is palpable

Can we please give the heavy stuff the old heave ho for a bit and get down to the really serious stuff such as who's best,Yes or Genesis? Should Bobby Plant get a man's haircut? or is our Lenny's proclivities going to do him long term and irreparable harm?

Count me in as leader of the second group.

and think it necessary to have done so. That said, I strongly disapprove of something else.

That's what will happen. As the Khazi of Kalabar once noted: "They will suffer the death of a thousand cuts"

... if the same rules apply to football and other sport based threads.

Otherwise no deal.

anything about George Osborne and his general twattishness but isnt this censorship? Won't get my vote I am afraid.

In this blog, along with the classic 'someone is wrong on the internet' cartoon, I found this quite amusing, and worth us all remembering from time to time ;-)

Outraged readers who wrote to H. L. Mencken would receive in reply a preprinted card:

Dear Sir or Madam:
You may be right.
Yours sincerely,
H. L. Mencken

(I have also seen this story attributed to Mark Twain, Alexander Woollcott, Edward R. Murrow, and several other controversialists but it rings truest for Mencken.)

The Thread "Political Threads" which questioned the need for political threads turned into a political thread (I only dipped my toe in it - but didn't it get onto politics in Chile?). I'm sure courses in textual analysis have a phrase starting with "meta" for this phenomenon.

So I predict that this thread will also turn into a thread about politics. I don't really mind - whichever politician who said it was right, when he was supposed to have responded to a question on a subject which didn't interest him with "a complete ignoral."

I hate [insert a name here]. If you think they are good, then you are rubbish.

Now hang on, this is absurd. And it must stop.

Here we have a post from a bear - an animal - who is also a self-professed idiot, making wild predictions whilst at the same time refusing to state its position regarding one of the most important debates of our time. Surely this is indicative of the kind of well-balanced, hippy-garlanded, wafty-tofty liberalism that has dragged the once great tradition of internet message boards into the gutter of blandness and pleasantry.

I am sick to the back throat of the extent to which this blog groans under the self-congratulatory weight of polite people: seeing one another's point of view, agreeing to disagree, acknowledging that they may not have all the answers and generally getting on. Is this the sort of thinking that led to the creation of a Massive Empire on which the Sun never sets? Is this the attitude that crushes lesser magazines' blogs under an iron fist?

I know that we can change. I know that we can be unreasonable, irrational, and irritable. I know we can exploit our anonymity and make sweeping generalisations about subjects on which we are not qualified to express ourselves. I know that the time is coming when we can stand proud before the message boards of other rival publications and cry, "I am a Massive Member!"

A miner and a tory no less???????? How can you live?????

the other Osbourne that was made Chancellor.

On that subject how about
Stuart Cable for Business Secretary or Brian May for Home Secretary,
let's go the whole hog - Cameron Diaz for PM!!

looks like an inflated nutsack.

Political analysis - not hard is it?

Back when he was a young apparatchik and honing a speech for someone, Lord Archer is trying to stick in his ten-penn'orth. Osborne tells him where to go. Archer, miffed, tells the upstart that his ignorance is why he will never achieve success and wealth in the way that he, Lord Archer, has done.

"Which just shows how little you know about me" Georgie-boy retorted, tartly.

I could almost respect him for that.

I think he's right.

And might I add a refinement?

A lot of very wise economists will be consulted. Some will agree with government policy, others will disagree.

The economy will continue to trundle along with ups and downs.

The economists will continue to argue.

Those whose predictions were shown to be correct at any point in time will say "Aah, told you so."

Those whose predictions were shown to be incorrect will say "Yes, but just wait and see. My predictions will come true."

And they probably will.

And the first lot of economists will say "Ah, yes, but just wait.."

And The World, The World turns around..

Anne Widdecombe will win "Strictly Come Dancing"

…a long term substantial rise in crime, poorer social cohesion, and a general feeling of wasted resources reminiscent of the 1980's. Cheer up folks, Christmas is on its way!