Symptoms

I'm not sure any right thinking person should ever vote for those LD b*******s again. Just consider what they did last time, all done to enhance that liar Clegg a place at the 'top table'.

Usually, these square/rectangular holes found in very old stone buildings are known as putlog holes. Putlogs were a type of scaffolding that inched up the building as it was built. Baulk of dressed timber would be inserted horizontally into these holes and supported below by angled timber braces, deck boards (similar to modern scaffold boards) would then be laid over the horizontal pieces to form a working platform. Clearly, as the building progressed upwards all this putlog tackle would be disconnected and moved upwards.

Cookie ... try Google - "photos of Cambois" or "images of Cambois". There's quite a few on there - I've just tried.

McAlpine had very, very good (aggressive) lawyers.

So far it's GGG's BLOCK VOTE of 3 against 4 INDIVIDUAL MEMBER VOTES and 1 UNDECIDED (merc). Me thinks that GGG is behaving like one of his favourite Trade Union Barons. Syms says, "One person, one vote".

If gggg's buzzboy shoots video why not send it up Hartford Road, down Front St but stopping at the Market Place Club to nod in wonder, then continue down to the river?

"Sounds, looks, acts like a North London Jew, and even talks about North London Jews. What's he selling?" Oh dear!

I take the opposite view to GGG regarding our sacred Auntie. Yep, she may have her faults but just look at the alternative ... wall-to-wall ITV3 type offer all in hock to big advertisers. I'd urge all reasonable folks here not to vote in this daft petition.

What about 'Politician' by Cream? "Hey now baby, get into my big black car" ... just about sums up the behaviour of those kiddie-fiddling politicos enroute to Dolphin Square. My bet is that nothing has changed since Leon Brittan, Peter Morrison and Greville Janner (all allegedly - a note to our learned friends). I wonder if Janner is operating the successful 'Ernest Saunders' defense tactic of playing bonkers then going to Lourdes to be miraculously cured.

Consider using Alt-codes for those hard to find letters & symbols, including foreign Johnnies. You could start here: http://symbolcodes.tlt.psu.edu/accents/codealt.html but there are lots of these ... try Googling "Alt codes". Those who've been around computers since the 'beginning of time' will recall all those numerous thick manuals that came with the tackle; there was always a chapter of Alt codes in chart form to allow us pioneers to produce copy. For those that don't know ... when you want to add a particular letter or symbol in a word you press the alt key on the keyboard in conjunction with the code number from the list, and hey presto the letter/symbol appears ... no need to cut and paste. Tip: create a crib sheet with all the ones you'll commonly use and print it out.

It's difficult for this exile to orientate the snap due to all the new houses but is the field centre left 20 acres? Resist the temptation to over-fly all those lying by their pools during the hot summer.

HPW ... after living amongst the weak-kneed, yellow-bellied softie Cockney hordes for the best part of 40 years some of their vile turns of phrase have been melded into Sym's larynx ... bastards! Mind you, when talking to MrsSym* I sometimes wind her up by slipping in the odd pitmatic word or phrase ... much to her chagrin; this ALWAYS results in her calling me something like "a rough Geordie git" - but uttered with affection. *MrsSym is not from the North East

Now this is an interesting EU story - Nige being 'called-out' by a Polish prince to a duel in Hyde Park. I'd pay good money to watch ... perhaps those folks at Auntie could bid for the telly rights and beam it worldwide. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-32318250

Spot on Oval.

"Scramble. Scramble. Scramble. Bandits Jocko angels one five" Sismerc's 'few' were stood down and their Jocko wing launched to see off Ivan's raid over the allied convoy north of Chillyjockoland. Her Morse message to merc was, "I am not allowed to say how many planes joined the raid, but I couldn't count them all out and I couldn't count them all back as I wasn't up in Jockoland." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32308307

A significant proportion of the Hatton Garden diamond and bullion trade is wholesale, yep, there are a few retail oultets, but the bulk of the trade is inter-merchant barter and so doen't attract VAT ... 'cos it's 'off the books'. How does Sym know this? Well, in a past life I used to make silver & gold jewellery (all above board as I have a registered Hallmark so could sell the swag) and bought my ingots/sheets/wires/beads from Johnson Matthey's in The Garden. Much of the retail trade in The Garden mainly services foreign visitors who on production of their passports are able to waive any VAT payments. Most folks in Blighty purchase their 'tom' from the 'High St' jewellery chains or the exclusive Bond St stores and will have to pay VAT; just the same as if they were buying jeans, handbags, sanitary towels or bumwipes. Of course there's a mob of undeserving poor but I'd define these as those who cynically abuse the system by using fraud ... I'm on record here on how to deal with them. There's much larger group of the deserving poor ... those working hard in attempting to support their families whilst on shit contracts and having to get a bump-up from the SS; I'd also include the gimps as needing proper support. Many politicos on the Right would shaft these vulnerable folks just to garner votes from elsewhere. They, and their supporters should be ashamed of themselves!!!

