UK-Fishing-Tackle.co.uk

Cory - good point about Demon etc, but I think different applications warrant different things. We use Demon services at work as a primary and BT Openworld as a secondary on a load balancing router and I have to say the Demon service vastly outperforms the BT connection when we are on a 'single connection state when one or the other has dropped. That said, most home users are not looking for mission critical systems, so warranting £25 a month for a business grade connection (which truthfully even the Demon home services are not far from), might be pushing it. I think the point here is if someone is prepared to accept a free service then 95% uptime plus is all they should expect, and as long as they don't whinge if the connection drops out at odd times then I can see free or low cost ADSL solutions being very practical day to day. I have just patched my home line over to TalkTalk - I've not jumped in at the deep end but instead tested another couple of users I know who seem to be able to sustain about 70 to 100kb/s downloads, which for me is plenty quick enough. Again, for the rest of you, it's well worth noting because of the way ADSL Virtual Paths/Circuits work it is quite possible that a Tiscali connection may vastly outperform another based on different exchanges (Tiscali is my prime example, as it's something I've had personal experience of) - therefore ask locally where you can, not on a forum where people live all over. Finally customer service is rarely an issue unless you are on the fringes of reception. I've had broadband at home and work since day one, and truthfully most incidents of downtime have been my fault, hardware failiure or software issues - which frankly are beyond the scope of your line provider anyway. The true amount of times I've seen an ADSL line fail (and not rectify itself or be rectified by engineers within an hour or two) I could probably count on one hand.

Bennets motorcycle insurance brokers (the big name for motorbikes). I changed my bike from a VFR400 to a VFR750, and basically they told me because I only have a month left the best thing to do was pay 30 odd quid to change the vehicle on the current policy. Renewal came a month later and was shocked that the premium was £350 for the year. I rang bennets and told then Carole Nash offered £170 for the same premium, to which Bennets replied we can do the same. Apparently the renewal notice was issued based on me using the same insurer as the previous year, however, it was far cheaper for me to take an alternative insurer, but no mention of that on my renewal letter. The point being you use a broker you expect THEM to do the leg work for you each year in terms of getting you the cheapest premium. Again - definitely worth the phone call! I found DirectLine Road Rescue to offer the best quote for breakdown recovery and assistance - but I think it's all a bit cut-throat in that industry with everyone charging pennies either way these days. One interesting point is check your vehicle warranty if you have a new car. With our Nissan Micra it came with a 3yr warranty and Nissan paid for everything when it broke down (collection, repairs, rental cars and returning the vehicle). I am looking at changing the car now (any suggestions anyone, thinking about a Honda Jazz, Nissan Note, Citroen C4, Fiesta Zetec or something that sort of size), but I have to say I'd find it hard to fault Nissans service.

