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ADKelly

Listed below are comments made by ADKelly between Tuesday, 21st October 2008 and Thursday, 2nd July 2009.

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How Portugal treats drug addicts 1:00pm on 02 Jul 2009 I have just come back from Albufeira on the Algarve. I was not aware of the Portuguese drug laws, so I was somewhat shocked when on my first walk down "The Strip" I was approached 3 times in front of families with kids, with the question "Crack, Charlie, Smoke?", quite openly and with Police vaguely in the area.
Whilst I lean towards the state supply and general decriminalisation of most drug use, I don't think drug dealers should be untouched by the law.
It seems to me that although Portugal has taken an important first step, they have also allowed drug dealing to become quite open (The 10 days supply rule, makes dealing easy and possible), and this means that criminals are still involved in the trade.
If however they completed the logical circle of the argument, they would provide the drugs at low prices in street kiosks etc, thus providing the state with revenue, kiosks owners with a replacement for cigarette sales, and most importantly of all taking the smuggler and traffickers out of the money loop, thus removing crime from the equation.
Why Ronaldo is leaving Manchester for Madrid 3:47pm on 12 Jun 2009 "We boast world class talent in the likes of Torres, Gerrard, Mascherano, Reina and Alonso, whilst poor Utd have to flog their golden boy and will crawl on bended knee to Tevez who they've treated like a dog all season knowing full well that he'd be needed once they inevitably sold their golden goose.

Suddenly, it doesn't look like such a great deal.

Liverpool fan. Chortling."

Sorry? What did all that "world class talent" win last season? Oh,nothing!

If Man Utd only had one world class talented player (and he's left), it doesn't say much for all the "world class talent" at Anfield that they ended up with nothing.
Pakistan's 'loose nukes' 1:24pm on 12 Jun 2009 The story of the US being prepared to seize Pakistans Nuclear weapons was doing the rounds about a year (or maybe 18 mths) ago. The version I heard was that the CIA had offered Highly ranked Military personal 'asylum' for them and their families if it all went T*ts up in Pakistan vis-à-vis the Taliban, as long as they brought all the nuclear weapons to the party.

I guess whatever the truth in the story, one things for real, China, Russia and India would notm stand by while the Pakistani Taliban set up the missiles.
Bitter recriminations at the Bridge 08:54am on 07 May 2009 There is a basic problem in UEFA & FIFA which is that the referees pool has to include referees from countries where the standard of top flight football is still largely semi-pro or around conference levels. By necessity the refs from these leagues are going to be of a similar standards and yet two Champions league ties, were refereed by these amateur refs.

Its an issue UEFA will have to address before there is a major travesty in a final and law suits start becoming the normal approach. The FA and Premier League should discuss this with other major leagues and give a united approach to Blatter and Platini to get something sorted out.

What if the final descends into the same sort of chaos because of a poor and weak standard of refereeing?
Fixing the Have Your Say fault 09:02am on 06 May 2009 I am simply amazes me that any web site and database issues could be so serious these days, so as to remove the functionality for over a week!

I work in IT, and this sort of catastrophic failure wouldn't be allowed in most companies, except under a denial of service attack or a security compromised situation, both of which I presume are not the case for the BBC.

I am sure many of us (in this open source development world), would be interested in what has actually happpened .... maybe we could suggest solutions?
EU at crossroads: Turn left? 12:58pm on 18 Mar 2009 Along with Marxism comes Totalitarianism, and the coercive political practices needed to practise communism'. Anyone who forgets the Gulags (or doesn't look at North Korean 'political' camps), is doomed to be visiting one in the very near future.

Just because Communism has 'died' in China and Russia, doesn't mean that the dreadful injustices carried out in its name should be forgotten ... they happened, and many still bear the scars today.
Competitive elections in China? 12:42pm on 11 Mar 2009 Why do we treat China as if its a woolly panda, when its a totalitarian regime.

Within my lifetime the communists under Mao starved an estimated 70 million people to death in the 1970's.

They also killed millions under the "Cultural Revolution".

More recently they have suppresed and killed thousands of Students (Tiannaman Square), Tibettan Monks (last years protests), and "Turcic" Muslims in Xinjiang.

Yet because they follow a 'capitalist economic model' we pretend that somehow they are being 'democratised', as if there is a connection between capitalism and democracy.

We should be making it difficult for the communists to operate by denying them markets in the west, and maybe there would then be real pressure for political changes.
Woolworth into administration 7:22pm on 26 Nov 2008 If we can spend billions to allow investment bankers to carry on getting their million pound bonuses, then why can't we bail out a company who employ 30,000 people?

What sort of 'socialist government' allows working class people to go to the wall while saving investment bankers?

For shame Brown and Mandelson.
Labour to end top rate tax pledge 08:59am on 24 Nov 2008 Top earners to 45% tax ..... a joke.

Top earners are all Limited companies like most of the major BBC Radio or TV Presenters such as 'Wozzy' or Victoria Derbyshire (she told.

For those who are wage slaves that means that they declare a small income of about £7,500 pa, & then declare the rest as 'dividends' on their 'shares', which is at 25% tax (it may be only 20% as well). .... total tax liability on earnings up to £250k is only 20%, less on average than me or you, who earn on less than £100k.

Reforms are needed to tax laws.
Technology - lessons from history 12:55pm on 21 Oct 2008 Sadly rail travel since denationalisation has actually got slower and more expensive ....

If the billons wasted on bailing out bankers, who have learn't no lessons (judging on the LloydsTSB decision to use some of the Govt money to pay 'bonuses' as usual), had been spent on finally getting the rail system working and cheap, I would be happier with technological advances bringing benefits.

As it is I spend more time than ever trav elling to and from work, with my boss being able to contact me via a 'dongle' anytime during the journey!

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