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Of course we don't have blanket free speech. But we do have a degree of tolerance to conflicting views. Apparently that tolerance should now only apply to alien cultures, and not to our fellow Britains! Nope, you have to accept the audience as it is. No air of superiority, no Peter Hain I know what's really good for you. One person's "educate" is another person's indoctrinate. This is what democracy (and our enlightened capitalism) is about. People have to be allowed to make mistakes and learn from them themselves. No central committee to dictate what's good and what's not. No party line. God knows we've made a big enough mistake with Gordon Brown and his profligacy! But the strength of our system is that we can, and will, learn from it. Ah - you are talking about Nu Labour then? I don't think there is any country in the world that is happy to accept penniless asylum seekers. Why should our small country take on this burden, especially now that it is financially challenged? Very easy to get an international junket together on a non-existent problem like "climate change" - so why not do it on this thorny problem. Surely sharing out the burden of GENUINE asylum seekers according to available resources shouldn't be too much of a challenge to our political elite? It won't take billions we haven't got to resolve either. Could I suggest is that the reason is that there's few votes, and even less sound bites, in so doing? "they should be stopped" -- Great! So who is going to be the arbiter of who is lying and who is not? At this point in history we are all reasonably educated people who should be able to see through empty promises. This is the very elitist argument that is at the core of Nazism. We are fit to rule and you are just poor serfs. And on the sex offender tack when does someone who is afflicted with a disease that's none of their fault, become a sex monster? The sad fact is sex offenders have a problem just like any other social misfits. Listening to what they have to say rather than organising a lynch mob is the only long term solution. It's also the most humane! Otherwise it's like one of those zombie films where the solution is to zap, zap, zap them, but they keep on popping up from formerly "normal" people with frightening regularity. Understanding the problem and how and where it arises is the only serious solution - unless you get a kick out of zapping them, and then you are another kind of pervert! No I'm not! I think you are a very intelligent person and beyond all that; which is why I think it's such a shame that at times you get so hung up in this lynch mob mentality. So, all this is true. But, so is a lot of what NG says. Your intolerance breeds intolerance. When you start treating someone who feels passionately about something as a fellow human being who should at least be listened to an amazing thing happens - they start treating you as someone who should be listened to. I'm sure that NG is a slimy politician like the rest of them, but he's not an island and derives his support from many many reasonable people. His base is growing because he's listening and adapting, by contrast the political dinosaurs like Peter Hain are doomed to extinction. Mammals or Dinosaurs - we all have a choice. Put another way, I'd say that in life we all need to make compromises, without compromising principals.

For a guilty man who is now "free and clear" he's going to an awful lot of trouble to assert his innocence! In fact just as he said he would. http://www.megrahimystory.net/ Meanwhile his accusers and convicters are doing a very good job of keeping their heads down in case they are called to account. It's highly likely that his appeal would have succeed, and so he's been robbed of the chance to clear his name by possibly criminal, and certainly morally corrupt, collusion in the UK establishment. In his situation could anyone have done more? More victims than there need have been here!

I don't think you will find too many Bonnie Greers or Baroness Warsis on Northern streets. But you will find millions who will echo NG's ideas (on the rare occasions when he's permitted to express them). In that sense they are token whatevers. You insist he's a "racist", but you persist in putting words into his mouth without listening to what he's actully saying. What does that make you? Intollerant - Facist - Stalinist - Nazi - chose your own (substitue for thought) label. An alternative view is that its a "clumsy" attempt to impose a set of alien ideas on a society. It's insulting to that society because in general it doesn't have the sort of unreasoning prejudice that is implied by that alien idea-set. And, it has always worked through such differences without "external help", and being told what to think! It's also counterproductive because it highlights differences which would never have been highighted before, and will be read by extremists as an attempt to subvert a culture. In the past attitudes have been allowed to evolve slowly. PC - like multiculturalism - is a recipe for unrest, and an unstable/unworkable society.

