Flatpackhamster

The likelihood of you being anything but when you have that stance on the monarchy is close to zero. That level of naivete around the actions of 'the people' (which you treat as a single, homogenous lump instead of the individuals they are) is characteristic of socialists. No, it isn't. You keep saying there would be a 'system of reward by the people' so perhaps you could outline to us the exact process. How would 'the people' choose? Take me through the process because I don't think that you've thought it through. I think you imagine that 'the people' would choose and you don't know, for a moment, how that would happen.

"Awards should come from the people", should they? So we'll all vote for who gets an award, will we? Of course not. What'll happen is that 'the people' will have the decision made for them by The People's Council Of Award Choosers which will be exactly the same system as we have now with the word 'people' replacing 'royal'. What I think is so pitiful about socialists is your near-total lack of understanding of basic human psychology. I can't decide whether it's naivete or stupidity but, time and again, you wave your arms and say 'People will behave like this under the new system' and then you're amazed when they don't.

What makes you think that abolishing the Monarchy will abolish sycophancy? Do you not think people did the same under the Soviet system for awards? Orders, decorations, and medals of the Soviet Union - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well we wouldn't have had to worry about the economy collapsing since the socialist paradise he'd have created would have brought joy, moonbeams and limitless wealth to us all, just like socialist paradises have the world over.

Yes, really. But never mind, so long as you're happy.

You also seem to be confused so allow me to remind you that I never said that a Pentium D would see no benefit from an SSD. I stated that the fundamental problem with those machines was the processor, not the hard disk, and it is.

What you'd be seeing, if it worked, was the Coriolis Effect in action. However, the water needs to be very still for quite some time in order for you to determine the effect. See here: BBC - Bang Goes the Theory - Hands-on science: Plugholes

Won't the graphics card be handling the 3D and 2D work in CAD? And I wasn't aware that processor speed was a factor in CNC cutting speed. You live and learn, I guess.

The best I can do is point you to the second, third and fourth paragraphs of this Wikipedia article. Sorry: Pressure system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's not the data throughput, it's the ability of the instruction set to handle the processor requirements of modern software. It isn't all loading and unloading files. I agree that SSDs are brilliant, but the Pentium D chipset (in my experience) stank. Stick an SSD on a machine running an Athlon64X2 or a Core 2 Duo and I think it's worthwhile.

Apparently it doesn't.

I'm also not a meteor...metelo...meatoro....weather person, but DeltaBravo is essentially correct. A northerly wind blowing across the UK brings cold arctic air. A southerly one brings warm air. Last week, for example, we had an easterly wind blowing. This comes from Scandiwegia, and is cooler, so the temperature was around 9C. Today it's a westerly, and the temperature is more like 16C even though it's still grey and overcast and raining.

If you think the honours system is flawed now, wait until you've taken a look at the honours doled out to high-ranking members of the Civil Service. Also, John Prescott.

If you're running Pentium Ds then the bottleneck will be the processor, won't it? Changing the hard drive to an SSD will not solve the fundamental problem with those machines which is that their rather weedy processor can't cut the mustard. I can definitely see the benefit in this in some machines, I just can't see it with a Pentium D.

Okay, you know when you're in a pub and you've had a couple of drinks and you're talking to someone you've never met before? And after about 20 minutes they start telling you about the Templars and they stare at your left ear as they explain how the illuminati run everything? That's the point we've reached here. Still, give Angela Merkel a call. I'm sure she'd be interested to learn that Germany is an economic ruin after 20 years of budget surplus.

We'll just have to agree to disagree. You think that money comes from unicorns and fairy dust and debt isn't really a problem, and I think that spending more than you tax leads to economic ruin. Apparently the evidence of failed socialist states around the world isn't enough, so we'll just have to watch the Eurozone go under and see whether you're convinced then.

Why would it be good to use a tablet rather than a laptop? Who benefits? Apple does, of course. Does the taxpayer? What's the service life of a tablet? What's the lifecycle failure rate? Which applications have to be rewritten in order to run on a new platform? What security implications are there? How does one secure documents on an iPad and how much retraining is required for the user? All these questions are important, most of the answers are completely unknown, and all of the answers have costs. MPs write vast numbers of emails to their constituents and other MPs. Is a tablet the best way to write large amounts of text? Not in my experience. IMO it's slower and clunkier than a conventional keyboard. So will this boost productivity, or will it make a bunch of out-of-touch technical illiterates feel like they're living in the 21st century? Obviously it's nice to read the views of the handful of people who think that Parliament can deliver a government-managed IT project efficiently and cost-effectively. I remember feeling the same way about a decade ago.

I think we ought to attach this thread to the 'IT staff are underpaid one'.

What I'm angry about is that MPs can already claim for an IT allowance. Their IT equipment is already supplied and if they somehow urgently need an iPad there's a budget for it. There's already a parliamentary network and there's a parliamentary IT support team (who are no doubt going to be thrilled with this). No, this is the same 'Oooh, shiny, make the taxpayer pay for it' that the EU parliament did. It's IT-illiterate twits deciding they want a free shiny and thinking they can pretend it's for 'work purposes'. Yeah right, just like that duck house was.

TDSSkiller for rootkits.

This isn't going to affect the amount that's printed. Nor are MPs going to use them to work on. It's a pisstake is what it is.

I get 'Mr [surname]'. Or 'sir' if I'm feeling stern.

Thieving scum. The bloody EU parliament did exactly the same thing. "Ooooh, a shinie, I want it and taxpayers should pay for it!"

I can't say I'm surprised. The missus works for a bank in the City, and they cleared the last of their NT servers and workstations in Q2/2011.

Since 1945 they've seen their role as intervening in the economy. The purpose of government, IMO, is primarily law and war. By that I mean that their role is defending the citizens of that country from outside aggression, and providing a trusted, stable judicial system which offers justice to all. Government intervention in the economy isn't a success. What you're doing with this scheme is artifically raising the cost of labour. You're taking money from taxpayers and businesses, and you're making it more expensive to hire low-skilled staff. So small businesses will be paying tax, and paying higher staffing costs. And they have to pass on those costs to customers. And you wonder about the high cost of living. Government creates the high cost of living with its blundering intervention. Oh, there's plenty that could be done with government. We could remove all regional government and a heap of central and localise the whole system and I'm sure you'd see costs fall. Sadly, that's a pipe dream. Every major public building in every town before about 1945 was built with private money. Your swimming pools, your piers, your town halls, your theatres, your schools and hospitals. What the council did was they went to the wealthy of the town and asked them to pony up. And the wealthy did. If you look at debt vs earnings, even my company is better off than the UK. I agree, there are some things government should do. But I think that the system as it stands is horribly broken. How long have we been waiting for another runway at Heathrow or Gatwick, or a new airport in the Thames estuary? 30 years? And the bloody government is still sitting on its arse on that, kicking the difficult decision down the road because it'll make the ecomentalists and Pious-drivers cry. No, government just needs to provide a safe, reliable place for business to spend. Businesses spend when they can see their money pile getting bigger. Subsidies reward corporates. If governments provide handouts, in any form, it distorts the market and in the end we, the consumer, pays.