28 September 2010

28/09/10

Iowa State Hospital for the Insane
Clarinda, 1927

Out of suffering have emerged the strongest soulds; the most massive characters are seared with scars.
-Khalil Gibran

101 comments:

  1. Montana thanks for getting the following back out of the spam bin.

    I'll repost here since most will have missed it last night.

    deano30 said...
    Top Tips for those dealing/struggling with an Incapacity Benefit Claim:

    (The following is the first of ten tips that have been sent to me in daily emails as part of marketing exercise promoting a professionally produced guide to claiming Incapacity Benefit. the guide is very good and costs £18.95 the top tips are free and worth sharing)

    "If you have to have a medical as part of your personal capability assessment (PCA) for incapacity benefit, it may seem like the doctor or nurse is just having a friendly chat with you. The truth, however, is that every question the doctor or nurse asks is being prompted by computer software called LIMA (Logic Integrated Medical Assessment) and very unfair assumptions are likely to be made based on the answers you give.


    For example, one of the questions you will be asked is whether you watch TV and what programmes you enjoy.

    If you say that you enjoy watching films, the doctor or nurse may well assume - without asking you any further questions - that you can sit comfortably for at least two hours without having to move from the chair. This means you will score zero points for problems with sitting.

    In fact, the law says the sitting test is based on how long you can sit on a very specific sort of chair: an upright chair with a back but no arms, like a dining chair or the sort of chair you might find in an office or at a supermarket checkout.

    And the truth may be that you can watch a film for two hours. But you probably don’t do so sitting on a dining chair. In fact, if you have back problems you may not sit at all, but lay on a sofa instead. And in that two hours you may get up and stand half a dozen times or even get up and walk around the room during the adverts, to relieve your back pain.

    But the doctor or nurse is paid on a piece rate for every medical they carry out. So they are very unlikely to take the time to ask you all the additional questions they would need to in order to build up an accurate picture of how long you can really sit on the correct type of chair.

    That being the case, it’s up to you to make sure you volunteer the information that they need rather than waiting to be asked.

    This applies whatever your condition: there are assumptions lurking behind every question.

    So, don’t make it easy for rushed health professionals to create inaccurate reports about you. Instead, use our guides to improve your chances of getting the correct decision about your incapacity for work by knowing the kinds of questions you’ll be asked and the assumptions that hide behind them.

    If you haven’t already seen free, sample excerpts from our guides, you can download them by clicking on, or copying and pasting, this link into your browser window and following the links on the page that opens:

    Live Link

    Tomorrow: How your incapacity medical could cost you your DLA.

    Good luck,

    Steve Donnison
    Don’t want to wait any longer to get access to all our guides, news items, forum and confidential DWP resources? Find out how to join from this link:

    Link to Site "


    27 September, 2010 21:55

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  2. The plan is to post each of the ten tips here on UT and then add a copy of the post to the UT Resource file (Tab at top of page) for future reference for all interested....

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  3. My comment at 7.06 wont make a great deal of sense until the comment which preceded it is recovered from the spam box which is were it has now been sent to!

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  4. Oh double fuck this could drive me into the insane house - it's now back out of the spam box.

    It's in it's out it's in ...............oh google spare me I am an innocent..........do I have the energy to attempt to post top ten tip number 2?

    I'll try later in the day for those with an interest.

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  5. on second thoughts I'll strike whilst the iron is hot.......

    Incapacity Benefits - Top Tips Number 2

    "Most people don’t realise it until too late, but the information in your incapacity medical could also affect your disability living allowance award, if you have one.

    As we explained yesterday, the doctor or nurse who examines you uses computer software called LIMA (Logic Integrated Medical Assessment) to create a report.

    Based on choices made by the doctor or nurse, this software creates stock answers such as: ‘Always likes to deal with own finances efficiently’ and ‘Cooks safely and eats well’

    These are usually created without the doctor or nurse actually asking you in any detail about how you pay bills or how you prepare meals. (In our guides, we explain in detail how LIMA works and even show you screenshots of the software in action).

