The last three.

Indeed, so cod'ead crowing about it is irrelevant, successive Governments (and parents, and wider society) have failed their kids.

What Coddy was 'crowing' about was the PM of this country telling an outright untruth to the media. Quite what relevance previous Government policy on selling school grounds has with this simple fact escapes me TBH. Or are you playing the 'two wrongs make a right' card?

Is there anyone who hasn't failed their kids then?

Introduced by Thatcher to prop up reductions in state school funding and continued by Major



Not quite. Although school playing fields continued to be sold (at a slower rate), under the last Labour government, they introduced more restrictions on which playing fields could be sold (most were from schools that had closed down) and a stipulation that the money raised had to be ploughed back into school sports funding.

EDIT: Figures from Paul Lewis (BBC Moneybox)

Who sold the sports fields? Coalition 21, last Labour 226, previous Conservative 10,000. Of 21, DfE says 14 were closed schools.

He just sees me highlighting yet more lies from this bunch of shysters and goes into protective overdrive. It's nothing new

You raised the issue of my expense account and my pay rises not me - I was just putting you right once again. You seem to have the impression that I am able to award myself a pay increase as and when I feel like and that I don't have a comprehension of what it must be like for those who don't get pay increases? I don't know what area of the public sector you work in but it isn't all plain sailing in some areas of the private sector. The company I work for has closed 11 factories in the last 3 years. As for disagreeing, I disagree with most people on here about one thing or another - some Mintball, Cod-ed, Gareth I disagree with much they post and them me, if you can't stand the heat etc. You seem easy to wind up and when put on the spot you go into a tirade of unconnected gibberish - the thread on polls was another example of how when pressed you resorted to crass insults. Who are you to tell anyone to shut up?

The point of opportunity cost is what the time means to an individual, the fact that going to a library is worthy of your time doesn't mean we are all the same - although I would be interested to know the last time you used a public library. Yes I could afford the time but the opportunity cost of doing so doesn't justify the visit to me when I can achieve the same result through 5 minutes on Play or Amazon. I knew you didn't understand the concept of opportunity cost.

Then his initial point went 'woooooooooooosh'. And you didn't even hear it.



No dear. We're all well aware that you have an employer and that you have to ask your employer. We're well aware of this because you've told us this. Just as you then told us how your nasty employer said 'no'. Which is why you've moaned about it on here – and why you are so envious of others doing better than you.



You could do with spending some quality time in library, Sal, because you can't even understand what people have posted. The bit about 'you're not the only person who works in the private sector and deals with private sector pressures" might have given some people a clue.



Who are you to tell people to live in "the real world"? And you haven't explained what the "opportunity cost" is of spending time on RLFans.

And as for the 'can't stand the heat': is that why you run away from threads when your botty has been handed to you on a plate – frequently because you post factually incorrect guff (to go with your whinging and resentment of anyone else).



Oh, people do understand. They're just having hysterics over the idea of someone trying to claim that they sit down and apply "opportunity cost" to every aspect of their non-work life. It's hilarious. It's the stuff of farce. Carry on – it really is an absolute hoot.

What's the "opportunity cost" of sex with the missus? Does it change depending on the amount or foreplay? Is the "opportunity cost" of the aforementioned foreplay improved or worsened if, instead of you going down and her reciprocating later, you just go straight for a 69?

Do you sit down and discuss the "opportunity cost" with her beforehand and negotiate what you'll do, what positions you'll try, how long you'll keep going (what if she doesn't climax within the allotted time, though?) etc? Does she have a say in these negotiations over the "opportunity cost"?

Did anyone else see the report/discussion on [iNewsnight[/i last night about the economic situation and the Games?

Private's sector efficiency in the Real World that.

"Opportunity cost" of going to a library?
What was that saying about knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing?

On the other hand, Sal did say he'd rather spend that time playing golf.
Which is fair enough, if you like golf, and suggests a knowledge of value too.

