Minimum alcohol prices
So, there's rumblings that the Chief Medical Monkey wants to impose a minimum price of 50p per unit of alcohol.

I think that's a mountain of platypus spunk, personally.

What would YOU do to stop the country turning into a blathering puke-covered hangover?
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:09, 89 replies, latest was 16 years ago)

I'd never, ever vote Labour again
Since they came to power the UK is 98.7% more shit.

Fact.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:12, Reply)

Ban all off-licenses
All drinking to be done on a licensed premises.



NNNNNNNNever gonna work though..
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:14, Reply)

Show people videos of themselves monged.
Might not cure it but it would reduce it by embarrassment.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:17, Reply)

Ban the selling of alcohol
To dole-scum.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:17, Reply)

Stop trying to deal with the symptom and deal with the causes
It's only a tiny minority of people who have a problem with alcohol, so why should the rest of us have to suffer as a result? More needs to be done to find the whys out before some slavering New Labour drone starts endlessly repeating "Tax, tax, tax!" as the solution to each and every social problem.

The Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy and Germany don't seem to have the same issues we do and they're generally regarded as being "happier" societies.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:21, Reply)

It's fucking bullshit
Go to continental Europe. You can get a half decent bottle of wine for about 75 cents or something, price is clearly not the sole cause of binge drinking.

It's like when you were in school and the teacher kept the whole class behind because one person had been naughty. It's petty and spiteful, and does nothing to solve the problem. Every time you think they've come up with a policy that perfectly sums up the nanny state, they top it!

See also whichever crackpot was proposing extra tax on chocolate, for everyone, because fat people eat too much of it. And the fact that crisps are fried in this sunseed oil shite so they don't taste nearly as nice, why do I have to suffer? Why can't the fat people just eat less crisps?
(username1, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:25, Reply)

Huh.
Well, we're living on a planet that may very well be uninhabitable over most of the world's surface sometime (relatively) soon, and we may well have caused this. The economy is fucked, mainly due to the continual selfishness, greed and fuck you attitude of a bunch of cunts in charge of the top banks, the rich seem to think themselves untouchable, and for the most part are and the goverment seems to not only distrust the voters but actively hate them. We where lied to from 1997, and they keep lying, and lying. They said we don't participate in torture. Unless it's another country carrying it out, in which case we just make suggestions. I honestly couldn't give a toss about booze, other than it's kinda handy sometimes to get drunk.
(Fredz A graveyard of hopes, a dump of ambition, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:26, Reply)

Real Ale
It's an often overlooked fact that Cask Ale is a British tradition, which is sadly in danger of being killed off by big evil companies who want us to drink discount imitation Stella.

Plus you can't drink the stuff unless you've actually developed the taste for alcoholic drinks properly.

Let's be old-fashioned about it and get the country drinking bitter, mild and stout again. Then we can all sit in sedate pubs puffing pipes with our flat caps resting on our whippets.

Sorry, I often think I was born middle-aged...

PS Username1 - I like the classroom analogy, very apt.
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:28, Reply)

Real ale
For the win.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:30, Reply)

Indeed
For one thing it slows your reactions and fogs your brain to the point where if you try and fight anyone you fall over and go to sleep. Unlike cheap mass produced lager, which makes me aggro.
(username1, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:33, Reply)

The reintroduction of temperance bars
I know it all sounds horrific and Christian but I firmly believe that things are better with the wide availability of lashings of tea.

That and making beer weaker - Back in the 70's the beers were piss weak and to get mightily arseholed you'd need a lot of it. Now beers are the same percentage as tramp blood.
(SpunkyMcSpunkbubble Diddled your nubbin on, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:35, Reply)

Beer
That's not totally correct - Belgium has a tradition of brewing ridiculously strong beer and as far as I know, Belgians don't have the same reputation for getting pissed and fighting as my countrymen.