Do you honestly believe that audience was representative of the UK population? No way! It's all very well calling the BNP racist, and saying they would curb the right to free speech, but if you won't give them a fair hearing all you are doing is allowing them to accuse you of the same tactics. Shouting someone down and attempting to put words in NG's mouth (as he rightly accuses the left-wing press, and Islamists, of doing) simply illustrates how weak the extreme left's arguments actually are. A lot further than Straw and his cronies (particularly Hain) would like. If sex offenders have anything to say then why shouldn't we at least listen? I suspect few do, but at times we might actually learn something which would benefit society. Certainly the hysteria fuelled by the gutter press does nothing for society. There's always the suspicion that the only reason many from the left find him "disgusting" is that they have no answer to any of his arguments. I'd have thought that Socialism and Communism owe much of their influence to their strategy of blaming "someone else for their situation" - as indeed did the Nazis! If you continue to shout him down, and advocate censorship, then ultimately you lose the battle for ideas and he wins by default!

Hey, look what I found! http://www.microsoft...n/studentoffer/ Where do I enrol in education localy? Seems like you can do a clean install with an upgrade edition too. Possibly - as in ye olden days - you have to stick the DVD in the original machine to validate it and extract a key before proceeding?

Don't think so. It has simply confirmed people in their already strongly held views. Though I think a few people on-the-fence might come to the conclusion that he wasn't given a fair chance. He's right in saying he was personally attacked on about 25 counts and only allowed to partly reply on about 4. He was also right in saying that the program should have been about the issues - as in a normal QT - and not about him. To that extent Straw was let off the hook, as the BNP had obviously done their homework on real issues. I for one would have liked to hear what the BNP policies actually were. Instead we were treated to what others thought they might be, indeed even wished them to be.

...even if his father didn't! Once again proving that people who live in straw houses shouldn't throw stones.

What a marvellous curate's egg of an organisation the BBC is. The senior layer bows to reason and allows the BNP representation on Question Time. But, its news reporting of its own program seems devoid of all balance. Three times in an hour a "person of colour" is allowed to deliver exactly the same lengthy tirade in the guise of a question - this on prime time news! Yet, as soon as Nick Griffin is allowed to reply to this, the coverage is cut before his very first word. Following this a string of lefties are trotted out to give their rather wishful views of how the program went; not even a token attempt to air a contrary view. Someone more senior in the Beeb must have picked up on this, as on the fourth screening the tirade was edited and the first words of Griffin's reply was included. And... guess what? The "questioner" now looks genuinely surprised at the reply and is stopped in his tracks! Nothing like the false impression of Griffin being embarrassed delivered by the earlier editing. At the same time the string of eager lefties are edited out. You could *almost* believe what Griffin says about the BBC being a "ultra-leftist establishment". Except that's a gross oversimplification and there are obviously a lot of fair-minded and balanced people in the BBC ranks. What a pity they lose control so very obviously, and on so many occasions!

Whoops... forgot to mention that mine's a little Panasonic Lumix LZ10. Surprising that Amazon has no customer reviews when it's been out so long. Brilliant little camera that beats both my ageing Cannon G series ones hollow on nearly all counts. Image stabilisation *really* works, and I can get the shot when most bigger cameras are still struggling with setup. Good low-light performance; takes standard AA batteries; and the video is truly amazing. The best part is that it cost little more than £100! Incredible!

Dunno if I can "upgrade" a Vista Biz to a Home Premium though. The proper path is supposed to be to the Pro version of W7. But I really don't need the Pro features (or the extra bloat) on a tiny tablet. Nor do I like the fancy £160 price to fix something which should never have been broken! Your pre-release version is supposed to start shutting down after 2 hours around March. So no difference fom Vista there then! I stayed away from the £50 offer - no longer available - because it didn't qualify for upgrades; or that's what I was told.

So... looks like I'm stuck with buying a copy for a touch tablet machine that's currently burdened with Vista Biz Edition, and has only 1GB of RAM that can't be upgraded. W7 Home looks to do all I need on it, and I don't want any more M$ bloat than is absolutely necessary. So where do I get the best deal on W7 Home? Is getting an upgrade a money saver? Some upgrades seem to cost more than clean install versions!

Nice one Monsta! The best thing you've done for your town so far! Also a prezzie from M$. What is the world coming to?!

