMM]

No you are the Little Middle Englander, not me.

That was the only word she left out.

In the UK Andy, not on Mars or in snakeland.

The current regime can be seen straight through. It is transparent for all to see.

Well from Mars or Snakeland you might get a strange view of matters.

Do you ever look?

I know so, Andy.

That is even more millions who do.

The Wicked Witch did.

Which you are obviously one.

She tried and did get to the hard of thinking.

Thank you for your concern of my welfare. When ate you due the clinic?

As I said "He is unable to identify the root cause". Very sad.

All the time and everywgere.

A Little Middle Englander would not.

Women do want to care for their children full time.

And only having 7% of mothers at home full time is by far the biggest, and it all comes down to land availability. We have the land...

[PoP]

You must be picking up usenet when you are abroad then - hardly a day goes by when you haven't contributed something positive to this newsgroup! :)

PoP

Sending email to my published email address isn't guaranteed to reach me.

[Andy Hall]

Err, I believe you introduced that label, none of the words of which actually apply.

That's a common thread to a lot of things that are spinning.

I certainly notice if somewhere is or isn't clean.

I think you have a vivid imagination.

A little older than that.

So, I'm curious as to why you're not a devout supporter.

In English please.

TB you mean?

From dance hall to dance hall?

Some do, and some would like to combine a career with raising children.

That's a gross oversimplification and misses all the issues.

.andy

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[Clive Summerfield]

Methinks the irony just went whoosh, straight over your head.

Well, I just showed my wife your post, and her response was that if you're ever in Barnsley please come over, she like to introduce you to a good solid right hook.

Cheers Clive

[Andy Hall]

VPNs make many things possible.

It's surprising how many places have wireless hot spots now. There are starting to be roaming agreements between operators as well and prices are starting to fall.

One of the main railway routes in Germany is experimenting with satellite provided internet services and a number of the airlines as well.

.andy

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[Mike Mitchell]

...all part of the smoke and mirrors effects that we have come to know and not love from oh so lovable Tony and his fellow magicians.

MM

[IMM]

[Mike Mitchell]

In the case of Germany and Holland, that is patently NOT the case! How you can possibly suggest that those two countries have the same litter problem as Britain, beats me! When I have spent a week in Germany, then return to the UK, as soon as I emerge from the barriers at Heathrow I notice how everything you look at looks tacky, cheap, inferior, worn, badly maintained. Everywhere. You. Look. The buses, the Tube, the restaurants, the streets, the dress-sense, the grubbiness of the place is quite impressive. Take a GOOD look next time you travel, okay?!!

MM

[IMM]

Can you tell me which day this was?

[IMM]

And all of Scandinavia and very rare in France.

Asking Andy to see reality is taking it a bit too far.

[Grunff]

It would be pretty hilarious for anyone to question the positive contribution Andy makes to the group, but coming from you it's a real gem.

[Andy Hall]

I'm sorry, but it is. It depends on where you look.

There are parts of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Frankfurt, Munich, cities of the Ruhrgebiet .... which have serious litter problems, among others.

Countries that are held on a pedestal of apparent neatness and civilisation have among the worst problems but sometimes manifest in other ways. For example, Bern, the federal capital of Switzerland has one of the highest incidences of hard drugs use in the western world. The public park next to the parliament building is permanently littered with used syringes and needles such that people can't use it safely. Yet everybody believes that this is the epitome of a well run society.

I didn't say that it was necessarily as bad in other countries, (i.e. I haven't counted the number of sweetie papers on the ground to three decimal places), but the issue is there, nonetheless.

Around Heathrow that is arguably true, but is not representative of all of the country. The immediate environs of airports like any other port anywhere are not representative of the rest of a country.

On all of the things that you list, there are examples of better and worse in every country. The grass always does look greener. I travel to somewhere most weeks, often to multiple countries and I see a great deal. There is no glamour in it, believe me. I talk to a lot of people, both in business and socially and the same issues are raised.

I would suggest that you take a look next time you travel. Things are not what they seem.

.andy

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[Julian Fowler]

There is a difference between London -- and particularly Heathrow -- and the rest of the country. London and its major airport are, IMO, vile: a friend of mine (visiting from the US) described London as having " a pervasive smell of rotting Big Macs" :-( London's all round unpleasantness is matched only by the baffling belief of its inhabitants that they live in a "world class" city.

This country does seem intent to make its major airports follow the traditional path of its main railway stations: i.e., to immediately confront the arriving passenger with the worst the country has to offer. I have wondered in the past how first-time visitors to the UK react if they have an early-morning arrival into LHR T3 and have to transit to another terminal, given that the conditions in both the T3 waiting area and the transfer buses would be illegal if the passengers were farm animals ...

[Andy Hall]

I frequently visit Sweden, Norway and Denmark. All of these countries have problems with litter, dog sh*t on the pavements, graffiti etc. especially in the capital cities. Away from these, it's less of an issue, but only because the population density drops markedly.

France is not remarkably different either. One can visit different arrondissements in Paris and find that some are exemplary and others are appalling. Fly tipping happens in rural parts of France just as it does here.

It isn't supportable to say that the UK has a singularly bad problem with respect to litter and similar social maladies.

.andy

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[IMM]

Well tell me the day this happened and I'll Google it.

[Andy Hall]

Airports anywhere are not great places and especially when extended piecemeal as LHR has been. All of the terminals in the central area are appalling bad in terms of the arrivals waiting areas partly because too many people show up when one or two would do, not to mention some of the ridiculous arrangements for arriving and departing passenger segregation.

Even the airports that were built from scratch don't hold their glitter for very long. For example Franz Josef Strauss in Munich was so clean at one time that it could be mistaken for a hospital it was so sterile. Now it's starting to look distinctly shabby. Lower traffic airports like Oslo Gardermoen have superb wooden floors etc. and have managed to maintain a good appearance, but have a tiny fraction of LHR's traffic.

.andy

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[IMM]

I have been in every part of France and spend a hell of a lot of time there. Flt tipping is rare indeed. Compared to London, Paris is immaculately clean.

It is. The place is filthy, especially after the Wicked Witch came to power.

[IMM]

In the UK it is everywhere. Rural Scotland is strewn with fly tipped garbage, as is England to a lesser extent. Towns and cities in the UK are just plane dirty.

In Switzerland the problems are just in one place. They are not generally scattered.

[IMM]

Heathrow is 100% better than it was 20-25 years ago. I used to arrive from Middle Eastern airports, such as Riyadh, which has fountains and large marble Busy Barclay staircases spiralling around them, then arrive in Heathrow, which had cheap polyurathane varbished wooden doors with reinforced glass in them, like they use in cheap school buildings. Everything was tatty, cheap and nasty, with very low ceilings. Look at the height of the ceilings in Terminal 2, my flat is about the same. The contrast was amazing, and Heathrow was the busiest international airport in the world, in a rich country. Liverpool John Lennon is better than any terminal at Heathrow.

I recall landing at Heathrow with a French lady, she didn't say anything bad, but it was T4. When we got on the tube (before Paddington link) she was shocked.

Look at Chicago then. I would not call O'Hare shabby at all.