I attend real ale festivals all over the place and in sixteen years of going have never, ever witnessed so much as a crossed word. The arguement that it's all about availablity simply doesn't wash and is simply being used as a vehicle for legitimising another stealth tax.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:39, Reply)

I feel a bit bad for saying it
But real ale doesn't realy do it for me. I mean, I do like it occasionaly, but I've never A good bottle of wine though, or a nice whisky is lovely.
(Fredz A graveyard of hopes, a dump of ambition, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:43, Reply)

I know in France
The children are given wine with meals pretty young.
Drinking with food, whilst around friends and family in a relaxed environment must set a better example than parents saying "Drink is bad". Then you go and drink White Lightening in the park, 'til you're sick.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:43, Reply)

PJM
I've witnessed cross words at Real Ale festivals, never fighting though, and it's always sorted out nicely.

Real Ale FTW!
(Herr Doktor Lemminge Is bored, so cheer me up!, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:45, Reply)

Hmmm
I can see the sense in this. And, face it: it's only going to make a noticeable difference to cheap chav-juice: a pint of stella is already well above 50p a unit, as is a can of the stuff. The same goes for a tolerable wine.

The idea that people would be wronged by having to pay more strikes me as absurd - not least because the minimum price would (in principle) go some way to correcting market failure, inasmuch as people at present do not pay the full cost of most things that they do: the social costs are unseen. A minimum price simply represents an attempt to privatise a public cost, and that seems perfectly just. (Look at the expected figures published yesterday.)

Of course, there might be objections that the policy'd be regressive - but since a unit of alcohol has the same social cost regardless of who consumes it, I'm not sure that that's all that powerful an objection.

NOW - none of this alters the claim that there also needs to be education and a general cultural change in respect of alcohol. That claim may be true. But there's no need to think that you can have one or the other - a bit of both might well be in order.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:53, Reply)

I'm not in full possession of the facts
are they talking about a minimum cost per unit for all alcohol sold everywhere, or just in pubs/bars etc?

will the minimum price of a litre bottle of vodka from the supermarket be £20 for example?

edit: how long before we can get rid of the shower of cunts that are this government? not that I expect that the next lot will be much better, but at least we will have selected the leader ourselves.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:57, Reply)

Good point Enzyme
But I simply don't trust the powers that are to take the ethical approach to this issue without using it as an excuse to unleash yet more stealth taxes while talking up a problem beyond it's real impact.

Past experience suggests it's very much the thin end of the wedge.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 9:58, Reply)

50p a unit?
Hmmm... Meths is gonna become an expensive hobby.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 10:08, Reply)

@Vipros
I fully sympathise, every single time anyone connected with the government opens their mouth in the press I find myself enraged.

Thankfully, I'm not the only one - they're plummeting in the polls faster than the proverbial lead balloon, it's almost as if they've either given up on trying to win any popular support or if they're absolutely deaf to the opinions of 90% of the voting public.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 10:12, Reply)

Ha Ha Ha
Government of the people is the biggest cartel going. They just take it in turns to bum-rape us for a while so the opposition looks more attractive. Then someone else takes a turn. It really doesn't matter who is elected, all politicians are cloned from the same pond-slime.

Once again I am coming to believe more and more in Anarchy as a viable alternative.
(porkylips looks better as the sun goes down., Tue 17 Mar 2009, 10:27, Reply)

@PJM
I genuinely don't understand the obsession with "stealth taxes", whatever they are.

In the first place, this wouldn't be a tax. In the second, even if it were, governments aren't profit-making institutions; HMRC officials aren't paid by commission. Whatever taxes a government makes get spent. If those taxes are well spent - the definition of which is moot at the moment - then I don't see the problem.

I do see a problem with an "all tax is bad" mantra, just because it panders to an illusory social atomism and a mistaken belief that low taxes are good for society as a whole. That latter belief is simply not true. Think of it this way - where would you rather be poor: Norway or New Hampshire? Moreover, the social atomism - the individualism of the first belief - is also highly shaky. (People who evade tax and take no responsibility for those around them (or those who aren't part of a chosen social group such as a gang or immediate family) are not generally thought of as heroes - but that's the implication of social atomism as far as I can see.)