OK folks, I'll do some maths here 385,000 signatures or votes against thus far - according to a previous post. Secondly 79,000 and change prison places available in the UK, with over 80,000 inmates currently in prison (i.e. technically we have overrun our jail system and people are being held for crimes in remand prisons, police cells etc). In France apparently, they tried to introduce wheel clamping some years ago - and the french basically said f'off - and went round vandalising the clamps themselves when they were put on cars, even if the car wasn't theirs (superglue in locks etc). After a couple of months, clamping was pretty much abandoned because the system costed more to police and prosecute than what it was dragging in. So, given the fact we absolutely know they are not going to jail you for ripping said box out of vehicle. Given the fact that I've read about courts taking over 6 months now to listen to a drink drive hearing for a not-guilty plea, given the fact that the amount of people truly against this when or if this comes into force is likely to be at least 10 times the 385k figure above - then frankly you have nothing to worry about - unless we all walk around with the blinkered sheep mentality that our nation seems to do half the time. Laws are made for us by people WE elect. Simply put 600 guys in the HOP cannot enforce most laws to even a tiny minority let alone the majority of the electorate, so you have two options - either go against it or roll over and let the Labour party shaft you again for want of a better expression. WITH RESPECT TO PUBLIC TRANSPORT It's not an option - it does no more to protect either the roads or the environment (well maybe roads if it's a train, but then the cost of maintenance on that is also ridiculous). Frankly I'm about bloody sick of people telling ME that public transport is the way forward. Yes, I have used (and would us) public transport in a city quite possibly (in fact, going into London now is nearly always a trip to peterborough and the train in - because frankly it works out cheaper and quicker). To give you a better example of how public transport works outside of cities (where frankly fares are much lower) the bus from Louth (lincolnshire) to the next major shopping area (Grimsby) runs a grand total of about 14 miles. This bus now charges about £5 for a return fare I think - and frankly I can do that trip for less in my Micra or even my VFR750 (which drinks fuel quicker than I can drink lager). In a car it is a fifteen minute trip on quick roads - on the bus about 45 minutes. In a car a direct trip - on a bus you have to go round a couple of villages. In the car I have a radio and personal privacy - on a bus I have to deal with snappy comments from jumped up college students because I might be wearing a suit or something else considered less cool for day to day attire. Simply put public transport is NOT AN OPTION FOR A MODERN SOCIETY. Therefore the department of transport, who frankly have done nothing for this country (railway system is knackered, how many decent roads have been built in the last ten years?), ought to fess up and just say alternative powered vehicles are the future AND YES legislate if necessary, that car manufacturers must bring in quotas of alternative fuel cars on a sliding scale over the next 20 years (if such legislation doesn't exist already). In terms of the environment. We've had this debate before, but there is little to suggest taking cars off the road will improve the environment to any noticeable degree at all, because cars contribute something poxy like about 0.2% of all carbon emissions worldwide. I saw a great thing the other day that implied a regular moo cow contributes more greenhouse gasses a day than the average car (great statistic - lets kill em all). EVEN TREES which most people think are carbon friendly, in most cases are NET CONTRIBUTORS to carbon (http://www.manythings.org/voa/01/010615er_t.htm), and don't actually improve the situation - as I understand it algae is responsible for most carbon conversion (more ponds, yipeee!). All these numpties on TV bang on about global warming (anyone who has watched sky news this week will know what I am talking about), but few mention cyclical weather patterns (back to El Nino and events much larger which we still oblivious too). Warmer seas, milder winters - big deal - we've had several ice ages at the other end of the scale, long before man started buring wood, coal and oil. As I've said, the earth might be teatering towards some catacalysmic set of events in a hundred or even a thousand years time, but it is only our arrogance that makes us think we'd be able to stop it. It is not human nature to assume sh1t happens, it needs a label, cause or reason. No one, and this is a fact, can prove anything about weather patterns, sea temperatures or global warming as far as I know, since the concepts have only been broadly mooted since the late 70's and truthfully how much data have they had access to 'in the grand scale of things' since then??

Introduce optional vocational training at 14 for jobs like plumbing, building, joinery, car mechanics etc - This will have three effects. First it will remove the vast majority of trouble makers - frankly most trouble makers as they are known are just dis-interested in academics and we have a school system ENTIRELY based on academic achievement. Frankly if you are not academic little can be done to turn you into one. However, I know people who failed abysmally at school, who can get their head around practical applications of numeracy and english because it is more approriate to their way of thinking. Secondly, it will enable the people who want to stay at school to stay at school and allow teachers teaching them to give them more attention. Thirdly it will help reduce the ridiculous inflation we have in the prices for what used to be the 'manual trades' which are now seem as being excpetionally skilled - and whilst credit where credit is due, perhaps a little overly so. Yes, a plumber commercially is probably worth £20 an hour, but even in our area they charge double that, and in cities I believe three times the price. Increasing the number of people in these trades - which are ALWAYS in demand, will ease off the spiralling costs that these industries have managed to get away with charging the last two or three years.

