Wanderer Vagabond

The trouble is that prior to the referendum, it was only a very small percentage who actually bothered about the EU, most of us just got on with life. After the referendum it suddenly becomes a much larger and more important issue. It's a bit like the Monarchy really, I go from one year to the next with little or no interest in the Monarchy perhaps a trivial noticing of whether one or other of them has hatched, matched or despatched but otherwise just get on with it. If however it was decided that we would abolish the Monarchy and become a republic, how much more interest in Royalty would everyone suddenly have? It would go from being a trivial matter to becoming a defining issue, such is the case with the EU.

I can't really agree with this position; we have already called one election to waste several months of the 2 year Article 50 countdown, to call another election with no certainty that we wont get another hung parliament would be foolish in the extreme. If we continue along our current trajectory and head towards an exit on WTO terms, I think that should be put to the electorate (much though I think that referenda are a crap method of governance) as long as they are told exactly what WTO terms will involve, not project fear, factual detail of precisely what trading on WTO terms will do to our economy. For those who seem to think we have nothing to fear, perhaps they could answer the question why the whole planet don't trade on WTO terms rather than just lowly Mauretania? If the electorate then decide they are content to crash out on those terms then so be it, but there will be no point in future complaining about onerous trading terms being demanded by the EU, US, China, Japan and various others to have some sort of free trade agreement with them. They are the bigger economies and they will set the terms of any agreement. If we crash out of the EU and withhold the final settlement, there will be no future agreement with the EU and it will be WTO terms for the forseeable future.

Which is precisely why Cornwall can expect bog all from HM Government once we leave the EU (but since they voted Leave they will only be getting exactly what they deserve). There are 6 MP's constituencies in Cornwall and 73 in London, it's hardly rocket science to guess where most Government funding will be going. The EU Regional Development Fund was intended to iron out some of these discrepancies to try to boost the regions, Cornwall can now look forward to becoming an irrelevant backwater (again). Farage himself said that 48/52 for remain would be considered 'unfinished business', since it was that close the other way, why should remainers not adopt his attitude?

An old post I know but perhaps this little ditty gives you the answer to your query: If you go to Greece or rural areas of France the 'squat' bog is quite common. After a few visits to these countries I've sort of mastered it but not to the degree of the locals. Whilst in a toilet block in France I took a shower and had a shave, cleaned teeth etc and all the time the bog door was locked, something like 15 -20 minutes before eventually a Frenchman emerged with his newspaper that he had clearly been reading in the squat bog, my knees would have seized up in less than 10 minutes, I was impressed at his ability

You seem to be taking a bit of a narrow one-sided view, what about women taking multiple husbands? Always found it a bit hypocritical that men who shag around a bit are called 'studs' for which the dictionary offers praise,"....A stud is a male whose exudes his sexuality in one way or another. A formal definition is 'a man who is notably virile and sexually active...." on the other hand a woman who shags around a bit is a 'slag' for which the dictionary offers,"...a lewd or promiscuous woman...." not much in the way of praise there, what about the sexuality that they may 'exude'? doesn't get a mention does it?

The example you give (Karen White/Stephen Wood) was an instance of incompetence by the Prison Service, for someone who was remanded in custody for an allegation of raping a female, a female prison was not the most appropriate choice in anyone's book. Similarly I would hope that a male remanded in custody for raping another male would not get a twin cell in a male prison.

Yes, many years ago my first experience of the campsite toilets was a bit of an eye-opener when I was using one of the urinals and was bumped into by a woman taking her washing to the nearby sink, we managed to control everything without mishap. On the slightly funny side however, after a while you just get used to it which was all very well until, on the ferry coming back I went to use the toilets and just forgot, only to have my error pointed out by a lady going in as I was coming out, since it was obviously all cubicles it wasn't a big deal.