EDIT AND UPDATE:
it's almost as if they've either given up on trying to win any popular support or if they're absolutely deaf to the opinions of 90% of the voting public.
Precisely the wrong way round. The problem is that elected governments have to pander to the general public. Unfortunately, the general public is incapable of exercising the responsibility of choosing for anything more than the most blockheaded of reasons. The general public is simply not up to the job.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 10:32, Reply)

Serve a glass of wine with school dinners
It really is the big myth that alcohol is a grown-up thing that causes all the trouble.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 10:41, Reply)

Lower the
drinking age to 16, but only for 'soft' lagers - like Fosters and Orangiboom etc...

15 if with a parent.

When 18 they can go 'top shelf'.

Lower the tax on 'pub beer' to that of Supermarkets.

That way you'd attract the 'kids' who are fucking about in bus-stops and smashing them up into a place where they are supervised by adults and a landlord.

Which of these kids would want to sit in a cold, piss-stinking bus-stop smashing it up when they can go in a warm pub, drink reasonably priced (albeit weak) beer and play pool etc...?

If any got out of hand, then there's already an authoritive person (the landlord) on hand to throw them out.

If the threat of being barred and having to return to the bus-stop when your mates are in a nice warm pub doesn't have an effect, then I'm pretty sure nothing will.
(dchurch bah, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 10:46, Reply)

Okay, it's like this...
We (as in the United Kingdom) are massively in debt partly due to excessive borrowing to refloat the economy and partly because this current government spent far too much money and put too little aside. Like it or lump it, that's the truth.

The spending situation in the UK is chronic - the wasteage on NHS computer systems alone is enough to buy the UK two Nimitz class aircraft carriers, which is before we get to the long record of hypocrisy and media hysteria the government has been guilty of in order to justify its own agenda - as a one time anti-war protester myself I am only too aware of this.

I believe we have a moral duty to ensure that every penny of public money is spent wisely. I do not believe for a second that the current government has the slightest idea or care about what is good for the citizens it is supposed to serve.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 10:50, Reply)

@PJM
Ok - we agree on that. There's been unwise spending. But a plea for less unwise spending is not the same as a plea for less spending. I have no problem at all with more being spent on public services - even if that means more tax - if it's well spent.

And well spent, in many cases, will mean not listening to the braying of the Mail, the Taxpayer's Alliance, and Rupert Murdoch.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 10:59, Reply)

Ah,
Don't mistake me for a right winger, I'm actually far from that.

I take your point about public spending being for the greater good and in theory it's sound... However in terms of "value for money" we get a very raw deal indeed, given that £0.47 out of every £1 in our pockets ends up back at the treasury before the end of the year.

For example - since the early nineties, the notion of free education has bitten the dust. I'd rather see my tax pounds spent on education than paying a local councillor £120k a year while services are reduced under the justification of "cost cutting".

This is why I'm a member of Taxpayer's Alliance.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:07, Reply)

But...
It doesn't stay in the Treasury. It gets spent. And, even spent unwisely, it's good for the economy and so, indirectly, for all of us. (Think of Keynes and his holes in the road...)

I couldn't agree more on free education - I'd admit fewer people into university as well, and spend more per head - but the claim about heads of local authorities on £120k is a red herring here, since there's really no difference between managing a local authority and managing a very large company. (Indeed - most companies wouldn't dream of doing all that local authorities are expected to do.) On top of that, of course, the heads of most companies can't be hounded out of office by a smallminded campaign in a local newspaper. It's not unreasonable to want an insurance against that...
:)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:12, Reply)

Tax and spend doesn't work...
...the £50k per household that New Labour has spent since 1997 isn't entirely taxpayer's money.

A large proportion is borrowed money.

Paying back the borrowed money plus interest is going to mean less taxpayer's money being fed into stimulating the economy (for example, smaller grants to organisations like ancrenne's), less money being put into our infrastructure and higher taxes all round. Is that right? No.