I try and avoid listing much around then! Typically 10p days are flooded with the one-off guys and it dilutes the bidding (most of our items we let run as auctions) Added today Manta MX Electric Trolling Motors (54lb Thrust, although we have 24,34,44's in stock). These are manufactured by Browning/Rhino and are literally brand new to the UK (on Ebay and available to buy). Run off 12v Marine/Car type batteries. Also I have 50 quantity of Browning First Premium 950 Poles, 9.5m, 18 rated, 8 Section - New for 2007, literally in today, RRP £79.99 each (Browning Catalogue, Page B15) special offer at £49.99 each 'til end of January.

A difficult one this, but truthfully does anyone truly believe the parents are doing this simply for their own sake? It must be a very difficult decision to have to make. However, my understanding is that the procedures won't in themselves restrict brain development, and my very basic understanding of biology is that brain size is not indicative of intelligence, the ability to reason or the ability to remember.

Hi all We've got a few overtsock bargains on eBay at the moment that I thought I'd post here Fladen Rescue System Floatation Suits in RED/WHITE, Size Large (upto 15½ stone) REDUCED TO £55.95 Fladen Rescue System Floatation Suits, 2 piece, Yellow/Blue (Upto 13 stone) REDUCED TO £59.95 Realtree Thermal One Piece Suits, RRP £119.99 REDUCED TO £61.95 Realtree Style Camo Boots, RRP £89..99 REDUCED TO £39.99 http://search.ebay.co.uk/_W0QQsassZuk-fishing-bitsQQhtZ-1

OK folks, we took a trip over to Germany (Browning) in October and I have to say that the Rhino Travel Rods are really a seen to be believed item, especially when you consider their price. Boy do these rods bend right over - Rhino have been showing these at trade shows and marketing them as virtually indestructible BUT they are currently undervalued in my opinion, and even when we was in Germany we were discussing the fact that the teles were probably over-specced at the price they were at. Dual Fibre carbon construction, decent guides, cork handles - and very very tough. For example, 12ft, 80g C/W comes out at about £25. Sizes range from 6ft to 9ft to 12ft. They do all those in a 50g as well if something a litle more delicate is required. On top of those, the heavy Big Fish rod (12ft) is a 300g Casting weight beachcaster/catfish rod, and that is a seriously heavy duty telescopic and still comes in at £30 to £35 from memory. ** Check out the Rhino Brochure, it's about page 11 for the tele's I think. http://www.zebco-europe.net/zebco/upload/F.../R0_2007_UK.pdf I am not saying the Shimano or Shakespeare rods are bad - it's just we see a lot of good and a lot of bad rods here and we think these are pretty exceptional - and that's a genuine opinion, not a marketing gimmic!

Sorry, I always mention this, although I know you are coarse fishing. If you can acquire a cheap beachcaster (ahem speak to me if you can't) then certainly Moggs Eye is the venue of choice near Huttoft between Skegness and Sutton on Sea. Nicely shelved beach there, drags in whiting/cod and bass dependent on the weather. With regards to weather. It's not that cold up here, but I live in Louth (25 miles North Skeg) and might well be used to it. Certainly anyone living the high-life in Torquay will feel the difference, but most anglers I think will be ok with our climate round here.