    Unfortunately, however, if you get the lower rate of the care component of disability living allowance (DLA) because a physical or mental health condition means you can’t prepare a cooked main meal, then the phrase ‘Cooks safely and eats well’ may be enough for a decision maker to look again at your DLA award and end it.

    So, it’s vital that you are aware of how your answers to questions can be misused.

    By ensuring that you give accurate evidence in your questionnaire, knowing what may lie behind questions you are asked at your medical and understanding how DLA works, you can reduce the chances of inaccurate evidence affecting not only your incapacity benefit but also your DLA.

    And if your not already getting DLA – or want to learn more about why you were awarded it - remember that as a Benefits and Work member you can also download detailed guides to DLA claims and appeals. If you have a long-term health problem it’s definitely worth considering a claim for DLA. And just because you’ve been turned down before, that doesn’t mean you won’t succeed this time with the help of our guides.

    Find out more about our DLA guides from this link:

    www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/disability-living-allowance-(dla)/dla-claims

    Tomorrow: Your medical begins long before you meet the doctor.

    Good luck,

    Steve Donnison

    Don’t want to wait any longer to get access to all our guides, news items, forum and confidential DWP resources? Find out how to join from this link:

    www.benefitsandwork.co.uk/join-us

    © March 2009. Steve Donnison "

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  6. On a lighter note .....since we are dealing with the image of an American hospital for the insane Memorable quotes from One flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest...

    Them American cousins of ours.... It is alleged that Jack Kennedy's sister had her brains poked out as a young woman and was put in the asylum for the rest of her life.........her crime was to irritate her father, the bootlegger Senator/Ambassador Joe Kennedy, with her friskiness.

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  7. I just love this quote from Cuckoo:

    "They was giving me ten thousand watts a day, you know, and I'm hot to trot! The next woman takes me on's gonna light up like a pinball machine and pay off in silver dollars! "

    Right thats me done - I'm away for the day.

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  8. A new psychological test - see how far you can get into this video before vertigo or nausea kicks in. I couldn't break two minutes.

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  9. PeterJ

    Not trying to be big-headed, but I watched to the end and found it quite exhilarating.

    Imagine the final stages as like climbing a scaffold pole with cup-hooks stuck to the side to hold onto - at 1760 feet.

    At that point, the chap was holding on with one hand and leaning out into, er, sky, basically.

    Put it on my list of things to do.

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  10. @AB

    Ah well. Life would be dull if we were all alike.

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  11. woah, it's too early for that!
    (felt mildly sick just looking at the starting frame, never even pressed play)

    good work with the tips, deano - and a little something on Rosemary Kennedy, from robert dallek's biog of JFK.

    she was disabled (couldn't feed or dress herself, limited verbal skills, physically limited) but they didn't initially ship her off to an institution (which would have been the normal practice) but kept her at home. as she got older, however, things got worse, and at 21 she became violent, and dangerous to the people at home trying to look after her. again, normal practice of the time was a prefrontal lobotomy and this time they went with that (or, rather, her father arranged it, without his wife's knowledge). this was supposed to make her calmer, and so allow her to stay at home - but it went horribly wrong, and as a result she did end up in an institution.

    dreadfully sad, of course, but it seems like accepted medical practice at the time was more responsible for where she ended up than her family, who were trying to keep her with them...

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  12. Morning all!

    just watched that video from start to finish.... I have sweaty palms and I feel very dizzy/woozy..... some people have a head for heights, some don't, my god, they've got nerves/guts to do that. The thing that got me was the dangling kit bag and.... getting down again!

    Thanks PeterJ, I know I'm a complete wimp now when it comes to heights!

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  13. @La Ritournelle:

    ”…I know I'm a complete wimp now when it comes to heights!”

    Heh, you’re not alone, I’m rubbish with heights… truly, I’d have been a shit para, I was bad enough in bloody helicopters…

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  14. SwiftyBoy:

    When I was a kid, I was fine, but the older I've got, the more fearful I've become. I think it started when we got stuck on the old Birnbeck pier (now given up to the sea sadly) in Weston-Super-Mare on a very stormy day - big holes in the wooden boardwalk and crashing waves underneath... paralysed. After that, I found I couldn't walk over Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol either. All very embarrasing ;-(

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  15. Deano:

    Very useful info up there re: assessments.