It's like making your family go short at the meal table while you pay off the interest on your credit card payments.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:27, Reply)

There's no problem with running a public debt as long as that debt is serviced - it doesn't have to be paid back. Some tax goes to buy hospitals, some goes to buy credit to buy more hospitals.

Borrowing to spend during a recession is not a bad idea at all.

Again, the question of the right balance remains moot.

But let's allow for the nonce that public borrowing ought to be minimal, or zero if possible. That means sacrificing a lot of what people want. Moreover, we are where we are - so making policy based on a hypothetical realm would be of little help.

Note that, as far as I know, no Western economy has no public debt (with the possible exception of Norway, which has oil money).
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:33, Reply)

I agree with waht both of you are saying
and I have nothing hugely constructive to add, other than, I was amused by the research undertaken by universities which came to the conclusion that, given the choice, universities would like more money please.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:36, Reply)

@al
HELL YEAH! (That way I might get my windows cleaned. At present, they're more opaque than the walls.)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:40, Reply)

This debate
Neads moar The Goat.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:40, Reply)

Al
that's interesting, in that it comes up with the same result as the research I have been carrying out about myself.

who would've thought.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:42, Reply)

I was just thinking
that this was veering dangerously into Goat territory.

I watched a video about this guy called John Harris which he linked to from his profile. All about how you aren't obliged to obey any laws expect not murdering someone or not depriving others of things unless you give your name to a policeman and enter into a contract with the corporation known as "The State".

Amusing how easy people are to brainwash really.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:44, Reply)

I'd like universities to have more money too...
...and I'd take more money from government pensions to pay for it.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:47, Reply)

@al
I watched that, because I work with a John Harris, and was wondering if the Goat was going to have a pop at him. (The JH with whom I work is pro-eugenics, so there'd be form.)

What amused me was that the video was of a conference held in Stoke.

Yes. The Goat wants us to take seriously the spoutings of people who voluntarily go to Stoke.

res ipsa loquitur...
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:47, Reply)

"The Goat wants us to take seriously the spoutings of people who voluntarily go to Stoke"
Hahahahahahahaha!
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:49, Reply)

Now, my latin isn't that great
but I'll try this.

res ipsa loquitur...

So, res, is a bit like Jizz.

ipsa, is a colloquial form of Load

and loquitur, well, literally, as we all know, means Lemur, but clearly here it's a mistranslation of Monkey.

So, essentially, a Load of Monkey Jizz.

Are Eugenics not a bad thing?
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:52, Reply)

res ipsa loquitur
Er... "Things fall into place"?
Not a literal translation, obviously.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:54, Reply)

Now Kaol
I think you might be a bit mistaken there. See above for my more detailed breakdown.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:56, Reply)

Oh...
Sorry, I was using latin, rather than "The Insane and Perverted Brain Of Al".
Curse my epic failure.
I think the only solution here is suicide.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:58, Reply)

Is eugenics a bad thing?
Don't see why. It seems admirable to want the best possible child - by which I mean one as healthy, resistant to disease, intelligent and so on as possible.

If genetic fiddling can give us that, then it seems like no bad thing. For some - such as Harris here, or Julian Savulescu at Oxford - it's a duty. I think they're wrong on that, but I can see where they're headed.

Next: suppose we could design a child with our desired aesthetic characteristics. Would that be wrong? Again, it's hard to see why. Of course, we might think that parents ought to love whatever child they have - but, if they have a particular preference for one sex or eye-colour or whatever, then that's up to them. The baby won't suffer as a result, and might be better off.