Lots of good lakes around Alford For Pike angling Wainfleet drains fish pretty well. Obviously not open close season though. Sibsey Trades, on the main road to Boston, is also another popular (although I've struggled there) bit of water. On that main Boston road you also have Spilsby which has a floodlit lake of all things. I've not fished this but we have a guy that comes in for boilies about once a week who must live there by all accounts (he buys over 5kg a week), and he has shown us pictures of some very nice looking carp. (I think it's called Woodlands Fishery). Aby, Authorpe, Belleau - all nice and quiet ponds even in summer usually, look about 2 miles North of Alford (so about 14 miles North of Skegness). You'll not find much about any of those on the Internet because frankly they are not overly commercial. A great many lakes in North Lincs are simply old pits which have been filled, and are frequently still operated by the farmers. Aby has -some- ghost carp if you fancy a change (not many lakes do around here - I think many lake owners think of them as disease spreaders!). Authorpe probably has the biggest fish in the area (I think Rod Hutchinson products used to be tested at Authorpe in the early days. I've fished Authorpe and it is hard water, although it is supposed to fish a lot better in the evening. Belleau is just an odd lake because you hear of big carp being caught but all I've ever hit are bream. Nice lake and nice fishing though. Slightly further affield if you don't mind 25 miles you have Clarks at Great Carlton, Vickers Pond (Saltfleetby), Oham Lakes (Mablethorpe area), Oasis (North Somercotes). Of those Clarks will guarantee fish on just about any bait in any weather - probably the most commercial type venue around here. However, you'll not hit that much in big double figures, but you can have a nice day hitting 5 to 8lb fish if the conditions are good. Vickers I've not fished for a year or two but on my last visit of two years ago we had a good head of bream and about half a dozen smaller carp. Oham has a good reputation - many people travel to fish there, and Oasis http://www.fisheries4sale.com/UK_Oasis-lakes.htm http://www.ohamlakes.co.uk/ http://www.woodlands-fishery.co.uk/

The Barmy Army usually are well behaved - my mum is over in Australia at the minute, and you'd be surprised how many are older (middle aged really) people who just want to watch cricket. The Barmy Army is actually about the only method you have of acquiring tickets at face value if you live in the UK (i.e. bypassing touts). Yes they chant and play music, but most cricket teams have an equivalent thereof. The barmy army also do a lot for charities etc outside of cricket, both home and away. Now, what you sometimes see (and these were certainly evident at Trent Bridge in 2005 Ashes), is at home games you get the 'professional' hooligan, who because he opts for an 'open stand' is assumed by the world to be part of the barmy army. The solution is to restrict drinking at Cricket grounds. This is certainly not done in the UK (they restrict what you take in, but seriously you can buy as much as you want whilst you are there). That will never happen though because if you look at the drink prices charged it is probably the main source of revenue after the ticket prices/tv coverage. - It would never (ever) happen at a football match though -

Hi Newt I'll be about a bit more in future again - we've just had a really hectic six months what with business and domestics (namely our 16 month midget millie). I've been poking around occasionally, but finding time to sit down and post has been a struggle. However, with a bit of reorganising and job shifting I can hopefully get a bit more involved again!

OK folks - back after a long spell away and straight into a cricket thread! Chris Read. I am sorry but knock Jones for all you like, he frankly has had 'opportunity' to prove himself and failed time and time again, with miserable excuses such as 'he is developing his keeping skills' when frankly at test level your keeper wants to be in form. Read was put back into the test side for the ICC, and probably though he was no 1. choice for Australia - I personally did, but as a Notts season ticket holder last year was probably a little biased. Monty the same - even if the so called spinner Ashley Giles returned, would he have seriously have thought that he'd not have been picked given he was the in form player? No - both Monty and Read struggled a bit (Monty boosted by his first spell it has to be said, but truthfully didn't hit that form again), but mentally both must be wondering what they have to do to prove themselves as international cricketeers. The 2nd test was then a case of the selectors trying to prove to the public that they were right the first time, when clearly they were not, and putting the managements pride in front of the team (which the public pay to see either by going to Australia or via Sky Sports), frankly ought to be gross misconduct. Truthfully though this is the best thing to happen to English cricket in a long time. I was at the Ashes in 2005 (Nottingham again) and frankly we were not that awe-inspiring. Good - maybe, but OBE level of good (not a chance)....I hear Warne was beating up Collingwood over his MBE or OBE since I think he only played the last test, and he had two very poor innings - yet technically has received honours from the queen due to the bizarre reaction we have to one off sporting achievments. England cricket (and rugby from what I gather, but I don't follow that) needed a reality check. The truth is we are not as good as Australia, and really never were. We are certainly no better than Pakistan, Sri Lanka or India in my opinion either. Be interesting to see how we fare with New Zealand, but given the fact that we are right at the bottom of the pile in one-day cricket I suspect we'll get hammered. So the end of an era for Australia. But lets not forget they have made plans for this, and you only had to listen to the commentary and Australia have redundant talent by the sheadload it seems. 11 months and I suspect you'll see an Aussie team fighting (fighting...) to prove that they were not just a 2 man team......

