threegee

"Marking, cutting and bruising" would always have got parents into trouble. We don't need a new set of laws, or a new government agency staffed by a new layer of jobs-worths. Nor do we need endless reports and surveys funded by the taxpayer (to produce the conclusion that the funder is expecting), and which no one will read anyway. What we need is the restoration of social pressures by imaginative means. It's the removal of those social pressures that have caused today's behavioural problems. I come from a generation where not only smacking but corporal punishment was the norm. You'll near universally hear from this generation that it didn't do them any harm at all, and in fact that they often deserved it. The problems started in the 1960's with the "Spock" type theorists who though that they knew better than generations before them. They didn't! Today's problems are to a great extent due to their pet theories - what they wanted to believe, and what sounded "fair", rather than what had always worked. The same is true of the education system. It's a shadow of its former self, and a shambles despite astronomic increases in funding. The problem with all these social meddlers is that by the time their dumb theories are discredited the damage has been done. By then they've taken their wad and disappeared!

I voted: Yes, Parents alone should decide the punishment levels and: Raised voice, stern look. Are those contradictory? Don't think so! What is wrong here is the attempt at trying to prescribe exactly what's acceptable and what's not acceptable. Good parent's themselves always know when they've gone too far, and so does (did!) Society. But a child should almost always be left guessing. Does this seem strange or unfair to you? Well that's the way it has always been done through history ...and you know what? It worked! When you draw lines in the sand children will test them. What they then learn is a game of testing the system rather than regulating their own behaviour. So... here I'm back on the old hobby horse of the evil of government regulating every aspect of our lives, rather than government doing what it should do: enabling innovation, creating an enterprise environment, and providing a safety net. P.S. Isn't this in the wrong forum? It would be a shame if it runs off topic.

Err.. no! I've made a habit of making my dreams reality. This is easily achievable. In fact the government doesn't need to spend a penny on the actual infrastructure or delay another week. All it has to do is specify minor ducting be fitted on every new road. Throw the whole thing open to competition and, instead of years white papers, pointless committee meetings, etc. enterprise will take care of the rest. There's no need to settle on one system. The ducting could accommodate several systems experimentally. Can you imagine where our mobile phone system would be today if it had been left to government to dictate standards, and only one system had been allowed? Technology enabling should be a function of government, not the poking of its nose into our private affairs all the time! But, we have a bunch of useless jokers running the show - paid astronomic salaries simply for bolstering the PM's ego! Not an original thought in any of their heads.

Ah! Reverse moderation? I meant bum-wiping P.S. You've got to put something between the ] and the [ for it to be size 3 and the formatting commands not to display literally.

This sort of thing could be eliminated with dirt cheap technology! It's 2007 - about time we had guidance cables under the main carriageways. Would cost about 1% of the cost of road making, save lives, save fuel and (with an open interface) could be made to do a lot of other things as well. Something any minister of transport worth his/her salt should be promoting. But we've got the usual Blair b** wiping timeservers in charge of the madhouse. BTW does anyone know who the Minister of Transport is this week? There was a time when he was never out of the public eye. Who can forget the glorious days of "Marples Must Go!". Come back Ernest Marples all is forgiven!

I'm far too busy fighting spammers on the "information super-highway"! Just keeping your mailboxes clean maaam!

What about a None of the above option: Innocent Until Proven Guilty! Seems to me you'd be good at setting up Government Plebiscites - the ones they only hold when they are absolutely sure that they'll get the answer they want. P.S. Where are the moderators with all this b** stuff going on!

Problems seem to have cleared now, but I've left the post in the Site Announcements forum just in case it happens again. Maybe if anyone hears any grumbles they can point them at that. Personally, I'd goto the Med!

I don't believe this at all, and it's certainly not the case now. That - in any case - is not what I was getting at. Simply saying hello in the Introduce Yourself forum takes only a few seconds and is the polite thing to do. Many thanks for your continued support.

You should be able to log and use the PM system to send messages now. Please check the e-mail address in your profile carefully to make sure it is exactly right. If it isn't this will cause future problems.

Your support request received. Soon!

I can't believe that anyone who has visited this website for several years could utter such crap! I am not the website. I do hold my own views and am entitled to express them, just like everybody else. Now freedom of thought / freedom of speech is a difficult concept for the brain-dead hard left to get their heads around, I know. But, when your ideas are so weak, and so obviously wrong, then I suppose you have to use whatever means of attack are at your disposal. Reasoned argument won't hack it! But, for a definitive answer on political bias you'd have to ask Monsta why his Vote BNP signature was removed. A perfectly legitimate political party I'd have thought. Would a Vote Communist Party of Great Britain slogan have been removed under complaint? I think probably not. Were you the complainant?