What's wrong is forcing this kind of decision on people. But you don't have to do that, and that'd have nothing to do with eugenics in the strict sense anyway.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 11:59, Reply)

@kaol
res ipsa loquitur is legal parlance for "the fact speaks for itself".
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:00, Reply)

Ah balls!
res = things
ipsa = themselves

I went wrong with "loquitur", I took it as the root of "location", rather that stuff like "elocution".
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:04, Reply)

and perhaps if some parents
were to choose to have a "normal" child in a world of eugenics then it's not beyond the realms of possibility that that child could, by assuming the identity of Jude Law, a now-crippled former swimming star, eventually become a navigator and travel into space!
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:04, Reply)

I blame the nazis...
...while they may have gotten the Reichsbahn running on time they certainly gave eugenics a bad name.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:05, Reply)

@vipros
Frankly, in Harrisworld, I suspect that there would be remarkably little engineering of children.

After all, procreation by the old-fashioned, chancy, unreliable method is much more attractive than wanking into a test-tube or egg-harvesting...
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:06, Reply)

This is the route of the problem really
No government is going to want to share the same legacy of "getting the trains to run on time" are they.

Which I think is perfectly reasonable, you don't want future generations to go "Oh that Labour Government from 1997-20XX, they may have lied, pissed away millions and started an illegal war, but they did get the trains running on time, just like those lovely Nazi types".
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:08, Reply)

I guess it's like anything else though,
Some parents would have engineered kids, then it'd be "who's got the biggest 4x4 all over again".
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:08, Reply)

@PJM
But what the Nazis did was not - for the most part - eugenics. It was assault and murder.

To the extent that it was eugenics, there's less of a problem.

(And I know I'm going to get misinterpreted on that. For clarification: just because the Nazis did it, it doesn't follow that it's wrong. Nazis also wore shoes - that's not wrong, and not every shoe-wearer is a Nazi. We condemn the Nazis because a lot of what they did was wrong in its own terms. The same applies to eugenics. If it's wrong, it's not because of what happened in Germany, and we ought to look at it on its own terms.)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:09, Reply)

@Enzyme
I was being slightly tongue in cheek...
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:10, Reply)

He's right!
*burns shoes*

Down With Nazi Footwear!
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:11, Reply)

ENZYMES A NAZI!
LOOK AT HIM WITH HIS FILTHY NAZI JEW HATING LONG HAIR AND BIG BRAIN!

NAZI!!!!!


NAZI!!!!!!
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:12, Reply)

@Kaol
OK - so only some parent's'd be able to afford engineering. So what? It doesn't mean eugenics would be wrong, any more than the fact that only some people could afford an education in the 19th century made it wrong to open a school.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:13, Reply)

AND HE'S WEARING SHOES!
AND TALKING IN WORDS!
THE NAZIS DID THAT!

EDIT: Nothing wrong with it, it'll just annoy me that all the posh kids are gonna be even more stuck up, with more reason to be.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:13, Reply)

Muahahahaha!
At last, this pissy piece of knowledge comes in handy!

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_Law

Edit: link fixed
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:14, Reply)

DONT READ HIS REPLY KAOL!
IT'S FULL OF NAZI! YOU'LL CATCH NAZI-ITIS FROM HIS WORDS!
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:15, Reply)

*goosesteps*

I'd've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for you pesky kids.
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:17, Reply)

Okay, okay...
...so would a society of the future populated by genetically enhanced human beings with superior intelligence use their abilities to get the trains running on time?
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:19, Reply)

Look!
He's rolled five 5's! He's a YAHTZEE!!!
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:19, Reply)

Oh...
I think that joke's old now.
Back to serious things.

If they boost the price of booze, crime will rise. Fact.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:27, Reply)

This debate needs more cowbell

( fuck shit up the best you never had, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:27, Reply)

@Kaol
I read that as "Bums shoes".

Ah nazism is a subject very close to my ever so slightly Germanic heart. My great uncle Otto (noted as having shot down two Messerschmitt Me110 fighters during the Battle of Britain) was very upset by the nazis.

The fuckers threw him right out of the Luftwaffe and sent him to the Eastern Front.

Badum tish.