According to MSN the Iraqi laws on the death penalty are essentially: A singly automatic appeal (the defendant doesn't even get a say in this) where the case is put before 9 (yes 9) appeal judges. Given the situation in Iraq it is likely their decision will be swift since if the political move is to back the trial judge here then they will almost certainly let him swing. After that the news article I read implies there is no further course for appeal - and in fact he MUST under Iraqi law be executed within 30 days of the appeal judges re-enforcing that penalty. The only catch is the appeal judges do have 'unlimited' time to arrive at a decision BUT I cannot see them holding on. Again, news reports suggest that this will certainly be before Christmas and most likely before the end of November. In which case he certainly isn't going to have the best christmas ever. The death penalty though has played into Saddams hands and the Americans (and us) are to blame. He should have been shot when found, if necessary implicating some nutcase soldier in some pseudo trial if the whole thing needed to be mocked up (i.e. get a squaddie to agree to take the wrap in exchange for a small island or a six figure bank balance). Saddam (I believe) intentionally implicated himself in his own trial several times (including to admitting ordering the killing of 148 people including children in an 'outburst' of all things). He'll die a martyr to many iraqis no doubt, and that surely will not increase stability in that area. Once interesting implication of this is when does someone lower down the chain be guilty of a crime against humanity..... In other words, when does following orders become a crime, since in military ranks (and lets face it, Iraq was a military dictatorship), the man at the top surely carries the ultimate responsbility. EVEN high ranking iraqi officials would have still been on a do as I say or die kind of thing, and therefore I struggle to find the death penalty entirely appropriate -in those circumstances- yes, give them life, hard labour whatever - but how far down the chain do you go until it becomes a 'job' as opposed to a crime....

Hmm - no precedent I'm afraid. This has happened already numerous times with websites. Essentially if you own a trademarked term and someone makes money through deliberately misrepresenting themselves based on that term then you have a case. You'd struggle to stake any legal ownership of eeBay, ebaay, gooogle etc....even if you bought the domain it would certainly be overturned once the holder of the TM had appealed. U-Tubes claim, that Youtube traffic is knackering their site because people think youtube is spelt utube, is perfectly valid, and should it be proved that utube was there first then most likely UTube will be roughly entitled to some element of compensation and if held in an American court quite likely damages outweighing the true cost of the issue (the american legal system - got to love it). In truth it will probably become a 'google settle and acquire the utube domain name' affair, which is obviously not a bad resolution for either party. Remember, law is generally based around 'profiting' from misrepresentation. Clearly youtube wasn't profitting previously (in fact, losing money hand over fist), but now it will feature adwords clearly youtube will start to make money, probably rather successfully. This naturally makes them more of a target for litigation, but thats just obvious.

Antisocial behaviour used to be called crime, really? I suspect a great many of us on this board served sentences in their youth then.... I mean lets forget the 60's and 70's existed as these were obviously an innocent crime free era for the youth (not to mention a minority of adults who generally had an easier time with GBH, ABH and rioting masked as industrial action!). During this period the youth not only got away with most of what they do today (although in truth less spoken, but still drinking and buggering about all the same), but even adults got away with things we consider very much anti-social today - such as drink driving - which were altogether handled much more liberally by authorities. Of course, looking back it clearly was all better then (just like the waltons probably), but without 960 TV channels and the internet to tell us how bad our world was, then perhaps the news and media decided it was more important to publish news, rather than frivilous time filling junk as they do today. By the way I am 27, but find this entire debate entirely pointless most of the time since I know a great many people twice my age, and most have stories which I wouldn't dared of tried as a kid! With regards to banning fireworks - simply read the statistics that Rospa publish. We've had this debate year on year, but the true damage they cause outisde of injuring drunken 25 year old blokes at BBQ's is actually -relatively- quite small, and compared to incidents involving petroleum spirit, air rifles or even bb guns for example, injure a fraction of the amount of people.... I am not saying they are not dangerous - but they tend to be the focus of antis when clearly efforts could be much better focused on banning things which cause much much more damage day to day.....