    Talk about questions designed with entrapment in mind.... bloody awful.

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  16. @La Rit:

    I’ve always hated heights. First remember it when I was a small child getting dragged across the dam at some reservoir near Blubberhouses on a day out, literally on my hands and knees… then later, going up the White Horse at Kilburn onto the top of Wass Bank… and Sutton Bank… York Minster… heh, the small traumas of childhood, eh? As I got older, I was able at least to suppress the fear, but still…

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  17. Used to be ok with heights. Getting older, fatter, less fit, am a bit wobbly up the ladder these days.. ATOS, disguisting. Also how much is '© Steve Donnison' making from his website, I mean good that its there, but to charge punters the best part of £20..?

    Also, a bit shocked to see MIEs cif avatar is a little child spelling out my IRL name... Yes I know what it means in Spanish, still...

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  18. PeterJ -

    It's when he says there is no quick way down @ 8 mins that you think - of course there is. You either fall or jump. Either way make sure you've got a parachute! What a base jump that would be !

    Gotta admit - I couldn't climb that !

    Stairway to Heaven - No way.

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  19. G'day, all.

    PeterJ, that was one hell of a video. Completely insane people. Reminded me of this scarey, iconic image.

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  20. I know Habib! I read that many Native Americans worked on skyscrapers as they have no fear of heights. You & I the wrong sort of Indian, inni'?

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  21. Ha ha, Turmi!!

    I was well into my twenties when I got the fear on this innocuous hill -
    Whernside, Yorkshire. What a wuss!

    Keeping the family pride up, though, my Nephew cleans the windows of the pyramid building in Stockport, using climbing gear.

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  22. Looks like summat out of bladerunner Habib!

    My pal had the heebiejeebies up Arthur's Seat, had to crawl down on hands and knees. Phobias weird thing. I used to hate moths (V.common phobia app..) until I was tripping on mushrooms and my pal caught, in his hands, what I thought was a moth, but was just a lamp cover on a chain, which explains why it was 'following' me! Anyway, next day, no phobia, I can now catch a moth in my hands and take them outside.

    A positive drugs story. : )


    Ed Milliband looks like Wallace, from ..& Grommit.

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  23. Sorry - @5:28 Fat finger trouble again !!

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  24. tascia

    Fuggin ell!

    Atomgirl is already booked to do a parachute jump.

    If I show her that, it will be the next thing she plans. It looks incredible!

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  25. Around at the Torygraph there is a lynchmob of 670 giving Charlie Bean a roasting, and 230 at Ambrose Evans-Pritchard's 'Shut down the Fed Part2, who are not at all happy either !

    Top marks to Deano for his info and link on the tests. Sometimes just one or two good links just need spreading as widely as possible, with another dozen to fire when needed.

    Sheffpixie’s link to Chossudosky on Manufacturing Dissent was important too . I’ll check if my mates who were at Porto Allegre 2001 know that the World Social Forum is financed by the Ford Foundation / CIA .

    Just popping to GolemXIV’s place .

    XX to all from an ex-roofer scared of heights.

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  26. Anyone else find D.Milli's praise for his brother a little disengenuous? I heard it as, 'Not my weak, Ed's weak...' And, 'Ed's a special person..' I just bet that weak & special, were hurtful insults David chucked at Ed throughout childhood. Anyone see Milliband of Brothers? I mean, how can these twunts be at the top of a 21st C political party? They have no real world experience, it's an outrage, an OUTRAGE, I tells ya!

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  27. Afternoon all

    Whoopee the next series ofThe Appentice starts on 6 October 2010.Although it's getting predictable i'll still probably get hooked on it for all the wrong reasons.Sadly the 'blessed'
    Margaret Mountford won't be there and will be replaced by West Ham's Karen Brady.Wonder what new 'corporate speak' will be hitting our screens over the next few weeks.Definitley worth a watch IMO.