My experience too. Not mentioning and names the simplest of things seems to be beyond some of our local historians. Maybe they should borrow someone's five-year-old kid to help? Anyway, and present company excepted of course Bridget... back to The Old Hall. It was demolished by vandals (otherwise known as the local coonc'l). The site is now occupied by the outstanding piece of architecture called the Bedlington Council Offices. Constructed to the highest 1960's building standards, it was carefully and quickly distressed with cracks so as to blend into the local distressed environment/economy. I believe it is built in the the Socialist Empire (everything can be carefully planned, and committes know best) style. This of course is the same bunch of idiots responsible for the erasure of much of our heritage. Also the very same "public servants" who go around slapping listing and protection orders on every piece of uninteresting tat just because it has somehow survived long enough i.e. without any regard to the town having a future either!

Ashully everyone is - indirectly. You wouldn't be using your computer (or your digital camera even) if it wasn't for good old photography. The printed circuit boards (and the chips themselves) are wedded to light and negatives and chemicals, over and over and over again during manufacturing. Ditto the sensors, and screens. It will be a very long time before any of these goes "fully digital". If you've seen the size of some of the process cameras and photo plotters in use you'll appreciate that the photographic film business isn't going to shut up shop until most of the 21st C. is out.

Brown & Darling. Catch phrases: "It's Global", "It's a Global problem", "Don't you know it's Global". Signature tune: various, but currently most popular "Fool if you think it's over". Best solo act Screaming Lord Mandelson. Just too many classic jokes to his credit to even mention. Before these the Marx Bros took some beating.

You can be fairly sure I don't have an iPhoneâ„¢ Kris! But many thanks for that. It could easily turn out to be amongst the best advice published here. My situation was solved - for a few months at least - by discovering that the 3 SIM I'd borrowed had almost 150 hours free imternet accumulated (unknowingly!) by its regular user. In desperation I'd stuck the 3 SIM in a Vodaphone card at the airport when the Vodaphone card - with over £20 credit on it - failed to connect. A later call to Vodaphone confirmed that it did indeed still have £20+ credit, but somehow had no phone number attached to it any longer! Near instant connection on 3 and a really good data rate. Thanks for the card Vodaphone; maybe if/when I get the fourth SIM from you I might finally be able to use it on your network?

Gees - you can't do that! Mr D2 will be complaining about arbitrary decisions by unaccountable people. Anyway, looks like the begining of the end to me.

Mmmmm... could have been worse. I was expecting him saying on a computer! If you are having probs Vic then note that the galleries depend quite heavily on javascript. Make sure that's turned on, and/or try another browser or another machine.

Yes, you are wrong! http://www.bedlington.net/ is about what the other 10,000 "Bedlington" sites are about. You are wrong on the other things too! The site is well beyond any one person now. Sure like in everything else there are some prime movers, but it would survive without any one. And - as was said at the reboot - the funding is there for the foreseeable future. That's just as true now as it was four years ago. You seem to be hung-up on this official thing. The power is with the people; they will decide what is official, and what is just the figment of some over-jumped timeservers wishes. Takes a while in the UK though; a proposition which (for now) brings you the "official" - but unelected, unwanted, and incompetent - timeserving Gordon Brown.

Send them!!!??? The Internet is about sharing (and sometimes caring even). Post them in the gallery so's everyone "of an age" can relive their yooof, and maybe recall those glorious carefree Summers - please!

Bicycle bicycle bicycle I want to ride my bicycle bicycle bicycle I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride my bike I want to ride my bicycle I want to ride it where I like :D

I didn't notice it any easier to produce web pages when first Netscrape, then M$, had a near monopoly.

What no Seamonkey! Like Mr D#2 I use several depending on machine and O/S that's booted. Been using IE8 a lot recently due to testing a couple of machines with suspect WiFi hardware, and it's def an improvement over IE7. Best thing about fry-a-fox is the host of third-party addins. Thank God for the choice though; else M$ would be charging £100 a throw for an unbundled IE3 - and getting it!

Not true! "Someone" might have funded the site, and several someones nurtured it, but the rest doesn't follow. The site has always been billed as a commonly owned community resource, and that's what it is. But someone has to build it, and for now at least, the persons that put the effort into doing that have the call. Anyone can come on board, put the effort in, and have a major say. What we don't need is flash in the pan (telling everyone else how it should be done) effort, but sustained - over years and decades - harmonious effort. It's "a coalition of the willing" (and working), to borrow a phrase. Speaking personally I'd be delighted to spend the time on other things in the knowledge that the town's interests were being advanced in the way the majority of active members want. In fact I've got another community project for a far away place in mind, but don't have the time to get involved at present.