/coat
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:27, Reply)

Pffft,
You ALWAYS show up when Nazis are mentioned.
With your blonde hair.
And your blue eyes.
Hmmm...
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:28, Reply)

The only things in the world which do no not require more cowbell
are Don't Fear the Reaper and some cows.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:34, Reply)

But your choice of wording and grammar does Al

( fuck shit up the best you never had, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:35, Reply)

OooooooooooOOooooooh
Burn.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:37, Reply)

Indeed it does
which just means I'm even more correct than what I was before you went and saided those words there.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:37, Reply)

hey! HEY! Back on topic, kids!
The discussion was beer, remember? Let's get back to that!

Me, I like the cask conditioned ales that I had while over there. They're not the same as what's generally known as "beer", just as the Belgian ales are something else entirely. I'm very fond of both.

That said, I don't turn up my nose at Harp, or even Stella. They have their place. On a warm spring evening Stella tastes pretty damn nice. It also goes exceptionally well with spaghetti.

So I had some half and half last night, made by me. The draught Guinness actually floats properly on top of the Harp. Woo!
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:41, Reply)

Pffft!
Harp!

Do they even sell that here any more?
( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 12:46, Reply)

Hehehe
I like the way that TRL tries to bring things back on topic, and the conversation immediately goes dead...

:)
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:27, Reply)

That's just the sort of thing
a Nazi would say.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:32, Reply)

Heheh

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:37, Reply)

...
well shit.

Hell with it.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:40, Reply)

I would kill everyone

and start again with me as the model for all that is good and righteous.
( Naked Ape call me Caitlyn, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:44, Reply)

Everyone?
That sounds like something Hitler would say.
And he was a NAZI.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:47, Reply)

Anyone fancy a pint?
Quick straw poll - what's your poison?

Mine:

1) Hopback Summer Lightning ale
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:52, Reply)

Er...
Black Russian.
( Cawl, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:53, Reply)

Depends on the weather.
If it's cool and autumnal, then Captain Smith's or White Star, brewed by Titanic. Or Old Speckled Hen.

If it's warm and sunny, then Iceberg, also by Titanic. Or Stella.

EDIT, and SPAM: www.titanicbrewery.co.uk/beers.html
( Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:53, Reply)

Not Zyklon B then?
/coat

I've not tried White Star... Speckled Hen is well worth a draught.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:55, Reply)

Exmoor Gold
in the Wetherspoons down my road is quite gorgeous. And it's only about £1.50 a point.

If I had no taste buds I would drink Greene King IPA as it's only £1. Damn my tastebuds.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:57, Reply)

Mmmmmm,,,,, Exmoor Gold
IPA is drinkable in the absence of anything else.

It's the time of year when I like to sit outside post bike ride and enjoy a light, crisp ale or two.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:58, Reply)

Not a fan of beer
I'm a cider drinker. Preferably a nice scrumpy.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 13:59, Reply)

light, crisp ale or two nice wank before heading home to the Mrs.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 14:01, Reply)

Oh Al it's always about ONE thing with you isn't it?
Do you really have to mention heading back to the missus?
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Tue 17 Mar 2009, 14:03, Reply)

Sorry PJM
but you know how she worries.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 14:10, Reply)

I notice a large contingent of people rooting for the light, refreshing ales.
And all those listed are indeed fine beers.

But I feel I must do my duty and stand up for the wonders of darker beers. It was a source of great glee when I moved into a house that was just down the road from a pub which served Harvey's Mild all year round. (Mild! In London! Oh yes...)

And I'll probably weep with joy if I ever get my hands on another bottle of Freeminer Deep Shaft Stout. A perfect beer with a hilarious name.
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 16:35, Reply)

Just harking back to the useless government tossers
Saw this yesterday: news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090304204058584

"Modesto Anarcho Crew presents a re-issue of Attack International's classic graphic novel, 'Breaking Free: The Adventures of Tin Tin." Written during the struggles of 1980's Britain, Tin Tin is a autonomist, class struggle, and insurrectionary story of ordinary people creating a revolution. It deals with issues within the movement such as sexism, homophobia, and racism, and also touches on violence, the nature and role of unions, and much more."

I read it. It's... interesting.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Tue 17 Mar 2009, 18:29, Reply)