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  28. Going backwards, Turminder, it's only a matter of time before we get another "Lord" as a PM, or whatever he was called in those days. A lot of real people can't afford to finish school, let alone go to University.

    They'll soon be issuing out cloth caps as standard for us all to tug while asking for any help the kind rich folk can give us.

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  29. I quite like The Apprentice, too, Paul, but this Mitchell and Webb sketch makes me giggle and a bit self-aware. :-)

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  30. The Apprentice leaves me cold... How much of Satan's Cock can you cram down? Keep smiling remember, but don't worry about gagging, he likes it when you choke.

    The world writhes at North Korea being a totalitarian state with hereditary dictators but how does it differ graetly from Bush Snr & Jnr. The Millibands, groomed from school as heirs apparent?

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  31. Turminder

    I honestly wouldn't waste any time on most of those various puppets muppets incompetents and sleazeballs who are supposedly in positions of authority/power (hehe)/responsibility(more hehe) over or for us .

    "Lions led by donkeys" -- no point in discussing the wisdom, competence and honesty of a donkey.

    If you don't know him already, I do recommend you pop around and read the last three at GolemXIV's place . He's said himself that we aren't necessarily heading for a System Crash, but things sure are looking increasingly messy .

    Off to load me tools and help a young mate get his roof on before it rains . XX

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  32. With The Apprentice, it's more a case of voyeurism than fellatio, Turminder - it's nice to feel better about being financially unambitious, when you can see what utter wankers will do for money and fame.

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  33. There's millage in an hour long version of that classic from, 'The Word' I'll do anything, to get on TV Can you imagine the indignities they'd suffer? Coming to a screen near you, all too soon : (

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  34. "Ed Miliband today made it clear he will not support "waves of irresponsible strikes" as he sought to damp down claims that he would reward unions that helped him to secure the Labour leadership."

    "The public won't support them. I won't support them and you shouldn't support them either."



    Wow - that whole 'swing to the left/reconnecting with our core support/getting in touch with our history' thing lasted, what, 70 hours or so!?

    Brilliant!

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  35. @James:

    From the Evening Standard last evening:

    "Ed Miliband may break a pledge to the TUC to join a mass rally in London against spending cuts amid a row over the trade unions' role in his victory, the Evening Standard can reveal.

    Sources close to the new Labour leader hinted he could either drop out altogether or play a minor role, saying: "We have had a lot of invitations and he cannot accept them all."

    Mr Miliband is under pressure from Labour MPs to drop out of the TUC event which is being backed by militant RMT leader Bob Crow and other Left-wingers....

    "The last thing we need is a picture of the new leader with Bob Crow and those other idiots marching down the street," said a senior Labour MP. "Can you imagine what the speeches from the platform will be like? He should be nowhere near them."


    Principles eh? Wonderful things...

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  36. Swifty

    Yup.

    Still, less than three days must be some kind of record though!!

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  37. @James:

    Well yeah, particularly when you consider he’d apparently given an absolute assurance he’d be there…

    ”…Mr Miliband was emphatic that he would go to the rally when the five leadership candidates were put on the spot at a TUC hustings this month. He said: "I'll attend the rally definitely." Of the five rivals, only older brother David refused to give a commitment to go, saying coolly: "Let's see where we get to."

    Still, I guess his ‘people’ will soon be arguing with the media over the precise semantics of “attend”…

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  38. Swifty

    "Still, I guess his ‘people’ will soon be arguing with the media over the precise semantics of “attend”…"

    Well yes, obviously.

    Attend has so many different meanings, and really, to get bogged down in the semantics of such a promise would be to the detriment of me, you, and indeed the whole country at this very difficult time....

    (Also quite ironic considering D. MiliVanilli got slammed because he refused to say yes immediately, issuing a press release later instead....)

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  39. Turminder,

    "There's millage in an hour long version of that classic from, 'The Word' I'll do anything, to get on TV Can you imagine the indignities they'd suffer?"

    I can see Nick Clegg snogging a granny in a bathtub of beans, if it is what he has to do to get the tories to let him have Bourbon biscuits at the cabinet meeting.