Opportunity cost, insomuch as it applies at all, applies to both library visits and playing golf though, so it's not really an valid argument.

Where have I given the impression you can give yourself a pay rise? And you have the nerve to question my comprehension.
There we go again, Sal's real world where only Sal works in the private sector. I do not work in the public sector.
Yes and generally you resort to ridiculous arguments and silly examples whilst attempting to portray yourself as the only hard-pressed, private sector, "wealth creator" in the room compared to all us other inefficient, communist public sector workers.
You have some bare-faced cheek I'll give you that. The subject of the polls is a great example. I made no opinion on Thatcher, merely ridiculing the use of ridiculous polls used in a ridiculous manner. You for some reason decided I needed to produce some kind of evidence for a point I hadn't made. Anyone with an ounce of intelligence could see those polls were irrelevant as statistics to the point ajw was trying to make and his continued reliance on them merely further damaged his argument. I notice you didn't answer the question at the time on that thread as to what evidence for what point was I supposed to produce. But then that would make you wrong wouldn't it? And we all know what you do when you're found out to be wrong, you disappear off the thread, like you did with the minimum wage carers with their expense accounts.

Does it now? So why did you compare it to the monetary cost of buying off play?
Why did you put a monetary value on your free time? And even talking about non-monetary value, why did you suggest that half an hour in a library somehow stops you playing hours of golf with your son? Unless you are suggesting that you really, honestly do not have 30minutes free, ever.
I last went to my library about a month ago, I go roughly 6-8 times a year, whenever I've run out of books to read and there isn't an obvious new one to buy. Not quite sure why its relevant but there we are.
You've just proved it perfectly. You admit you can afford the time. So there is little/no opportunity cost even in non-monetary terms which wasn't the original argument anyway (what was it you called it? A typical RLFans swerve?) you have that time free. The fact you choose not to does not mean there is a high opportunity cost attached to it. I choose not to go running 3 nights a week, it would be of value to me to do so, the fact I choose not to doesnt mean that there is a high opportunity cost on that, it means I can't be [ia[/irsed. Choice is not the same as opportunity cost.

Aye. 'Appen.

The thing is, he was also responding to a point about libraries in general being closed. And he responds to it simply with an 'I don't use one'.

It does not appear to have entered his head that the point was not about whether he (or any other individual poster here) uses their local library, but about libraries in general.

He seem incapable of thinking outside of his own personal life and experience (which ties in the constant 'read world' guff): it doesn't seem to have actually occurred to him that anyone else might use a library: the elderly, for instance, children (I know of specific stories about children whose parents are utterly uninterested in books, but where a child has broken out of that, and for whom the library becomes a vital resource: librarians tend to say that such children come from 'Argos homes', because that's the only 'book' in the house). He either completely forgets or ignores or simply has no clue as to why anyone else would use a library and, therefore, why libraries are such valuable resources.

And perhaps that's the most telling thing of all.

It does make you wonder what Sal may think of those individuals who, for whatever reason, have no internet connection at home or work and have to take advantage of that resource in their local library. Maybe they could use their library's internet to order some books from Play.com or Amazon?

Or perhaps that's where they can apply for jobs, since so many vacancies now demand online applications only?

The more cynical answer would be that they should aspire themselves into better jobs (because those are all widely available) and therefore be able to buy a computer, be online and purchase all their own books and anything else.

I did a piece on a specific library last year: perhaps some really don't realise how libraries are such vital community resources, doing far more than lending books (as if that were not important enough). Elderly people who spend time in their library, reading the paper, being able to talk to people – their only break from being at home alone. The child whose parents have no books at home. The young mother who is (possibly) suffering post-natal depression and finds that being able to bring her baby to a playgroup at the library is a really useful break.

El Barbudo mentioned people knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing: it really is quite depressing.

