Why did your grandmother need your cousin to tell her she was gay, didn't she know herself?

It was a awkward conversation.

[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/15/michael-gove-king-james-bibleAt least business has come in to rescue Gove's school bible plan[/url

Good to see that the Education Secretary has got his priorities right, his plan to send each primary and secondary school in the country a copy of the St James bible, has been rescued thanks to tory donors chipping in. Even better that these bibles are written in 17th century English, I bet the kids can hardly wait to start reading them.

I wonder when the first one will appear on eBay?

Few, I thought they'd waste peoples time and money.

Anyone got the stats on how many schools didn't have a [iBible[/i and thus desperately needed one?

You're missing the point: this one has a foreward written by Gove himself. I'm frankly amazed that our schools have coped without such a literary gem as long as they have.

Apparently, it's been printed on the spine too, that's it's from the secretary of state.

Usually, people fund their vanity projects themselves ...

At a guess and discounting Muslim, Jewish and other non-christian schools, I'd say none. But you can bet your life they never had a leather-bound, 4th centenary special edition, written in gobbledegook.

Pity these philanthropists can't throw some dosh at providing adequate nutrition to pupils, in the form of [url=http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/school dinners[/url

Food-o-meter- 9/10
Mouthfuls- 33, I took a pad and my pen ran out but I remembered!
Courses- main/dessert
Health Rating- 6/10
Price- £2
Pieces of hair- 0

Health rating 6/10? - How can that meal be healthy cosisting of nothing but two servings of carbohydrate (potato & pasta) bit of water (cucumber) and a blob of gelatinous sugar (jelly)?

Certainly not worth £2. Mind you the average price per day for school meals in france is around £4.

I'd first seen the blog last week.

It is absolutely extraordinary – in a really rather frightening sort of way. And I do think think that what you say here about the cost of school dinners in France says a great deal.

As Joanna Blythman asserts in [iShopped: The shocking power of Britain's supermarkets[/i, Britons spend 10% less on food per household than any other country in western Europe. And yet we still complain about the cost. You get what you pay for. So perhaps it really is a case of many in this country not really valuing food.

Not wishing to stray too far off topic but I know for a fact that I can provide a nutritious meal for an adult for less than £2, so if I was providing meals for primary school children, in volume, I'd be quids in.

It is scientific fact that, once a child has been weaned, it could then get all vitamins, nutrients, minerals etc it would ever need, all its life, by eating nothing but potatoes and drinking nothing but real ale.

If you don't grow your own, potatoes at Morrisons are often available at £2 for a huge sack, and for coppers you can of course brew your own real ale in gallons.

You have to make a tidy profit too, remember.

Thinking back, I really don't remember having fried food at school. And you'd certainly never have got to have something as ridiculous as portion of one starchy carb with a portion of another.

You got what you were given, and it was prepared and freshly cooked on the premises every day.

The overheads are high - equipment, labour, H & S, HACCP, etc. You'd need to be doing a lot of fishing to keep your food costs down.

In he quantities firms like Cordia knock out, labour and equipment are a small proportion of their costs, H&S and HACCP a tiny fraction. Food costs are by far the biggest cost to an operation like that.

But I thought that this was exactly the kind of thing that is holding us back as a country, stopping employers taking on more workers etc?

I agree BG in terms of the proportions you state but ultimately they tend to eat into your profit margin.

What ???!!!

You never had chips at school - and who could forget battered spam, or battered fish that stunk like it was dead a long time before the school got hold of it.

I'm a couple of years older than you my dear so I'm sure you must have had the same...



(Retires inside the coal bunker)

At my first primary school the only time we ever had chips was with chips on a Friday. I don't remember anything else other than the fish and chips being fried. Mostly it was "yet another variation of mince with brick hard carrot chunks and badly mixed powedered mash" or pasta with a sauce.

At the school local to us the cook's "profit margin" is so tight the head often battles with her because despite being given the numbers in the morning by the time the last 1 or 2 children arrive for lunch there is nothing left.

The fact that the council give an award to the school cook who makes the most profit kinda says it all really.

And in other news: [url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-18097238the scummy, dirty, conniving bastads in the catholic hierarchy are attempting to absolve themselves of responsibility for paedophile priests[/url

So if the church doesn't employ these priests, where do they magically appear from? Who pays them? They cannot expect their priests to have any morals when they refuse to accept moral responsibility themselves.

Get it into the court and let even more of the fools see just what a religion they are following.

Amazing really, I saw the other day that George W pardoned the Pope from prosecution before he left the white house.

When you have friends in high places you can rape who you want.

I actually don't blame the church from employing the pedophiles, these evil pieces of can infiltrate any areas of society. It's what they allow them to do unchecked whilst in their employment and how they handle the criminal charges.

God employs them – you should know that, Coddy.

I think Methodist ministers are self-employed, IIRC – even though they get sent to jobs etc by the church organisation.

So basically someone comes out of the seminary, complete with his new dog collar and wanders around aimlessly until he lights upon an empty church, roots around until he finds the keys to the vicarage, lets himself in, pops the kettle on and he's in business. Is that how it's done?

Far as I know, they look for the boarding school first.

Well, god gives them a bit of help. Obviously.

IIRC, the revenue wasn't impressed by individual clergy claiming they were not self employed, but employed by god.