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  40. Aye Habib, Ed Milli licking builders armpits, 'It's no worse than what David makes me do!'

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  42. Uckh! Are we on a gross out? How, about we go nuclear with the Hicks theme and have IDS as Limbaugh and Maggie as Barbara Bush?

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  43. Paul, all is fine, ney bother laddie.

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  44. Atomboy

    Whatever you do - DON'T show that vid to Atomgirl !!. It's serious adrenalin Junky shit.

    One of the things I'd love to do before I die, or there is a fat chance I probably would in going for it !

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  45. I'm afraid to look at any of today's links. Have also developed fear of heights in adulthood.

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  46. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  47. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  48. Habib

    Sorry i fucked up the last couple of posts.Decided also to delete earlier post as i'm not going to give that racist smeg ridden tosser the satisfaction.Methinks there are far more effective ways of skinning that particular 'cat'.

    In the mean time here's something much classier from STEVIE

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  49. Evening all

    Just fetched up in Abingdon (deepest bourgeois country as far as I can tell), for the night. Anyone know Abingdon? It's quite quaint.

    PeterJ

    I liked that video - but then I used to climb in my youth. it can't be as scary as descending the Midi Ridge in ski boots and no crampons when its icy, which is by far and away the scariest thing I've ever done in my life. the views are stupendous though.

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  50. Read all about it!. Germany finally pays off Great War reparations this Sunday...

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  51. @Sheff

    I learned my height limitations very young. However, I have since been terrified on top of Caernarfon Castle, the Monument, the Eiffel Tower, Table Mountain, the World Trade Center, Tower Bridge, and, most recently, the Empire State Building.

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  52. Evening cuddly fuckwits!

    Not much to say this evening as brain dead again.

    Heard a bit of Miliband's speech on t'radio and I am quietly optimistic now. Early days, I know, but let's see how he pans out over the next few months.

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  53. The reparations bankrupted Germany in the 1920s and the fledgling Nazi party seized on the resulting public resentment against the terms of Versailles Treaty.

    The sum was initially set at 269 billion gold marks, around 96,000 tons of gold, before being reduced to 112 billion gold marks by 1929, payable over a period of 59 years.


    The history of the 20th C might have been very different if the Versailles Treaty hadn't been so punishing and vindictive.

    We certainly reaped the whirlwind with that one.

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  54. Evening BB!!

    (I think, perhaps, I saw a different speech to you!!)

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  55. Breathtaking, PeterJ.

    "It's a historical curiosity that the Versailles Treaty should continue to have a financial impact to this day," Professor Gerd Krumeich, a German historian who has specialized in the World War I, told SPIEGEL ONLINE."

    Who were all those "reparations", including the last of them, made to? The families who gave their loved ones in the Great War, or the families of those who financed it?

    Let me take a wild guess...

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  56. I seem to have lost a post.Possibly in the spam folder?Anyways here's a track from Quincy Jones

    btw Can't stand Russell Brand.

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  57. @Sheff

    I can recommend Margaret Macmillan's Peacemakers as a particularly fair account of the Versailles Conference and its conclusions.

    It could actually have ended up worse.

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  58. And while I'm at it, I can also recommend - as a contrast - Adam Zamoyski's Rites of Peace, which similarly describes the Congress of Vienna that carved up Europe after the fall of Napoleon.

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  59. Indeed, it could be argued that the Congress of Vienna was the root cause of the Great War. And so history rolls on.

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  60. PeterJ

    The root causes of WW2 were certainly to be found in the Treaty Of Versailles.And it was the French who demanded the terms be as harsh as they were.The British wanted greater moderation but the French prevailed.Can sort of understand the French POV given the vast tracks of Northern France that were devastated by the fighting -whereas Germany emerged relatively unscathed.Just a pity they were unable to recognize the potential for a backlash from Germany further down the line.

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  61. Paul, I promise I'm not ignoring you - it's going to seem like I do, but your posts do keep turning up after I've commented.

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  62. "a particularly fair account of the Versailles Conference and its conclusions.
    It could actually have ended up worse."

    I thought I was nihilistic - WW2?.

