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Sequin | 14:30 UK time, Tuesday, 27 October 2009

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This is the place to let us know your thoughts about tonight's programme. Dan Mitchell is editing and will read your comments after we've had our own Glass Box meeting at 6pm.

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  • 1. At 4:02pm on 27 Oct 2009, Sid wrote:

    On this day ...

    1908: Parliament approves old age pensions by passing the Old Age Pension Act, championed by the Liberals.

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  • 2. At 4:04pm on 27 Oct 2009, Dennis Junior wrote:

    Sequin and Dan Mitchell:

    Afghanistan and the U.S. troops killed in the Month of October
    2009; So far has the deadliest month...

    ~Dennis Junior~

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  • 3. At 4:37pm on 27 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:

    #1. Sid
    Not done a lot since have they.

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  • 4. At 4:44pm on 27 Oct 2009, Sid wrote:

    Looternite - don't forget Beveridge was a Liberal.

    The Beveridge Report was the Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services chaired by William Beveridge, an economist. The report identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease, and went on to propose widespread reform to the system of social welfare in the United Kingdom to address these. Highly popular with the public, the report formed the basis for the post-war reforms known as the Welfare State, which include the expansion of National Insurance and the creation of the National Health Service.

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  • 5. At 4:56pm on 27 Oct 2009, ExpectingtheEnd wrote:

    What's happening at the Karadzic trial?

    The Serbs say this is the last great trial of World War 2. Like nurenburg only this time, it's 'Losers' Justice' with Nato stacked out with Germans and Italians, and Europe with the French 'n' all.

    What side WHERE Germany, Italy and great swathes of France ON, in WW2?

    And the Serbians?

    Was Yugoslavia the ONLY place that the Nato pwers thought they'd have to fight to defeat communism?
    That was certainly the view of Thatcherite theorists at ther time of hte fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the USSR.

    Was Serbia's war pre-emptive nad defensive?

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  • 6. At 4:57pm on 27 Oct 2009, mightyUbuntu wrote:

    Just heard the trailer for tonight's PM with the Met office claiming an Indian summer. Well here in Nottinghamshire it,s miserable or as the Scots would say Dreek.

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  • 7. At 5:11pm on 27 Oct 2009, Sid wrote:

    Proper Scots would say 'dreich'.

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  • 8. At 5:18pm on 27 Oct 2009, Sid wrote:

    And proper Englishmen wouldn't say 'nad' on a BBC blog (yes, EtE, I'm talking to you).

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  • 9. At 5:39pm on 27 Oct 2009, steelpulse wrote:

    Upshares Downshares. Air guitars seems just wrong for Mrs Bridges and Hudson's world but Ok Matt.
    Just in from the Royal Mail talks - allegedly. The two sides are both in the same room and agree - on the hobnobs as being a good choice for nosh with preferred beverages. Dunking aside - crumbs for comfort then.
    Subject: stick with it (hankels inn tam ram)
    Anagram: I'm skint kin cash mantra - whittle
    Jean Marsh played Rose didn't she - in Upstairs Downstairs? Hmm

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  • 10. At 5:56pm on 27 Oct 2009, pea-man wrote:

    This comment is awaiting moderation. Explain.

  • 11. At 5:57pm on 27 Oct 2009, Idcam wrote:

    I like meat but not too much. Just occasionally in fact. Not eating much meat has led to a varied and interesting diet. I like not eating a lot of meat, that is I like eating the things I have to eat in order not to eat much meat. I also suspect that I enjoy the meat that I do eat rather more than I would were I to eat a lot of it. So in general I am of the opinion that eating not too much meat is a fun thing to do. Plus also it's good for the planet and that. Whoopee!

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  • 12. At 6:08pm on 27 Oct 2009, Big Sister wrote:

    11 - I'm with you on that. I've also been a vegetarian (sadly, lapsed - but in my heart of hearts I'm still one). But one thing I learned from living in other countries was this: If you're going to eat meat, you should be prepared to eat the non-prime meat as well as the 'best bits'. Several people I know are unwilling to eat pigs trotters, offal, and the like, and I feel this is not only wasteful but, in a way, disrespectful. Perhaps we should return to wartime rationing when it comes to meat and only be allowed a certain amount of prime meat with larger rations of the less popular cuts. In that way, perhaps, we could cut down on meat production without forcing everyone to espouse vegetarianism ...

