The Yeti

Strictly speaking, he'll be banned from sitting as a Tory in the House of Lords. But, as he's still a Lord, they can't stop him from sitting in the Lords as a non-Tory. Whether he becomes just a plain Tory member I believe is up to his local party office, not HQ. And as a plain Tory, he'll probably be let back in. There are idiots in the Tory party who think he should get a second chance. Do they not read the papers ? ... it'd be more like his fifth chance, not second. The guy's a walking disaster area. Any Tory leader would be well advised to bury him.

Quoted from here

Oh ... 12.15 pm tomorrow. Just before the news. Try putting George Best's details into the deathclock and see what the result is ... DOB 22/5/1946 Height : 5 ft 8" (Weird Site) Pre-Illness Weight : 168 lb Current Weight : 84 lb. I've assumed, he's pessimistic.

May I also congratulate on your own erudite post*, and for getting the whole point of the site. *Except for the quote above. I do hope (well not hope, but presume) you mean 'those who have had their children murdered', rather than 'those who go about murdering children'

"the country's official youth newspaper, Thanh Nien, ran a story quoting the entertainer's neighbors claiming he had taken home several underage girls--and was becoming a nuisance with his singing." So it was the singing that did him in !

The Vietnamese are supposedly looking at one of the lesser charges they can make (upto 12 years imprisonment), rather than one of child rape (death penalty). So he's not a likely consideration for next year.

"The revelations raise serious questions about the way personal information held by the Government is sold commercially. They will also provoke fears about the possible abuse of Tony Blair's identity card scheme, which will create a powerful database of details about everyone in Britain. The Government's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency last night admitted it hands out drivers' details at £2.50 a time when provided with car registration numbers. All drivers are legally required to give the DVLA their up-to-date address, although few know this information can be sold on. Private car park companies, however, have the right to obtain this information under obscure regulations introduced three years ago and waved through the Commons with no debate. .... It may come as some surprise that in the era of the Data Protection Act - the law designed to restrict access to personal details kept on databases - that the DVLA is able to sell on information about drivers. However, the provision in the 2002 Road Vehicles Regulations giving car park companies the right to find out about 'vehicle keepers' overrides any earlier restrictions in the Data Protection Act. The revelation will fuel growing concerns about the use of information held by Government departments. Ministers are planning a massive database of personal information about every adult in the UK as part of the planned ID card scheme. Ministers insist access to the data will be carefully regulated - and not sold on to private companies. However, the revelations about the way the DVLA database is exploited commercially raises fears that the much larger ID card computer could be 'raided' in a similar way. Gareth Crossman, director of policy for civil rights group Liberty, said: "I have no doubt that once the register of personal information is in place, the number of people with access to it will increase hugely." "

Vegetable Antics

Don't worry ... we'll be forced to be scanned through the backdoor What was it someone said about passports ? And you think they won't sell the details on ?

Trust the police ... Trust the spies ...

So, which country does Canadian Paul come from ?

And that is useful why ? Or more importantly, to whom is that useful ? Back to 'having another use', which is a more valid argument. Though I can't see the UK allowing anyone to travel back & forth on the basis of just a piece of plastic. You can instead just walk through a tunnel without one. If it were just a piece of plastic, I wonder how hard that would be to forge Else a biometric thingy will take years to inplement & build that database, be full of errors (trust to state not to cock it up, do you ?), and cost a horrendous fortune (think of whatever number the government has given & times by 5, at least. NO govermental computer project has ever come in less than this, I'm pretty certain ! That's the ones they actually bother completing. The ones they give up on as unworkable, cost more !)

Most other forms of ID are to serve a purpose ... The prove you're competant at driving (in theory), a driving license. To visit other countries, a passport. To buy things, credit / debit cards. An ID card is just there to prove you exist to a busybody. It has no other purpose*. And I think I know who I am. *Actually, it probably will have other purposes, most of them questionable, and none of them will be to the ID card holder's benefit, I suspect.