GGG wrote: "Why isn't he railing about 10% corporation tax in the Irish Republic ...". Actually, the correct figures for Michaleenland is12.5% for trading income and 25% for non-trading (eg. investments) and the UK rate going to be reduced in Northern Ireland to match that in the Republic. Also, "In particular don't let politicos tell you there's a pot of gold out there - there simply isn't!" There's more than one pot of gold controlled by the undeserving rich ... usually located in safety deposit vaults like that one that got screwed in Hatton Garden last week.

GGG, you should surely know by now that my position is always 'to stiff the ruling elite'. Like you I'm not taken in by all these politicians' promises or their abacus driven economic argements ... I'll repeat my standard mantra that they're ALL shysters. Perhaps my post #6 wasn't 100% historically accurate but phrased to elicit a smile in the viewer, but I'm sure others here recognised the precision of the aim. Certainly, the first part of my subsequent post #9 illustrates Sym's complete grasp of history and how those Empire dregs continue to benefit only a few. I laughed when I read " In case you haven't noticed the days of empire have gone." - maybe in name, but Threadneedle Street* still continues to exert control over much of the wealth generated around the World and the poor slaving in their sweatshops. If that's not an Empire I don't know what is. I think that Tony's promise to send some snaps was about Thamesmead and probably not ones showing hordes of wealth fund managers supping on Moet. *code for all money grabbing bastards swarming like bloated blue bottles over heaps of exhausted workers around the globe.

It was usually Japs and English when I was at Junior school. We would hold both arms out straight (like wings) and with thumbs sticking out (like machine guns) would run around the playgroung shouting 'rat a tat tat' (shooting) at those drawn to be the Japs.

I remember the Travellers' site from the 70s ... even back then the Barge Pole had a bit of a reputation with local 'faces'* always supping there and doing a 'bit of business'. Those lunchtimes I mentioned always included a live stage show ... it really was like The Sweeney or Life on Mars. So Thamesmead Phase 1 has been tumbled; what about Phase 2 (around Southmere Lake)? So you live over in Phase 3. I was involved with some of the development design work there for a period and so watched it all being built, including the millions of tons of North Sea dredged sand being pumped from ships over the marshes to raise the ground level before building work began. Tons of fantastic Nepoleonic era (and later) armaments were recovered during this phase as the land was the firing range for the Woolwich Arsenal (I've still got a 32 pounder cannon ball recovered from there). The wildlife during this time was fantastic as the land hadn't been developed for a couple of hundred years and we often had the Natural History Museum folks down to ID stuff being found. Did you know about the Arsenal's disused miniture railway system that ran around the whole of the Woolwich marsh ... much of this was re-discovered during the development work. I did quite a few of the RYA sail training courses on Southmere lake (there was a sailing centre there at the time - is it still there?) and over the floodwall we did the tidal training on the Thames. Happy days! * for our sheltered viewers in Northumberland 'faces' is the SE London expression for active criminals

Nope, there ain't any Greggs where I now live. Anyway, a lifetime of avoiding brain cell killing telly programmes (dross like Eastenders, Coronation St, Neighbours) and only sucking on 'brainfood' telly and a daily dose of my beloved Guardian has kept it sparking well up top.

The latest news is that fatties don't go bonkers: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-32233571 Watch out Greggs ... they'll be storming the pie counter.

Sym conflate? Never! What my colourful statement "The original Mr Darcyesque guys, living in their huge estates in Blighty, needed to be insulated from having to hand-over the plantation profits to King George's merry tax collectors so they cooked-up this wheeze to hang-on to the blood money." means is quite clear. It means foreign income earned by those in the UK need not be taxed in the UK. Oh, and I've never stated the practice was illegal only unethical/immoral; I've also always said arrest and prosecute those breaking the rules. Tony ... I know Thamesmead very well - which bit are you in, Bexley or Greenwich? I worked there for a while in the late 70s and me and my mates usually had lunch in the Barge Pole pub.

That last post by Mal was timed as being sent from the future ... perhaps we should call him The Doctor. Or maybe he hasn't set the correct time on his ZX Sprectrum. Edit: Oh no! My post has been sent from the future as well, so it can't be Mal's Spectrum*; it must be ggg/gggg's master Atari Bedderserver. * apologies Mal.

Why ask me, ask the Whispering Fish.