Our local, new, modern library is everything that such a community resource should be, its quick and easy to use, has automated checkouts, loans audio books and maps for £2 per three week period (which you pay for at the automated checkout) has around a dozen PC's which are always occupied (this is a fairly affluent suburb so obviously not all residents have PC's), and at this time of year has stuff going on all through the day for kids on holiday - on top of all that we have the excellent online eBook loan service and an online audio book service - I can't fault them and they went through a radical re-organisation two years ago when the budgets were cut which resulted in some of the local "shop unit" type libraries being closed, of all of the council provided services in Leeds I'd put the libraries at the top of the list for value for money - and theres certainly not a private provider in the land that could do as well.

North Korea has nothing on this country. You can be banned for carrying the tools of your trade if you are an artist and, it seems, arrested for not smiling and looking like you are enjoying an event: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -race.html It's no wonder the Olympic Park is so joyful.

North Korea has nothing on this country. You can be banned for carrying the tools of your trade if you are an artist and, it seems, arrested for not smiling and looking like you are enjoying an event: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -race.html It's no wonder the Olympic Park is so joyful.

Quote ="Dally"North Korea has nothing on this country. You can be banned for carrying the tools of your trade if you are an artist and, it seems, arrested for not smiling and looking like you are enjoying an event: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -race.html It's no wonder the Olympic Park is so joyful.'" Yes we know: Quote ="cod'ead"If you're watching the Lympics, make sure you smile: '" Mind you, it's come to summat when the Dally Wail start blagging their stories from the pages of Private Eye

Quote ="Dally"North Korea has nothing on this country. You can be banned for carrying the tools of your trade if you are an artist and, it seems, arrested for not smiling and looking like you are enjoying an event: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -race.html It's no wonder the Olympic Park is so joyful.'" Yes we know: Quote ="cod'ead"If you're watching the Lympics, make sure you smile: '" Mind you, it's come to summat when the Dally Wail start blagging their stories from the pages of Private Eye

At one of the RL Grand Finals we parked in the Lowry Centre car park and needed to buy anythign in there to get free parking - I needed some acrylic paint and so bought a tube and a paintbrush, got the receipt stamped, got the free parking and walked off to Old Trafford.

It was only when I was in the queue for the turnstiles and saw people being searched for alcohol that I wondered what the hell sort of excuse someone would have to give to be allowed into a football stadium with a tube of paint and a paintbrush in their pocket.

Fortunately the ManU stewards aren't quite so vigilant as Surrey Police and I slipped through the security cordon - I could have played merry hell in there that night with my paint and brush

The Mail see to get most of their stories direct from local newspapers.

Quote ="Dally"North Korea has nothing on this country. You can be banned for carrying the tools of your trade if you are an artist and, it seems, arrested for not smiling and looking like you are enjoying an event: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -race.html It's no wonder the Olympic Park is so joyful.'" I heard the woooshing sound up here...

Quote ="Dally"North Korea has nothing on this country. You can be banned for carrying the tools of your trade if you are an artist and, it seems, arrested for not smiling and looking like you are enjoying an event: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -race.html It's no wonder the Olympic Park is so joyful.'" I heard the woooshing sound up here...

They're usually OK at Old Trafford, even for football. They've let me take in drinks.

Methadone?

And so it continues:

[url=http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/28/us-g4s-brief-idUSBRE87R06720120828?feedType=RSS&feedName=sportsNews&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter&dlvrit=255506G4S to axe 1100 jobs as it looks to cover £50m loss on Olympics[/url

So the ones to pay for a management balls-up will once more be the poor sods at the bottom of the pile. Don't forget, these buggers are still to be involved in the operational activities of three police forces and are actively recruiting [url=http://www.policingsolutions.co.uk/jobs/?s=1&sortdir=desc&pagesize=10&site=249&sortby=mostrecent&pagesize=10&page=1civilian investigators[/url

[url=http://www.complex.com/city-guide/2012/08/camden-nj-is-losing-its-police-department-due-to-budget-cutsTHIS[/url could be the future of policing in the UK, if these buggers get any more involved