Styumpie

Oh we are not directly stealing it, but we are stealing it. Iraq is set to massively increase its output, which means we all get cheaper oil, or should I say a delay in price rises due to other fields now in decline. We needed that oil on the world market, now we have it. Mission accomplished.

Blatent nepotism in the council, who would have thought it

Today is rather an apt day to be asking this question. We can complain all we want about the EU, and there are many things wrong with it, but in its original purpose it has been very successful. Less than a century ago, two wars were fought within Europe and millions of people died; today we squabble about incompatible national interests and pointless beurocracy. The second option may not be great, but it's definitely better than the first. Political and economic integration makes war within Europe so unlikely as to be virtually inconceivable. I dont agree at all, now with an ever more powerful union, and close ties with the Americans, we will find it much easier when it comes to attacking countries like Iran for political reasons (stealing their oil, like what we managed with Iraq) It will be much easier for for the elitists to start wars based on there own warped ideologies. An EU superpower will result in more spilled blood than separate countries. It hands power to the elites to do what every they want for their own agendas. I can not understand why in this modern day some of us want to hand over democracy absolutely.

To trust the government to act on behalf of our interests regarding our euro status is extremely naive at best. I trust them to act in their own personal interest only. To deny a referendum on this issue is wrong, if the majority are against what the Lisbon treaty stands for, even in a broad sense we should have the right to the final say.

+1 we have an elected dictatorship. Your vote is worthless. The choice is red or blue, so there is no point in voting, unless that is your happy with the current red/blue autocracy.

relief to hear no one got creamed, its the time of year were accidents seem to get more common.

I'd rather see the place in dire rack and ruin than those feckers creaming of my taxes. Only a matter of time until the SIC gravy train de-rails, cant wait, bring it on.

Just because frontline workers are seen to be the good guys shouldn’t exempt them from the need for cuts any more than anybody else who works for the Council. As great a job as I am sure they do, vast numbers of support staff are employed in schools in Shetland compared to in Orkney and the Western Isles for example. Absolutely, look at making savings by cutting staff where possible but if it's going to be done, do it across the board. I dont agree with that, why cut lower paid staff who deliver the service? when a clean up of management, that will save much more due to the higher salaries per head involved, but will also have the least impact on services/productivity. Cutting willynilly across the board is reckless.

Well, i'm not disagreeing with anything you say really, I know we get a reasonably good service here, My point is the level of waste. I have no objections to hiring roadmen, social workers/carers etc etc as many as is needed we should have, the people in the council who carry out the real work, we need them, its management/office staff where part of the flab is. And not only the management itself, its way they handle our money. I've been involved with quite a few council/health board projects which I wont mention, where the costs have been astronomical. (yet no one ever get sacked for this) it seems they would happily sack a roadman for a few £ discrepancy which is neither here nor there, than ruffle any feathers amongst themselves the higher paid tier of management. So I hope when the cuts come, the service can remain, the flab removed.

1/2 a million pounds to build a crapper, Its good to know my taxes is not being squandered Imagen the size of house you could build for £420 thousand, at around £1000 m2 probably enough to hold around 4-500 cubicles.

Its funny how, not so many years ago, there were only a fraction of the council workforce that exists now, everything was fine back then, I see little change in the service just a hell of allot more bloat, lots more bums parked on seats staring into computer monitors. Is all this extra bloat sustainable? probably not, judging by the state of not only the SIC's finances and reckless spending policy, but the governments too.

I'm not personally having a go at council workers, I cant blame them, its a great career, thats why its so popular. I'm just making observations. If your last job was so much better, why work for the council? As far as I can see, the main + points are, less hours, less workload, cast iron pension, an easier ride, excellent job security. How many actually ever get paid off for poor performance? not many. All round good deal. ".y should folk have to work all hours to earn a reasonable wage?" Sadly if everyone worked part time, not enough would get done, the place would grind to a halt, thats why in the real world, people doing productive jobs have to put in the hours. For an easy/r life, these are the options, go on benefits, cash poor but extremely time rich. work for the state, decent pay, less hours, good perks. self employed, come and go as you like.

Funny how the public sector always work less, get paid more, have the best job security, and much better pensions. I have a good mind to jump on this gravy train myself. Its no wonder why so many of the top brass are in favour of the wind farm revenues, to keep the whole elephantine barge of wastefulness afloat.

So the politicians were right about the war then? Well its a good job we found the WMD's that could be launched in 45 mins

So you think if there had been a referendum on this issue, most would have been in favour of the war? We have to vote based on lots of issues, not just one, that is the problem, maybe the libs were against the war, and the majority agreed with that but the rest of there ideas people hated, hence no votes. It boils down to the fact none of us have any meaningful say. Its a rotten system.

I think people are generally well informed and have good opinions on the bigger more openly debated issues, and we should ultimately trust ourselves as a nation. What you say I think applies to the medium/finer areas of governance where it is better to have elected individuals to make decisions, for example we could not all be voting on 100 different menial things each week, but we should be voting on issues like whether we go to war, whether we replace trident, whether we need ID cards, whether we commission more nuclear power, whether we bail out banks etc etc etc the list goes on. Also if enough of the public want a vote on a specific issue then it should be allowed, say for example if there is a written request from 200,000 or more.

"I see the same government that started these wars was elected back in by the same UK population. If you are right about the vast majority then it is only to the extent that the vast majority don't want to get held up at the traffic lights or don't want to miss Strictly Come dancing. " Thats the whole problem, its politicians who make these decisions elected or not, it makes no difference, especially with only 2 parties to choose from there is no democracy. It will only ever be Labour or Conservative like it or lump it, what they say goes whether the populace agree or not, its not a democracy, its an elected dictatorship. We need a system where we all vote on the major issues, take the power away from politicians and hand it to the people. There should be a system in place where referendums can easily be held, some sort of secure electronic voting system, scrap ID cards and spend the money on creating such a system, it could easily be done. But sadly, dictators always hold on to power for the bitter end, they would never allow it as a true democratic system is not in their personal interests.

We? speak for yourself mate, I was and still am 100% against the "war" in Afghanistan and Iraq, as is and was the vast majority of the UK population. We need to sort our own problems out first, What we need to be doing is taking our country back away from this rotten dictatorship we have now, pitch forks a blazing and oust them out, set up a proper democratic ruling system.

Is this him? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx1CkPcICaY

Strange dream I had last night, I was walking around in tesco when I started to float, I began to feel weightless and could not get my feet back on the ground, totally weightless, floating, having to pull myself along the ceiling/shelves using my hands. Best dream ive ever had

the 6/7 samsung series have led back lights, the oled sets are still a few years away yet. As far as Led back light LCD displays go, best to go for a local dimming set, edge lit led like the 6/7/8 still has some problems, the new Samsung 8500 panels are local dimming, going to be released this coming month, also the LG LH9500 looks like its going to be a really nice LD set also to go on sale really soon. I'm going for the samsung 8500 or LG LH9500 I think.

http://www.boycottscotland.com/

Money talks.

All drugs (including alcohol). Peer Pressure Poor family guidance Inappropriate law-making/ policy Lack of responsibility/ self-control Mental ill-health The nanny state, Conformism, free spirits tend to rebel against the constraints of our current restrictive society.

http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2009/06/03