"Plans to enhance Bedlington's Market Place: An award-winning team has been drafted in to draw up plans to enhance Bedlington's 18th Century Market Place. Wansbeck Council has appointed Landscape Architects Ian White Associates (IWA) to develop outline proposals for a 21st Century make-over. IWA has a successful track record of enhancing market areas including Morpeth and Marygate at Berwick upon Tweed and has won national awards for its public realm and streetscape projects. Members of the public will be able to see for themselves the progress so far at a special event where Bob Ferguson of IWA will host a presentation giving anyone interested a chance to find out more about the plans. The presentation, which is being held as part of National Architecture Week, will take place on Wednesday June 20th, at the Bedlington Community Centre, Front Street starting at 7.30pm. Regeneration Portfolio Holder Councillor Alan Stewart, says: "The Council aspires to providing a high quality scheme and it is hoped that Bedlington will be added to the list of IWA award winning projects. We are very pleased to be working alongside IWA and I hope the public come along to the presentation to see for themselves the exciting changes that could be in store for what is a focal point in the town. Bedlington's tree-lined Front Street is one of the quaintest and most picturesque places in the area and enhancements to the Market Place can only help to regenerate the town even further." [ED: For public discussion on this proposal visit the Market Place Regeneration tread in the Talk Of The Town forum.]

A new group called (say) "Moderators" could be created, but it wouldn't add anything. The only thing that's been restricted is multi-moderation (too complicated to explain) and mass deletion. That's only because there's huge potential there for nasty, unrecoverable, mistakes. Yes. I expect my right-of-center views will be subject to the occassional PC dumb-arsed "revision" from you pair of lefties. But, that's the only way things will work. I'm content to get on with growing the site when I have the time, secure in the knowledge that, as you get older - and "under the influence of market forces" - you'll most probably end up a lot more right wing than I am!

I never realised there was a third Osbourne kid. But it's pretty obvious why he/she refused to have anything to do with the show. Should go far!

That was his surgery when he first arrived in Bedders - probably straight out of dental school - in a broken down old car. He came from somewhere down south and lived in the flat on-site until he made a bit of dosh. However he deserved to do well as he shook things up a bit and kept more up to date than the older school dentists. Bedlington obviously needed him as much as he needed Bedlington. He soon bought a house in a posher part of Blyth, but I believe died a fair while back now. He also bought the present property from Mr Paton of Brentford Fruit Shop fame. (The Brenton Fruit Shop was the shop next to Watson's old shop on the top-end bus stand.) There was already a small shop in the downstairs of Mr P's house, which Mr H obviously got rid of in the conversion. I think they perhaps knew each other as members of the local Rotary Club. I can't remember what the shop was as it seemed to change hands or be empty rather frequently, and no one ever made a success of a business there. All dentists surgeries were scary places back in those days and I can recall having gas for extractions in about the place that is now the Post Office counter. When I woke up Mr H asked if I'd been dreaming about collecting biscuit tins. I'd been collecting them on a bogey and taking them to Weymes (sp?) on Front Street East to claim the deposits back. I can remember wondering how he knew this as it was mostly the other end of town.

I too vowed never to go back to Mr Jackson after visiting him for many years. A severe attitude problem is perhaps how it is best described! I also found him increasingly slap-dash; he seems to begrudge every second of his time that you are paying for! One of his later fillings came straight out though I was careful with it. My current dentist must spend about four times as long as Mr J did for the same sort of jobs, and I exaggerate not! A pity as Pat Henderson who works there is an excellent dental hygienist, but I'm told that you've got to take the complete package or nothing.

If you came out of "Angry Kid mode", stopped insulting people and attacked their often daft ideas, then you'd be a lot more effective Monsta. It's like the BNP. Many rational people would go along with some of their less wild ideas. The problem is often not what is being said, but who is saying it, and how it is being said. As you've pointed out I expected that intelligent people would understand that my saying !*!@# was simply an abbreviation for Chinese Takeway. But the PC crowd would rather focus on the fact that it could be seen as a derogatory reference to a Chinese person. Well it could, but only if you quite deliberately misconstrued what I was saying. But.. the PC crowd are very good at doing just that! This is brilliant news for the people who do want to stir up racial hatred! Making neutral words like negro taboo is an excellent way to illustrate what a paucity of constructive ideas you actually have. When people see how brain dead the UK political left is then it's not unsurprising that the dumb right can grow its support at an alarming rate.

I'm not moderating you. You were put on the delay and warned because of obscene language. It will expire of it's own accord in an hour or so.

The rules are the rules you agree to when you join. If you want them changed then re-write them yourself and submit them. If they look reasonable and legal then we'll adopt them.

The moderators have no such details. See above. There you are then... I appologise! I couldn't possibly answer that on the grounds of client confidentiality, but look at the start of the thread! P.S. The government wants even more of your details. They want you to pay £80 for an ID card so they can monitor you. They have access to loads of personal information about you, can even track your movements from your mobile phone. Who are you going to complain to? When you complain can you be sure that even your complaints won't be monitored and you marked as an agitator? These are the real questions!

Nope - you haven't answered my questions - just ignored them! And what makes you think I was talking about you?

What do the moderators know that no one else knows? Why would anyone post anything which is confidential? If they post it it's no longer confidential - innit! Seems to me we've got a case bad case of anti-authoritarianism here. Lots of practise at school? And.. from someone who wants to be moderator too!!???

The moderators operate strictly in accordance with the MI5 & MI6 rulebooks.

Who needs publicity when you've got employees of the Royal Family promoting the show! They must have at least quadrupled the audience for the very thing they are complaining about!