Forgetting real deaths for a moment, which personae in the public eye have had the greatest falls from grace, and committed career hari-kiris, never to rise again ? Starting candidates might include ... John Leslie Michael Barrymore David Blunkett Anthea Turner Gary Glitter etc I'm sure you'll add more ...

Given that you can be shot by the police for carrying a table leg nowadays ...

I blame Google Images for that ... Not that I'd let PC World touch my PC in a million years anyway.

"The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility." Colton, Charles Caleb, 1780-1832 British Sportsman Writer "Time is precious, but truth is more precious than time." Disraeli, Benjamin, 1804-1881 British Prime Minister "Truth is the daughter of time." Proverb

That old chestnut again ... " If you're perfectly innocent, what have you to fear from internment/ID cards/anti-whatever laws/police with guns" Hmmm, the last one rings a bell ... I rest my case. "It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own." "Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die." "When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned." Herbert Hoover (American President, 1874-1964) "Without free speech no search for truth is possible... no discovery of truth is useful... Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race." Charles BRADLAUGH, British social reformer (1833-1891) "What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Salman RUSHDIE, Indian-born British novelist (1947-) "The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism." Wole SOYINKA, Nigerian playwright, poet, novelist, and political activist (1934-) "You can only protect your liberties in this world by protecting the other man's freedom. You can only be free if I am free." Clarence Darrow "When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered." "It is not the fact of liberty but the way in which liberty is exercised that ultimately determines whether liberty itself survives." Dorothy Thompson "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home." Edward R. Murrow "The only way to make sure people you agree with can speak, is to support the rights of people you don't agree with." Eleanor Holmes Norton "The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government." Franklin Delano Roosevelt "I believe that liberty is the only genuinely valuable thing that men have invented, at least in the field of government, in a thousand years. I believe that it is better to be free than to be not free, even when the former is dangerous and the latter safe. I believe that the finest qualities of man can flourish only in free air – that progress made under the shadow of the policeman's club is false progress, and of no permanent value. I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave." H. L. Mencken "If we do not believe in freedom of speech for those we despise we do not believe in it at all." Noam Chomsky "So long as the people do not care to exercise their freedom, those who wish to tyrannize will do so; for tyrants are active and ardent, and will devote themselves in the name of any number of gods, religious and otherwise, to put shackles upon sleeping men." Voltaire "Political extremism involves two prime ingredients: an excessively simple diagnosis of the world's ills, and a conviction that there are identifiable villains back of it all." John W. Gardner: "The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." Albert Einstein "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." C. S. Lewis "There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust." Demosthenes "Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve." George Bernard Shaw "Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." Hermann Goering "The spirit of democracy cannot be established in the midst of terrorism, whether governmental or popular." Mohandas K. Gandhi "The death of democracy is not likely to be an assassination from ambush. It will be a slow extinction from apathy, indifference, and undernourishment." Robert M. Hutchins "Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear." Harry S Truman

"Dig, Shudder" "Dig Mother"

Lord Lichfield In a Ditch, In a Field.

Not to be Negative, its a Photo Finish. Open & Shut(ter) Case. Say (anymore) Cheese(y Jokes ...) ?

(I like fireworks)

It's not a tease at all, the Yeti started this thread and meant it but he/she has been having a lot of problems wth his/her ISP provider, give the Yeti a bit of space, I'm sure it will be resolved soon, but remember the first post states 'apart from windsor' though I am sure that has been added by the rogue editor! The Yeti has solved his ISP problems, and is now a superpowered broadband Yeti. However, the real world also intervenes in the form of work, which slows me down. And I'm not an admin, so can't change thy name. <Vote>Yeti</Vote> As for the then windsor, I can't remember singling him out, so I also blame the rogue editor.

I couldn't possibly say. You'll have to wait and become a moderator ! Go look at some profiles