I rode a motocycle (125cc) on a CBT for two years from 17, and honestly found the whole car 'theory' and 'practical' test a bit of a joke when I got around to taking them. My theory test lasted all of ten minutes (35 multiple choice questions), and my practical test only about 15 (it was a very short test indeed). As Ken rightly said experience (even only a little) is really important - I truly think riding a little motorbike made me much more aware of traffic on the road than perhaps I would have been jumping straight into a car (I used to do 50 miles a day on the bike - so you learn quickly!). The theory test (in my opinion) was only introduced as another tax on learner drivers (despite rising fuel costs etc pushing driving lessons up well beyond the rate of inflation). Best advice I can give is ask everyone you know who the best instructor in the area is and go with them. Avoid national motoring schools and try and find good, local teachers who've been doing the job a long time (I had an ex-forces driving instructor who taught me, my missus, my brother and we all passed 1st time).

Quick replies 1. We (virtually) all either bought drink underage or got people to acquire us drink underage so shop keepers haven't got less scruples than they did previously. 2. Parents with no money - The tax credit system has produced a society whereby there it is difficult to be a member of the real poverty stricken. Tax credits didn't exist in 1983, and if you were a builder (like my dad was) and you got the boot on a Friday then you were basically in the sh1te until you found something else. WE ALL SURVIVED.

Sorry - we had this on the church school topic folks. Eggs and flour are certainly nothing new - and kids have always played pranks at this time of year. One point I mentioned is that the media has blown the 'teenage hoodie' problem out of all proportion over the last ten years - I mean, seriously, did kids not drink in the 60's and 70's, did kids not bugger about, obviously not..... Many (many) people take a very rosy tinted view on the last fifty years - As I said - kids may mess about with the modern day banger (quieter than the caps we had in guns when we were kids), but few are blowing up car batteries or making pipe bombs and grenades - which many on this forum will have experience of from their youth. Kids may shoplift - but then people round here used to go scrumping when we had the orchards - times changing yes BUT the basic principle still the same. Crimes which seem more popular are generally only more so because of reporting and shifts in crime patterns - generally through the evolution of technology. For example - car theft has dramatically risen (mainly due to the massive increase in cars over the past thirty years), whereas burglary rates have halved in the last ten years alone (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1137418,00.html). Have times got worse, have teenagers got worse - probably not - but since the rise of Labour (it has to be said) we've had this fear of the 'teenager' beaten into us by the media and by the government AND this in itself doesn't particularly help the problem because people being put 'into boxes' are only more likely to stay within them. IT ALSO HAS TO BE SAID that the same people that call the youth for all they are worth tend to be the 'not in my back yard crowd'. For example, Louth (Lincolnshire) is about to gain a leisure centre - something our town has needed for 20 years. However, everyone (it seems - although I appreciate I am generalising) over the age of 40 seems to want the bloody thing building out of town. Now forgive me for saying, but it's that kind of short-sightedness by the older generation who the younger look at for influence that perhaps leads to some of this angst increasing BECAUSE you simply cannot say kids need more to do, and then force them to get a bloody taxi or a bus to get to it. It's not a simple debate.