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  • 13. At 6:09pm on 27 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:

    #4. Sid
    From Wikipedia;
    "Lord Beveridge was so highly influenced by the Fabian Society socialists – in particular by Beatrice Potter Webb, with whom he worked on the 1909 Poor Laws report – that he could readily be considered one of their number." - not exactly 100% Liberal was he.
    However his report was left to the post war Labour government to implement.
    So the Liberals acound for the first pensions and a Lefty/Liberal wrote a report.
    Hmmm.... Still not a lot.

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  • 14. At 6:13pm on 27 Oct 2009, jonathanmorse wrote:

    New Scientist magazine reported research in Australia that whilst all mammals belch, the methane ruminants produce is caused by a parasite not found in birds or those animals like kangeroo, and that this parasite can be killed off by adding various additives to the food, including the active ingredient in garlic (which may mean you could just add garlic). Killing off the parasite, which is a bacteria, results in more energy for the animal which can lead to more meat produced, although that may lead the animals living shorter lives as they'll be ready for market sooner.

    Alternatively, at least for ruminants in sheds, you could extract the air via a wire cage like those in miner's Davy Lamps and ignited to turn the methane into harmful but less hermful carbon dioxide.

    Vegetarians usually live healthier lives and are closer to their ideal weight, that is their ideal weight medically not their ideal weight if they want to look like a model. Of course that might be because their food is unappetising.

    I need my meat. How else do you get all your neutrients - I might have to start eating 5 fruit a day.

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  • 15. At 6:13pm on 27 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:

    #6. mightyUbuntu
    Well we have had a lovely day to day Serotonin levels up.
    Oh, and most people who pay for the BBC live south of Birmingham, best get over it.

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  • 16. At 6:16pm on 27 Oct 2009, Sid wrote:

    Looternite - you missed the bit of my post above which said: "... the report formed the basis for the post-war reforms known as the Welfare State, which include the expansion of National Insurance and the creation of the National Health Service."

    Pensions, National Insurance, the NHS - I'd say that was something to be proud of. Perhaps you'd like to share with us what your preferred government has achieved in comparison?

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  • 17. At 6:17pm on 27 Oct 2009, steelpulse wrote:

    Kew Botanical Gardens. Nice piece.
    Open Secrets. I cannot get in. Odd that. I thought once in the BBC area I would be waived thru! Mad Hatter's Tea Party - wanted to comment. Freedom Of Information - therein lies a whole new Lewis Carroll tome.
    Yesterday I couldn't open simple attachment on my Email without buying something seemingly. That was going to happen. lolToday - "come on in!" my Email said to me!
    What an odd world my computer becomes sometimes.
    Subject: is increasingly important
    Anagram: Lions gain - Mr Pastry incite
    Lions led by lions - hopefully. lol

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  • 18. At 6:26pm on 27 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:

    #16. Sid
    Well where do you want me to start. Are you saying that the post war government that set up the NHS was Liberal? I think not and I will have to talk to my mum to find out what else the post war Labour Government done.
    Saint Harold Wilson's government and the "white Heat of Technological Revolution" enabled 1000's of "losers" the chance of apprenticeships and college qualifications to provide us with lifelong oportunities.
    I do not have time to list the achievments of post war Labour governments.
    To get things done it is usually best to get you hands on the levers of power. Carping from the sidelines gets nothing done.
    Anyway who said I support Labour, I certainly have never said anything here regarding my political preference.

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  • 19. At 6:31pm on 27 Oct 2009, Sid wrote:

    Looternite - I didn't say you supported Labour.

    If you read my posts carefully you will see that the report which lead to the welfare state was written by a Liberal. The Beveridge Report is most certainly not 'carping from the sidelines'.