    PeterJ, there have been a few "carve ups" throughout history, to look at them objectively is the historian's thing to do. To dismiss them is surely the action of an apologist?

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  63. @habib

    Sorry, did I give the impression I was dismissing them? By 'ended up worse', I meant that the reparations could have been even more brutal, and the boundary-drawing even more cackhanded. Mass starvation in German streets rather than shortages, French troops firing on rioting crowds, no Polish and Czech states, that kind of thing. I didn't mean that WW2 wasn't too bad, considering!

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  64. Bitterweed

    Just looked at the pub for Saturday's piss-up.

    THE historical character, Charles Bradlaugh was an atheist, pro feminist social reformer who represented Northampton as it's Liberal MP. As a teetotaller, he may have been very bemused to know that over a hundred years later, a vibrant pub in northampton was opened in his name.

    Hehehe, I like it!

    Any recommendations for nearby accommodation?

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  65. Bella: Did you get an email from me sometime in the last 48 hours?

    Little Martyn is shamelessly begging on his hind legs again. He's been doing it for ages now - he had a couple of extremely tedious pieces published ATL, and now he's thinks he's Seumas Milne or even a respected casual contributor. Is this another example of Peter Bracken syndrome? Give it up, MIE, you're just another boring nutter who has temporarily fooled the idiots who run Cif twice (and that's not too difficult). You won't be getting another article - live with it.

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  66. PeterJ, my apologies, my misunderstanding.

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  67. btw, does anybody else think that a website which 'coaches' you in how to play the 'benefits system' and then tries to charge you £20 is OK?

    (It's a private company, it makes money out of misery, it's not in any way accountable. It might well be capitalism incarnate. (Thanks deano.)

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  68. PeterJ

    I dread to think what 'worse' would have been. As it was, there was the depression, the Spanish civil War, WW2, millions of dead and Europe in ruins. 'Course a lot of money was made by profiteers. Hasn't the UK only recently paid off the last instalments of what we owed the US from WW2?

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  69. Anon

    That depends on your circumstances. If you may lose benefit by not knowing the abhorrent questions that will surely be posed, then you may deem £20 to be a worthwhile investment.

    All credit to Deano for putting it up on here. Unfortunately not all the worthy claimants will get to see this information.

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  70. @Sheff

    I really must try to be clearer in what I say - I hope my reply to habib helps?

    The UK finished paying off its WW2 debt to the US in 2006. The full story's a bit more complicated than that, but it's here.

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  71. PeterJ

    I wonder how much longer it will take Germany to pay off it's reparations from WW2?And on another issue there seems to be a growing movement within Germany demanding compensation for the mass expulsions of ethnic Germans from the old Czechoslovakia,Hungary,Poland ect that took place after 1945.Dunno if you've read it but there's a book by Giles MacDonogh called 'After the Reich' which amongst other things deals extensively with that.

    Habib

    Didn't think you were ignoring me .My posts seem to have developed a life of their own today.:-)

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  72. That's a really interesting article Peter. I don't think it's you not being clear btw - more like me only knowing half the story. I should read more history. Who would have guessed there were still loans outstanding from the Napoleonic wars?

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  73. Seems we're hardly in a position to get huffy when a poverty stricken developing country asks for debt relief.

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  74. @Sheff

    Yes... I actually hadn't realised that we defaulted completely in 1934, although - to be fair - everyone else did the same.

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  75. 'Allo.

    It seems that councils are looking to cut shedloads of staff already - and that's before we've heard what's in the govt spending review. Sheffield council's issued some HR form to 8500 staff with a view to getting rid of a 1000 or so of them by April (on top of the 600 staff that's already gone & the 10% budget cut they made this year).

    If I'm asked to volunteer for some Big Society community project, I'm going to offer to fill a few of the potholes in our roads with Lib Dem councillors.

    anon

    Yep, hardly seems charitable to sell your knowledge about the benefit system. But you can see why people are willing to pay up for that knowledge when benefits are so low that you can't afford to lose any of them.

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  76. MsChin,

    "If I'm asked to volunteer for some Big Society community project, I'm going to offer to fill a few of the potholes in our roads with Lib Dem councillors."

