Many compasses use alcohol, but the poisonous, foul-tasting, industrial type; I suspect that someone is letting their fantasies take hold. For one thing, the compass would be more difficult to read, if it contained a brown, rather than clear, liquid.

did anyone happen to see the clip this week, of the young lad riding his bike a bit to close to the “bubble” which resulted in him being taken to the ground with a security mans arm firmly around his neck?

And if his stunt had gone wrong, and he’d slipped and ended up under the following car, we’d have everyone screaming at the police for not grabbing him, and shifting him out of the way.

You have obviously never driven along the M62 in or between the rush hours..

Wrong. I’ve also driven on the M1, M3, M4, M5, M6, M40 and M69 in heavy traffic, and, if there was a chance of being delayed, found somewhere to stay.

Leeds to Manchester can take 1.5 to 2 hours, and thats only 40 miles. The 20 odd miles from Manchester to Liverpool can take anything over an hour some days, and both these are at times when there isn’t an accident somewhere along the way

And an accident, inside Leeds, could snarl up traffic, and delay you for hours; we can all quote “worst-case scenarios” to prove our case, but the most worrying thing, in all this, is that “they” are trying to ensure the concentration of services, in the best units (and, yes, they do supply beds for parents to stop overnight,) so that children get the best possible chance to survive, and some of you give the impression that you’re totally against this for purely political reasons, caring little for the real sufferer, which is the child.

It has nothing to do with cuts, in fact it’s an attempt to improve the level of care available to children. Leicester, Leeds, and the Royal Brompton, in London, will lose their heart surgery units, while operations will continue in Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol, Southampton, Great Ormond Street, and the Evelina, in London. Leeds to Liverpool is 75 miles, Leeds to Newcastle is 92, neither of which is likely to take 6 hours.
This came about because of the deaths of a large number of children, in Bristol, a few years ago, due to inadequate careand is an attempt to concentrate expertise in just a few centres, so that better treatment results; if it doesn’t work, then I’m sure we’ll hear a chorus for heads to roll, but, if it works, and more children survive, will we hear any (grudging) praise, and admissions that “they” were right after all?

How does one compete in photography? Surely judging just becomes a matter of taste (snobbery)?

Why would snobbery come into it? I’ve judged competitions, and never treated anyone with contempt; also, as far as I’m concerned, I have nothing about which I can be snobbish.

Plenty of copper to steal inside a police station

But, according to you, it’s all sub-standard.

, crime is going to go through the roof.

Take the lead off, first, and they’ll leave it alone.

And how much of that came from the nation’s tax coffers, and how much from the sponsors? And how many residents, in this country, will be able to use, and visit functions at, the facilities which will remain after the Games are a distant memory? Or are these questions that the less cynical of us are not allowed to ask?