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  • 20. At 6:47pm on 27 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:


    Oh dear, I don't want to appear "carping" and pedantic here(I usually leave that to others).
    Looking again at the Wikipedia entry we find:
    "The Report to the Parliament on Social Insurance and Allied Services was published in 1942."
    "A second report, Full Employment in a Free Society, appeared in 1944. Later that year, Beveridge, who had recently joined the Liberal Party, was elected to the House of Commons, in a by-election to succeed George Charles Grey, who had died on the battlefield in Normandy, France, on the first day of Operation Bluecoat on 30 July 1944. Beveridge briefly served the constituency of Berwick-upon-Tweed."



    The famous Beveridge Report 1942; Beveridge joins Liberal Party 1944. So technically he was not a Liberal when he wrote his report.
    Bloody Hell I'm getting like other people here. Must get a cuppa.

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  • 21. At 6:57pm on 27 Oct 2009, jonathanmorse wrote:

    Didn't the 1908 Old Pensions Act also include a levy on employers to help pay for the pensions, which is why you have employers NI which most people don't know about as well as employee's NI with more tax (including NI) being charged for each extra pound you earn than if you earn enough to pay the top 40% rate and no NI.

    Liberals of that time weren't like modern liberals, who are just after Tory votes since their existing seats are more vulnerable to the Tories than to labour. The founders of the Labour Party nearly ended up supporting the Liberals instead.

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  • 22. At 7:01pm on 27 Oct 2009, Sid wrote:

    He was undoubtedly a liberal.

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  • 23. At 7:08pm on 27 Oct 2009, jonathanmorse wrote:

    Why doesn't Dave Cameron not want Tony Blair to be EU President? Whilst I suspect that that job is essentially a non-job - TB can do better, why is Dave opposed? Does he not want it obvious that he's so like Blair, since he's modelled himself on TB. Any other possible candidates will be more European, perhaps more left wing, certainly less like the Tories which I thought was Blair's biggest fault.

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  • 24. At 7:13pm on 27 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:

    #22. Sid
    So is Shirley (traitor) Williams and David (traitor) Owen!

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  • 25. At 7:19pm on 27 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:

    #23. jonathanmorse
    Because the Daily Mail don't like the EU or TB.
    Therefore Shamron does what they or the Murdoch group tell him.
    He wants to win the next election and he will do or say anything to get power.
    The job does not exist yet and my discussion with our contacts in Sweden, Germany and France all think that Tony Blair would be great for the position when it becomes available.
    This is typical of the petty vindictive Tories that we had become used to under Thatcher.

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  • 26. At 8:07pm on 27 Oct 2009, esseness wrote:

    OOPS

    Three important questions were overlooked in Ms Quinn's feature about meat and CO2 emissions today-

    1. If we farm without aninmals, we need to rely on chemical fertilisers rather than using the natural recycling of nutrients that animal manure facilitates. Artifical fertiser preoduction is extremely energy and CO2 costly. A rigorous interviewer should surely have explored this.
    2. Much of this country can only produce grass,it is not fit for arable production. Humans have no way of obtaining nutrition from grass except by using herbivores ability to turn it into meat. A rigerous journalist should have asked about what the effect on our ability to feed ourselves would be if we stopped using all these areas to produce food.
    3. The livestock is produced in this country by livestock farmers not by an industry- your contributor who insisted in calling it an industry was demonstrating that she really has quite a different agenda than reducind CO2 emissions. She is anti meat eating for other reasons and is jumping on a convenient bandwagon- A rigorous journalist should have questioned this.

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  • 27. At 9:45pm on 27 Oct 2009, Specialized Stumpjumper FSR wrote:

    Just got home having heard the piece during the second half of the programme apropos Tory MP Bernard Jenkin being asked to pay back £63,250 by the expenses auditor Sir Thomas Legg. This MP had claimed a not insignificant level of second-home expenses to rent a property from his sister-in-law. However, the programme’s feature wrongly stated that Mr Jenkin had rented this country house in his North Essex constituency, a mistake which has been repeated on the BBC News website. I feel compelled to put the record straight, as I happen to live in Mr Jenkin’s constituency which is more than he claim to do! This property for which Mr Jenkin claimed his second home allowance is in Hatfield Peverel, which is outside of the constituency that he has been elected to represent, a strange arrangement indeed.