For a start we've had this point before that Thatcher and the conservatives seem to be blamed for the lack of morality within our society but this is frankly tosh. The main reason for the 'apparent' moral degradation over the last 30 years isn't the fact that morally society has changed a great deal BUT more to the point that media reporting and the speed in which news hits us has risen expoenentially AND over the same period the influence the government has over what the media reports and how it reports it has lessened greatly. This has lead to 'shock new trends' like hoodies coming about when truthfully most old timers (apologies in advance) will tell you vastly more shocking stories about groups of lads on motorcycles in the early 1970's - I know from stories in this area that people seemed just as unruly, but perhaps the local rag couldn't be arsed to report a story as insignificant as 'group of lads drunk in park'. People whinge about kids with fireworks - but many on here will tell you of their home made efforts in the 50's, 60's and 70's which by all accounts would be deemed to be nearer armed forces munitions standard than your average commercial grade banger. Don't tell me that morally society is becoming more corrupt because that is rubbish - what has happened is the media is just more open (which is a good thing) and we hear about more events, more quickly and via many alternative avenues (newspaper, radio, tv, internet) than we ever did before. NEXT Church schools. Simply put if an 18 rated video is deemed to be unsuitable for a child to watch because it may make an impression on them which they are unable to understand, then I personally believe the concept of introducing religion to children WHICH regardless of how you approach the matter will inherently introduce social divides between children of different religions is a bad thing. You are basically taking people who are too young to comprehend the concept of faith, commitment, racism etc and making it all sound authoratative i.e. it is put across as though it is fact (when most certainly no religion can make that claim). It does lead to people taking misguided views on right/wrong (believe me the church isn't at all perfect when it comes to morality), and furthermore churches (or religions) seem to be incredibly adept at hiding parts of their history. It's odd because we take this view in the 20th century that someone like Hitler was a maniac - yet it is definitely the case that religions have conspired against each other over the past 2000 years and killed hundreds of times as many people..... You couldn't cover up such a story if you were a government, so how the church manages it is unbelievable. They influence all british education - as I've said before, you jumped from 476ad to 1066 in history classes - missing out the founding, formation, development and distribution of christianity - masked as being the dark ages. They were not dark though - in this time apparently the books of the bible were found, compiled, edited, and distributed in the new amazing compilation called the bible. Despite having books and scrolls pre-dating this in existance, and their obvious importance being the word of god, bizarrely no shred of any of these original books exist......hence for a long time this area of history has been blatantly omitted from the classroom to avoid questions being asked which might be awkward to answer (IMO). With respect to church schools subsidising schools then sorry but that is rubbish. Your typical church cannot maitain it's own bloody roof so saying they are paying for land etc is all a bit of misguided belief as well. YES church schools may well be built on church land donated/given free of charge BUT essentially that was because the school served a purpose in the community (which again - suits the church because they could peddle their own propoganda to people with the belief it was serving the community). I am too young to remember, but my grandparents talk of the priests coming round collecting on Fridays in Liverpool - and people feeling 'pressured' into giving money - even if a church does put money in it only stems from it's parish (i.e. voluntary tax by any other name) and if it comes from local richer people in larger sums then you have to question whether these people should be allowed to influence local education via the religious route. rant over....

Long trotter - unless you specifically work for such services or are associated with such things then your claims cannot be any more substantiated over those who believe otherwise. I am not trying to cause an argument but simply put given the way events unfolded on the previous day we are all aware special forces would have been all over London (just in case). Given how events transpired on the day Menezes was shot you can guarantee that if said forces were responsible that no-one (government, SAS, MI5) is ever likely to let any fact escape which may link the two. Essentially the murder of an unarmed (and innocent) civillian on British soil would be a political nightmare (to the point of bringing government to question etc). Remember - above and beyond any rule, law or statute is essentially the defence of the country. Rules can be bent, broken or smashed if the need may be and on July 8th I don't think we can be entirely sure that protocol and the regular chain of command was functioning 'by the book' I know the official line and it may well be true - but there are questions and you simply cannot dismiss them because an enquiry and some newspapers have released information to us which is only fed to them by the people we might be questioning...

