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simonandlesley

Listed below are comments made by simonandlesley between Monday, 24th November 2008 and Wednesday, 18th November 2009.

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Ed Miliband replies 09:03am on 18 Nov 2009 Unfortunately this Government just can't get away from spin which has to assume the listener isn't aware of the full facts. For those of us who are seriously concerned about, and to an extent understand climate change, spin just makes the Government and the relevant minister look foolish. We are not satisfied with 'bread and circuses'.

Unfortunately there is very little real action this Government has taken to reduce its emissions. Carbon offsets, the modern day equivalent of indulgences are a sad reflection of the way people will make money out of anything.

Pressing the public to reduce emissions in their own homes is very much a case of do as I say, not as I do. How many solar water heating systems do I see on Government buildings? A simple check with Google earth satellite views (3 years old) shows effectively none, Microsoft satellite views, updated last year still shows none. Look at the Foreign office estate in countries where we could show leadership in the use of solar energy, again, none!
Searching for our lost minerals 7:25pm on 25 Oct 2009 I come from the North East and moved down south, Kent, to live with my husband. I appear to have fairly minor thyroid problems, my husband who has always lived in Kent and shares the same diet doesn't. We do work hard to purchase our food locally, in particular our vegetables come from a 'bio-Dynamic' scheme near Canterbury, our meat from a local butcher who sources locally, our bread also produced locally. I have ofetn wondered about the mineral background of our local soils in comparison to what my body grew up with and perhaps was conditioned to as a child. Clearly the background mineral regime I am exposed to now is very different to that which I was exposed to as a child. Also we use sea salt, if we salt at all! We eat no "processed foods"

Perhaps I should be including Northumbrian rock dust as a condiment?
Top G-man in Phishing scam 10:51am on 10 Oct 2009 Apart from the 419 scams where there is a separate money transfer where the punter actively engages in being scammed, in almost every other case of online fraud, there needs to be a direct relationship between the victims bank and the scammers bank. Educating the semi IT literate is almost certainly too much of a challenge, but focusing on the banks, perhaps using better IT to manage patterns or horror of horrors, engaging and working with their customers would certainly eliminate a lot of fraud. Also pressing the banks to not deal with scammy operators.

If I am taken in by a boiler room scam, that scammer would need a bank account, card processing, perhaps even an 0800 number! In being taken in by the fraud, I would then rely on my bank transferring large amounts of money (an extraordinary activity) to a dodgy account. Of course the banks will say this is just not possible to manage, but if I go to my bank and try to change £200 into foreign currency I will be questioned and perhaps the transfer will be refused, contrarily, if I (or somebody proposing to be me) sets up a transfer of all my money to an account in Russia, it is likely to succeed!
Leaders in step on climate 08:48am on 16 Sep 2009 In general, the UK public is more "climate sceptical" than the rest of Europe.

That's because our "weather" is more evident than our climate, on the continent they have "climate" of which their weather is a subset. In the UK, in summer it could be hot, cold, windy, wet, foggy, in extreme cases it might hail or even snow! In Italy in summer it is hot and sunny, it is hotter now than 10 years ago. In the Alps it used to be invariably very cold and snowy. Increasingly it is not so cold and not so snowy.

This trend is just not experienced in the UK unless you are interested, look hard and perhaps live in the country. Less snow isn't a clue, but Swallows arriving early means Africa is hotter earlier. Bluebell walks increasingly seeing the flowers on their way out rather than in full bloom and Daffodils now blooming in late February !!!
The UK spaceplane aiming to go to a new level 7:04pm on 30 Jul 2009 Perhaps Alan Bond should look at the fund raising concept defined by the 'Bring the Vulcan to the Air'. A few major sponsors but lots of individuals contributing. I, and I know so many others would pay money to see this thing work. I can't afford to go to space myself, but I can afford to help Britain go into space! Where do I send my cheque?
Listening to the BNP. 5:22pm on 09 Jun 2009 So, I think our country is incredibly overcrowded. Allowing immigration - whatever somebody's race, creed or whatever - is insane. There is no room left in our towns and cities.

I don't belive in importing low cost workers which means ever lower wages for our own people. And undermines their economies

Who can I vote for?
Are you an Office Evangelist? 12:38pm on 14 Mar 2009 Think how many people would have missed "Monty Python's Flying Circus" but for serious peer pressure to watch it!

At 15 ish, I was hardly interested in a Circus programme!

More recently - "Being Human"; "Malcolm in the Middle".

But most certainly "Coupling". Perhaps the best, cleverest and funniest programme ever.
'I've never joined Facebook because...' 10:07am on 05 Feb 2009 Up till now I never joined Facebook, now I know how's not on it I think I might!
People the losers from tree politics 09:04am on 10 Dec 2008 With any discussion about the environment in the context of Global Warming, what is constantly missed is the Elephant in the room. In not too many years we will be going through massive and unpredictable changes causing disruption to everybody.

I know there are lots of people who deny MMGW (there are also people who refuse to accept man has landed on the moon etc.) they should be just an irritating irrelvance but for the damage they do in convincing many people to do nothing.

My view is that we need to do anything and everything to reduce the impact. The sooner we start the longer we put off the point where we are considering military measures rarther than economic measures such as funding the preservation of forest cover.
About Mark Easton 9:10pm on 24 Nov 2008 Reading the above comments you all seem to have such a fascinating ancestral background. Mine.. On my paternal grandfather's side a fairly direct line to the guy that stood on Prince (soon to be King) William's right, on my paternal grandmother an equally direct line to the guy that stood on his left! Still, I've done my bit to broaden our family background, my wife has Irish blood just two generations ago!

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simonandlesley