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  • 28. At 10:53pm on 27 Oct 2009, Sid wrote:

    Looternite:

    "So is Shirley (traitor) Williams and David (traitor) Owen!"

    This is not the way to encourage reasonable discussion.

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  • 29. At 11:37pm on 27 Oct 2009, U14138029 wrote:

    This is a peremptory request because I feel that you are bound to contemplate it.
    Please, no matter what the temptation on MP expenses and conduct is will you try to resist the temptation to interview Sir Alistair Graham – a man who was so successful in every job he had that he had to give it up.
    I’m perfectly willing to come on the programme and talk nonsense in a funny accent and do it for free. I’ll even tell a joke if you want. But please, no more Alistair Graham.

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  • 30. At 11:38pm on 27 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:

    #28. Sid
    I know people who use much stronger words regarding those two.
    However, my family remember Shirley (traitor) Williams in 1964 when she was canvassing for election to Hitchin constituency. Hitchin constituency at the time was very large and included Stevenage. Yes the great radical lefty Labour candidate actually came into our house and told my mum and us eight kids how she wanted to do whatever she could to improve our lot.
    Hmmm... I think something got forgotten by her not us.
    Now I am happy to discuss being let down and betrayed by politicians any time.
    The drop in working class support for all political parties did not happen under Blair as in my opinion it began in the 1980's. The expression I remember from people who don't vote, has been for 25 years, is "well they are only in it for themselves so what's the point". I know that is not what the Guardian/Independant luvvies have decided is the reason for the BNP but I can tell you this has been festering for years.

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  • 31. At 05:45am on 28 Oct 2009, jonathanmorse wrote:

    #30 Looternite - I always thought Blair assumed he wouldn't get any working class vote as generally they don't vote thesedays. He campaigned for and served the middle classes, whilst sending as much as he could the working classes way, even if it was mostly by way of full employment.

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  • 32. At 05:49am on 28 Oct 2009, jonathanmorse wrote:

    # 27 Croydon South's tory MP doesn't live in the constitiuency either, poss because it's a very safe tory seat. Admittedly Croydon North's Labour MP doesn't but he does live in Croydon so he pays his council tax to the same people his constituients do unlike the Croydon South MP.

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  • 33. At 07:35am on 28 Oct 2009, Lady Sue wrote:

    So now farmers are being encouraged to breed cattle, not as better milkers or for tastier beef, but so they don't fart? Similarly with pigs. Did I hear this correctly?

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  • 34. At 08:36am on 28 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:

    #31. jonathanmorse
    I agree with you that Tony Blair could not rely on the working classes to get Labour into power. The drop in working class voting is decades old. Yet as I point out it's only when the BNP get elected that the cosy middle classes sit and notice.
    Labour always seems shy of promoting their achievements.

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  • 35. At 09:21am on 28 Oct 2009, U14138029 wrote:

    Lady Sue (33) - Of course those wise old Australian scientists have been on to this years ago!

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  • 36. At 09:24am on 28 Oct 2009, Looternite wrote:

    #35. PrestonFirmlie
    They now have to work on Australian men and the after effects of the gassy beer they drink.

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  • 37. At 10:50am on 28 Oct 2009, Lady Sue wrote:

    It's enough to make me want to hand in my passport. What about the millions of Chinese who burp and fart to show appreciation of a good meal? It's all too silly for words.

    Ln, LOL.

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  • 38. At 2:26pm on 28 Oct 2009, ExpectingtheEnd wrote:

    28

    Ohy, yes it is.

    Her commitment to a tripartite system of education was so classist even a Tory twerp like John Major knew it had to change.
    Posh universities and poor relation art colleges and polys indeed.
    She was the poster girl for the traitorous ploicy in '67.
    She was argued into the ground when she met us, but stil stuck to the policy

    As for him, his inability to give Zimbabwe independence, when Carrington found it so simple, suggests a certain treachery on his part.

    For Sid : The 'her' is your Shirl, the him is the owing Owen.

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