    You'll be looking for a supplier then? We can offer you £2:50 for every one you can bury... no questions asked, of course.

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  77. Don't be silly, anon,

    MsChin, we can do things above board, too, it's £4:50 to The Company and 50p to us.

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  78. Doesn't sound like useless advice to me, anon.

    Yes, it would be lovely if it were all posted for free, but it's not an enormous sum and it sounds like their advice could save a lot more in the long run.

    Are you insinuating that the service has been set up by ATOS or similar bastards? If so, what's your proof?

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  79. For help that we make you believe you need to pay for, just call 555 0446 and ask for Milo Minderbinder.

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  80. Got a bit distracted by the scientology pro on beeb 1.

    habib

    There's 39 or so to be going on with in Sheffield ..

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  81. Well, MsChin that's only enough for a piss up if we do it on the sly.

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  82. It would be fun, though, either way :-)

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  83. habib/MsChin

    I think the way things are going in this country it will only be a matter of time before the Government will be financing 'Helplines' 'encouraging' the old and sick to top themselves whilst corralling the long term unemployed onto Workfare programmes which in effect will be forced labour .May sound melodramatic but with the population rapidly ageing over the next 20 years and a large and growing underclass Governments will be looking for 'radical' solutions.

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  84. tascia

    Helpline for those who've just watched a scientology programme or for life in general? Either way, spot on.

    Time for bed now, so NN all. Here's to dreaming of politically-filled potholes and a small profit for, erm, harvesting them.

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  85. Habib joins in avatar mutability fad! Shock footage above!

    NN all. p x

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  86. Hi thauma
    Yeh, not a bad dude in many ways.
    Apologies, will post some accomodation details tomorrow night. I do have space for a few layabouts btw
    ;-)

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  87. Well, I got sick of my face on CiF and then I got sick of the repetion of my avatar on UT. If I was a wiser bloke I'd have posted far fewer comments.
    :-)

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  88. Frog and chekhov

    have replied to both.

    evening all. Some interesting posts today.

    Not very impressed by mili junior - I suppose it's wait and see. The problem there is I am not sure how long we have to start mobilising real opposition.

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  89. @Bitterweed: I'm a layabout and I could sleep on a clothes line, so if you have one of those, that will do for me, thanks!

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  90. Nay bother chekhov ! Have room for one or two more.

    Just been watching Newsnight, and then Conference covereage. They really are fixated on the "brothers" soap opera aren't they ? Prentis and Woodley just now sere the first in tww hours of "serious" coverage to upbraid the commentariat and tell them to stop being so effin trivial.

    Shite.

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  91. "Not very impressed by mili junior - I suppose it's wait and see. The problem there is I am not sure how long we have to start mobilising real opposition."
    Err... I hate to break this news to you Leni but the media have contrived to label Ed Miliband as "Red Ed"
    Pure bollocks: he's just the same as all the other "neo-liberal" shysters and spivs.
    We are supposed to assume that our votes mean something and a change of government might mean a change in ideology. Bollocks to the lot of it.
    We've been stitched up, sold down the river and hung out to dry.

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  92. The 'Iranian Blogfather' darekhshan has been sentenced to 20 years in gaol .

    http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/long-jail-term-for-iranian-blogger/?partner=rss&emc=rss

    you can sign petition on his behalf

    http://www.freetheblogfather.org/

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  93. Btw: has Martin In Europe come back on here to apologize for his slanderous comments about Paul?
    He seems to continue on "Wadya" and be ubequistous on that site,

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  94. Hi chekhov

    MIE did apologize and then by his subsequent actions showed his apology to be worthless.And tbh after his failure to apologize to MF i wasn't expecting any different from him.The guy is either seriously disturbed or just a nasty piece of work or maybe a combination of the two.

    Habib

    After the earlier discussion i thought you might be interested in reading this article about estimates for Outstanding German War Reparations from WW2.

    Nite all

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  95. Hi Paul

    NN Paul xx

    Chekhov

    Have just mailed you again - I need more precise info please.

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