Fair point about tazers - but the argument against tazers (from what I've read) is that they have a tendancy to be overused, and they are certainly not 100% safe to use. Give police 'semi-safe' attacking weapons and perhaps they may well draw more than they need to creating -more- angst between the slightly anti-social (drunks etc) and the police than there is already. One thing with a gun, like mentioned previously, is most coppers would never (ever) need to draw a pistol. If you don't arm police themselves as a matter of routine, perhaps a sensible stop-gap is to have lock-boxes in the cars they travel in which can be accessed either by way of emergency codes OR have an auditing system whereby removing a weapon to use in a situation is tracked. Next point - I am fully prepared to be corrected but my understanding is that tactical officers with firearms are trained to shoot to kill not to wound. If the situation warrants a bullet then it warrants killing the target. Basically the rule being (as far as I thought) was that to draw and shoot meant you'd already come to the conclusion that the target was going to die. I can understand the perceived logic because shooting to wound doesn't prevent a guy with a gun capping a round off at you whilst he is on the floor, AND if it is a bomber (of the suicide persuasion) then you have absolutely no choice. Now for bobbies with guns (like in the States and Europe) perhaps that philosophy isn't as strictly adhered to, but given in this country it's only tactical response units etc that are armed then I am 90% sure that their training will be to shoot to kill. The De Menezes story is very interesting. My own sentiments being that since no police officers have ever been named, and in this day of age with the Internet and newspapers that information would easily have been leaked, then perhaps the Met have taken a bit of blame for something which may well have been over and above them - be it military, spy or government agency - as the wikipedia link above states people have commented on the style of the shooting as being 'of military training' - certainly not that of a police tactical officer. Now - regardless who shot him - we have to accept the fact they perceived him to be a threat to the security of a subway train (incorrectly, but they did), and they reacted in a way which all of us put in that 10 second time frame would probably have done. Now, the enquiries into all this seem to indicate that there was a fundamental flaw in mis-indentification at a very early stage in his surveillance - BUT - they didn't just gun down an innocent man for the fun of it - The decision to execute the shooting AND the style of the shooting were probably reasonable on the basis of the information the person making that decision had to had. Human rights people after 'police on trial for murder' ought to think twice (a bit like people who take similar views on our armed forces) - the copper (or whoever) pulling the trigger doesn't make the decision himself, and in my opinion, for following orders - should be entirely above the law as far as matters like this are concerned (thats not to say the person telling them what to do should be above the law as well).

Lets not forget - people keep talking about officers encoutering criminals who are armed, but armed means much more than just 'guns'. If a knife is pulled (with intent) then a gun is really the only 'safe' option of eliminating the threat to the police officer (practically). Thousands of people carry knives (many more than guns) and no doubt many coppers fear that as much (if not more so) than guns themselves. With respect to the tube shooting - no one knows what happened, no one ever will. We cannot even today be entirely sure that it was typical armed police officers, with media claims that some special response unit (more military than police) may have been responsible, or at least on the scene. Interesting reading below... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menezes

However a scan of a letter (found by typing - 'when do I not need a tv license' into google), bought up this which clarifies what we were lead to believe. http://www.jifvik.org/tv/clp.gif Furthermore, on the TV licensing website the first FAQ is as follows: Do I need a licence? ============ If you use a TV or any other device to receive or record TV programmes (for example, a VCR, set-top box, DVD recorder or PC with a broadcast card) - you need a TV Licence. You are required by law to have one. i.e. the implication being that if you do not receive and do not record then you don't need one - possesion or alternative uses for the same equipment is perfectly legal without one.

I'd be inclined to suspect it would work fine - my understanding of such things is 6 volts is 6 volts, but AH is the 'capacity' of the battery, hence providing the connections are the same for your purpose (presumably this is a belt mounted battery for a headlamp or something), then it should work, and probably offer increased lamp life. Don't take my word for it though - not a qualified electrician or anything!!