Whilst it is off topic, can you elucidate exactly what these 'problems' actually are? I regularly go swimming and the majority of the changing rooms are unisex these days with this really radical idea, they have cubicles. Other sports changing rooms can have the same system without difficulty. Whenever I've been to France they also have what are effectively unisex toilets and if we did away with urinals and all toilets were cubicles, we could probably do the same (although it may result in men having to queue as well, that'd be a culture shock). It always seems funny to me when, in this country, we criticise other cultures for segregation of the sexes, and then almost in the same breath, we demand exactly the same.

When you have nothing to say why do you bother? just force of habit I suppose.

Too right, the only one's with the inalienable right to treat Mrs May with such contempt are, of course, the Tory Party themselves. I wonder what 'spiffing wheezes' they have planned to humiliate her at the Conference next week as a follow on from last year's P45 'joker', frog in the throat and of course the inadvertently collapsing display behind her. I actually feel a bit sorry for May, she will carry the can for the inept 'negotiations' and then some pompous half wit (Johnson? Rees-Mogg?) will step up after all the damage has been done to 'save' the country (even though they wont). It's just a pity they didn't have the guts to step up before this total mess evolved.

Since our principal car makers are Japanese this could be slightly problematic. On the one hand you are assuming that they will stay here if they find themselves having to pay a tariff on cars exported to the EU (their main reason for coming to the UK was access to the EU market) and on the other hand, as an EU member we don't currently pay any tariffs on Japanese car imports following the trade agreement last year. Once out of the EU we will need to re-negotiate a deal with Japan to maintain this tariff free trade, it does however put a lot of power into the Japanese hands since they will undoubtedly want some preferential treatment for their car plants in the UK as part of the re-negotiated free trade deal. All the cards are in the Japanese hands since either we agree to their terms or we are subject to WTO trading terms (9.8%tariff) and could well lose their manufacturing base in the UK. This is what 'taking back sovereignty' really means. Not a very good choice of example if I may say so. What have the years 2015 and 2017 got in common? That'll be the years when we had a 'GE immediately after we have just had one' if my memory serves me correctly.

No, I said what I meant, I buy as little as possible, waste as little as possible and build/repair as much as possible, but that doesn't change the fact that I could be struck down with a stroke tomorrow, which for anyone is a total game-changer. I'm not sure of your reasoning about where my uncle may have failed, he didn't go through life obsessing about acquiring wealth, if that is what you mean, but then those that do don't have much of a life anyway. Even if he had, after the stroke he would have had to have accumulated more wealth than he had ever earned to pay for his care needs, and all he would be doing is feeding the profits of the various private care providers. You also rather contradict your own case with the line,"...I have also impressed on my children that they MUST ensure (insure) that they are able to see out their days without being a "burden" on others although being a close knit family I`m sure all will rally round....." since where would the need to 'rally round' come from unless one of them had become a burden? So it is fine to be a burden on your own family? what an insular view of life. The corollary to that is that those who, for whatever reason, have no immediate family, for the benefit of the rest of us, should just die. Finally, yes some people do carry out actions that are not necessarily in their best interests, but then who voluntarily becomes mentally ill?

No food for thought, more like Trumpisms. If you Fact check the 'quote' by Abraham Lincoln you will find it was actually said by Rev William J H Boetcker 8 years after Lincoln was shot. The original section relating to relationship and abortion makes the massive assumption that no Republican is LBGT or has ever had an abortion, a big assumption since there have been those who are stridently anti gay who have then been caught with their hands down other men's trousers ( https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/wes-goodman-anti-lgbt-republican-ohio-sex-man-office-sexual-misconduct-accusations-gay-a8068671.html ) To be honest it is such nonsense i can't be bothered to fact check the rest.

For those who remember the incident in Cowes back in 2011, this is what happens when you fail to give way to one of the 'big b*ggers' Rather embarrassingly the skipper of the yacht was ex-RN so he should have known about COLREGS

Yes, that's the one, on the Avon. That is the river where some of the weirs are unprotected or have gaps in the protection, as I recall the one's on the Severn are all fully boomed. In my defence the OP did say,".... would like to go to Gloucester, through Stratford, on the River Avon...." and personally, unless someone invents a water handbrake for boats I wouldn't go on any substantial river without an anchor.