You sound much older on the forum.

Football, or as it should be called - soccer.

Have a drink on me FA and maybe a celebratory 'shave'.

Enjoy - and have a damn good one.

Not just a British comedian - one of the funniest of that period I would have said.

You mean John Bon Jovi didn't win the war for us?

Hooray to that.

But this is why you can't cure the damn problems there - it's fairly obvious that - oh bollocks to it, this is far too serious for me. I'm off down the pub.

Shit, I hit the button twice....

Well I'm off down the pub to tell those underpaid, overworked bastards that I'm one of the wealthiest people in the country, as long as I can blag £20 off the girlfriend that is.

Yeah but don't you think the BNP should be allowed to exist?

How can we have middle ground when there is no extreme?

I think you misinterpreted what I was getting at in the initial comment but here goes:

You said it yourself, plurality voting system 'is a type of democracy'. In real terms fist past the post as it is sometimes called has many flaws for countries that wish to have a true democracy. When votes are cast in single-member districts which is usually the case, only one member of the legislature is elected to represent that area and the overall winner is determined by who receives the most votes, i.e. the plurality of the vote.

On the other hand PR is a much more representative way of expressing a nations feelings simply because legislators are elected in multimember districts instead of single-member districts, and the number of seats that a party wins in an election is proportional to the amount of its support among voters. That is why in Western Europe, 21 of 28 countries use this system though Switzerland have structured their system slightly different.

to the Africa question, all I can say is go there. They have had handouts for so long they expect it. British troops are stationed in compounds where children stand with their hands through the wire shouting 'give - give' and when the troops don't give they throw rocks or even fire small arms into the camps.
It's a lawless hell hole of a place where people sit on their arses all day and wait for the rest of the world to deliver their food and when they don't they go and kill someone and take what little they had. It's a place where adults have shit loads of children then cripple them so they can go and beg even when contraceptives are freely available.
It's a country where many despotic states are in constant upheaval to the degree that no stability can ever be achieved there - and that's why I say it's a money sponge with no hope no matter how many do-gooders bang their charity gongs at it.

You talk of perceptions - that's life. We are animals that base every moment on perceptions, wrong or right - that's how we work but equally it's all we have. And I have looked at things objectively, my conclusions are made from those same perceptions and not from prejudice or whim or even simple experiences but from everything my senses tell me.

Your comment: 'So which country are you using as your basis of comparison? Where is this paragon of nationhood?' tells me you are using the same argument that everyone else uses. To be honest I am not judging it on any other country or any other system, I just feel that some things should be and others shouldn't. In this instance, you are telling me that you thing this country has got it right. I disagree, it is awash with sleaze, lies, incompetence, indifference, selfishness, well I could go on for pages, I do not base this on any model - it's just based on what I believe should be.
For instance - the Labour party have just been accused of SELLING titles. Now to me that is completely wrong and illegal. When every evening I hear a story like this I have to conclude that this government is appalling. That is a conscious decision made by examining a set of facts, not just a knee jerk reaction to a news item.


Or then again, I may just be playing Devils Advocate.......

Wow, that caught a nerve.

I know how politics work - I studied it for a while until I realised that only anarchy can be achieved fully.

As for Africa - I couldn't give a monkeys about it - It's one big money sponge and it always will be.

Carrying a torch for this country comes over as complacent - complacency is an anathema for change and improvement and to simply compare what is here now with other countries that never got things right in the first place doesn’t wash with me.

This is where I live at the moment and it’s here where my concern is.

Yeah I had at look at what Lady C said and it's the way they work it out but as they are trying to point out high poverty levels I guess that's the result they want.

Oh yeah, I agree with everything. But hey I'm crazy so don't listen to anything I say.

Here's a couple of facts for you. The OECD have done a survey on literacy and found that "Britain has the fourth highest level of unemployment amongst people with the lowest levels of basic reading skills" and "The report found a wide variation in literacy levels even among technologically advanced countries, with the United Kingdom ranking in the lower half of the 20-nation survey".
As for cheap water and electricty that is about to change with Anglia Water having hosepipe bans and the cost of electricity set to rise 200% in the next three years.

The cheap public transport is hardly ever used because it's not safe and I don't even want to get started on crime.

Free health care is fine as long as you don't need dental care and you haven't got a problem with your kidneys - 'cos they'll rip the wrong one out.

But apart from that I agree with you. Oh except for the human rights thing as the government have just announced that they are not going to stop forced marriages, or stop invading other countries and torturing their people. But apart from that I agree.
Oh did I mention that apart from the democratic government thing - it can't be democratic when laws are passed against the wishes of the majority of the country, and several have been in the last few years.

Errr.... yep, apart from that I agree.