Flatpackhamster

Then don't try to fit them around your ankles, wear them around your waist.

Nothing wrong with Dunlop. I have a good sturdy pair of Dunlop green wellies.

Jesus wept.

You're paying for the badge. The 16-25 demographic all want an iDevice of some kind. The number of customers I see whose kids are baying for a new Macbook for Christmas/birthday... When they ask me about it, I ask them if they want to spend twice the money for the same machine.

Sadly, no. They'd be exempt since they're Olympic authority vehicles.

Unfortunately, one of the terms and conditions that the hosting city has to sign up to is that it creates access routes for the VIPs from their five-star hotels to the venues. It's rather reminiscent of the 'private' lanes on motorways in Eastern Europe which were built especially for Party members. London has to provide these access routes as part of the contract. Still, it's a good way for us to be able to see some SERIOUS fat-cattery. You think our politicians are bad?

I suspect that, whatever you set up for them, they'll be running MW3 by the end of the first week (if they're 'gifted'). I advise you to give them the kit, put them on a discrete network and never look in that room again, because you won't like what you see

In my old house I had phone provided by BT and broadband provided by IDNet. We moved house and had arranged with BT for them to move the phone number. A week before move, we got an email from BT saying "There's a problem, call this number." We spent a week phoning the number which was always engaged. At 4pm on Friday afternoon I phoned IDNet and explained the problem. They suggested I switch the phones from BT to them. The phone line was live on the Monday morning, and although the broadband was supposed to be live a week later, it was working on Friday morning. So - that's my tale of getting broadband ASAP. IDNet are super.

I think it's a food colouring added to the dough.

An equitable charge does mean that the house has been repossessed. GE Money probably offered the finance for the mortgage although it would have been in the name of another mortgage company. It's likely that the repossessor hasn't updated the Land Registry file. Are you able to find out which solicitor managed the sale by looking at the copies of original sale deeds? Perhaps they could help.

I can see that if I continue this we're going to have another of those conversations, so if it's all the same to you, I'll drop it now and you can continue with your delusion that the education sector's biggest computer supplier doesn't abuse its market position.

Yes, perhaps they really were just the very best in every way. Although I'm not sure how to square they with my experience, and the experience of every person I've ever spoken to, who has hated every single thing RM ever released. Could it be that there's rather going on than simple 'RM are really good'?

As soon as the UK's biggest IT spender (the government) selects a company to deliver a huge programme of works (such as BSF), it creates a natural monopoly. RM can use this money to push out its competitors, either by undercutting them or simply buying them up.

How many other companies are being squeezed out of the marketplace by their monopolistic behaviour, and how many people would those companies employ?

I have to disagree with you that institutional shareholders base anything on hard facts. Their traders are moved by sentiment as much as anyone's. That said, RM's share price is tanking because its primary source of revenue is being squeezed. Like crapita, they've got very wealthy leaching off the taxpayer, and I can't say that I'm sorry that they're suffering. I do hope they go under. They're a huge parasite.

Well it's likely to be busier than 2011, if that's possible. We just bought our first house (after 6 1/2 years renting together) and moved in three weeks ago. Now it's time to get hitched, I suppose. Also toying with starting a small non-IT business but there may not be enough hours in the day.

To keep your ear in, so to speak, you can read French newspapers and listen to French radio. There's a French talk radio on LW, and you can listen to their radio stations through their websites. Personally I found the best way to learn was immersion - go to France and just speak the lingo.

No, I mean that culturally, up until WW1, everyone in the UK who went abroad for a holiday went to Germany. Since the wars that has ended, and I think it needs to change because Germany is such a great place to holiday.

Absolutely. Their food is super. We should eat more of it over here, and it's far more regional than I'd thought possible. Swabians cook a sort of pasta, for example. Trollinger? Good stuff. I got a taste for it when I was in Stuttgart this year, but can't find it for buggery in the UK. It's ridiculous. Germans and Brits, we're so similar - same tastes in food, drink, same lifestyles. The only reason people don't holiday more in Germany is the war.

1) I haven't asked for anything. We've just moved house and buying and equipping a new house is like allowing the entire country's businesses to run an industrial hoover over your bank accounts. Even our debts are in debt this month. Back to normal (hopefully) by February. 2) I'm definitely getting the nothing I asked for.

A couple of other cons: Your public sector pension will stop growing. You need to factor in the cost of providing yourself with that. It's huge. All it takes is for a single change of head or management at a single school who decides they want to do things differently, and you could lose the lot. I'd never discourage anyone from becoming self-employed, but it's a risky game and you're basically shackling yourself to the education sector which will, I guarantee, see its income fall in real terms over the next decade. It will have to do more with much, much less, and you're putting yourself in the firing line. Contractors are always the first to go. You need some work which isn't public sector based to give yourself a fall-back position.

It is a popular argument that if we didn't have a military we could afford lots more lovely public services. As you can see laid out here, the defence budget is lower than the interest payments on our national debt. UK Public Spending Breakdown: Central Government and Local Authorities 1692-2015 - Charts Perhaps paying down the debt would free up rather more money.

The government spends three quarters of a trillion pounds a year, and a few of you are quibbling about £40m. We spend that much per day on the EU (in various forms such as CAP payments) . We spend £80m a day on the NHS.

Fans of Elite should be able to download Elite - The New Kind from somewhere on the net. It's a complete rebuild of the game for the PC, and it also includes a copy of The Dark Wheel, the novella which came in the box.

ElsieGee40 pretty much nails it. The culture will be quite different to a state school, the hours will be longer for all staff. You'll also notice there are more support staff around. The public school I worked at had 900 pupils and 100 support staff including groundskeepers, cooks, cleaners, administrators and so on. A similar sized secondary school had 23 support staff. Prep schools are often pretty hard up, public schools less so. The really successful ones get enormous bequests from old pupils and are very wealthy. One near me owns most of the buildings around the north end of town.