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It has been reported in the news in England that he had lived in London for three years.He would have understood the instruction to stop.

I would suspect the reason for the evacuation lies between these two possibilities:

At one end of the scale , perhaps a there was a threat to an (unspecified) pub or nightclub, a scenario which could kill hundereds inside the premises and injure a large number of people in the immediate surrounding area (as with the Bali bomb). If the actual pub or nightcub is not specified in the threat,then there would be no alternative than to evacuate the whole area.

At the other end of the scale, there would be the chemical or dirty bomb scenario. Perhaps this is less likely - if they possess such a thing, why didn't they use this on London on Thursday? (God forbid)

Re: British vs American conservatism

I'm not the original poster on this, but here's my 2p worth:

American conservatism is a bout upholding a republic and its written constitution; British conservatism is about upholding the monarchy and the unwritten constitution

British conservatism is often more authoritarian than its more libertarian US counterpart eg:

UK conservatives:

Removed the right to silence in the 1980s, banned most handguns in 1996 (Blair did the rest in 1997), now support national ID cards (current Labour govt policy).

Not commenting on the rights and wrongs, but I suspect many of these would be a non-starter for American conservatives.

.... [We Limeys] "tend to know more about the issues in hand" ....

I suspect this is true in respect of threads about UK news items where, on occasion, I have been told by certain USFReepers that I didn't know what I was talking about even though they had never been within 1000 miles the UK

- mainly because, given a choice between a familiar theory and a challenging reality, some will always prefer to maintain the comfortable theory and accuse the messenger who brings them the inconvenient reality..

On occasion, some of us do know more about the issues at hand, but I have learnt that one should NEVER expect a USfreeper to concede any ground - ever! - especially when they are wrong!

P.S. - seen the Tsunami threads about the UK public (non govt) donations (now £60m /$130m and rising), comfortably (per capita) outstripping US public (non govt) donations?

Most amusing to see Freepers who routinely piss on other countries complaining that this should not be turned into a pissing contest!!!!

Who says Americans don't understand irony???

Heh heh Heh..

Thought you may be interested

hesperophobic ingrates

Now stop it Brian, this level of flattery and complimenting is too much for a humble Brit to take. I do however do my best, and your recognition is much valued.

slavery at the hands of the Peking pack of predators

And just what would be the point of a life where you can't sell a few million people down the river every now and then?

But seriously, I expect you know that most of Hong Kong was under a 100 year lease due to expire 1997. I suppose it wasn't great foresight to put so much effort into developing a colony on such shaky foundations.Maybe the negotiators of 1897 thought a renewal would be possible in a hundered years' time, expecting Britain to still be as strong, and China to still be as weak, as it was in the late nineteenth century.

Who knows, perhaps if it hadn't been for the two WW's with their consequential bankrupting of the nation, not to mention the mass slaughter of so many men in their teens & 20's of WW1, Britain may have retained most of the wealth & global influence it had in those days..., although I think the rise of national identites around the world made the end of a formal "Empire" inevitable

Perhaps circumstances came along which Britain couldn't halt and were destined to see its decline and the rise of another...

As for the next power whose time may be up? This may be another case of a nation ineviatably having to expend its status and wealth on a great cause, one it can't escape if it wanted to.The question, the concern, is what rising international power will that great nation be able to turn to?

regards ;-)

I've looked all over the responses to this article and I haven't been able to spot a single self important Brit.

Can you enlighten me please? :-)

p.s. as a Kiwi, I know you understand the phrase "taking the piss", which another poster on here doesn't given his response to my tongue in cheek #52.

BTW, BA does seem to have a bit of an issue with one country in particular...

I take all your fellow citizens wonderous and amazing achievements as read. In fact, there's barely a day that goes by without my falling at the feet of the first American I find in London (no I don't clean shoes)to Kowtow a thousand times over and humbly beseech my thanks for the mere existence of your wonderful nation.

Just as I know that you daily thank wise historical British military leadership for the fact you don't speak French today with its cultural consequence that you would regard John Kerry as far too right wing to ever be President. Also just as your almost routune ripping the sh*t out of Britain reassures us all that some Americans are simply in denial about their true desire to emigrate to the U.K. After all, you know what's said about those who protest too much..

p.s . the ones planning space missions and designing cars takes care of numbers in the thousands. Just how stupid are you suggesting the other 200 + million are then? And what is a traitor to the cause of the average American like that doing on a fine (nearly) all American forum such as this?

re : Italian soccer player...

I suppose I do need to change my screen name especially since the team I support is now relegated and shorn of all its good players that have f**ked off to Chelsea and T*ttenham and even Lazio...Of course, this is what you get for registering on FR just days after a certain Italian scores the goal that gives your team its first win over ManUre (Man Utd to the uninitiated) in 11 years...

I will of course emigrate to the U.S. just as soon as the Upton Park stadium is relocated there brick by brick.

Having said that, I suppose if they get into any more debt they will probably sell the stadium to the first gullible Yank that wonders by... after all, I recall one of your less bright fellow citizens once bought a bridge from us Brits some time ago....

p.s. re:Humour - you're seriously asking a West Ham fan if he has a sense of humour?

Also - yes, a certain ex- tabloid journalist member of this forum does still appear to be trolling around after all these years...

I am sure we are all deeply flattered by your comments, as always.

How goes you one-man mission to alienate as many allies or potential allies as possible?

Fool.

Not dishes, in the UK "number plates" are licence plates.

It would be very unusual to have several of them in your car....

The FA cup is for all teams that belong to the Football Association of England/Wales ,and operates on a single-game knockout basis (unlike European competitions where the teams play home & away and the result is based on aggregate scores over two games).

In the FA cup, teams like to get home advantage. All ties are by random draw, there is no seeding. The only games played at neutral venues are the semi finals & final.

The various amateur and semi-professional teams play qualifying rounds to get into the first round proper of the FA cup, where they are joined by professional teams from the Nationwide 2nd & 3rd divisions.

Teams from the Nationwide first division, and the premiership, join the competition in the 3rd round (64 teams at this stage).

Then the competition goes: 4th round
5th round
Q/Final
S/Final
Final.

The Champions league was originally known as the "European cup", a knock out competition for the winners of each of Europe's national leagues from the previous season.

The UEFA cup (Union of European Football Associations)was for the runners up,(and maybe also 3rd/4th/5th), from each of the national leagues, and was also a simple knock-out competition.

The winners of national cup competitions, such as the FA Cup, would compete in the European Cup winners' Cup the following season.

These formats changed in the 1990s

The European Cup became the Champions league, and moved from a simple knock out format to a set of mini leagues prior to the Q/Final stage, with a knock-out format from then on. The main reason for this was to generate more games,and make more money for the teams involved.

In a mini-league of 4 teams, a no-hoper is guaranteed 6 games (home & away) plus t.v. revenue, instead of being out in the 1st round.

The format was recently changed to have two rounds of leagues (even more games = even more money) prior to the QF stage.

It now starts with 64 teams in 16 leagues of 4 teams, with the top 2 (total 32 teams) going into 8 leagues of 4 teams, and the top 2 from each league (16 teams) producing the 8 Quarter final matches.

The Champions league unlike the old European Cup, is not restricted to national league winners, now including 2nd placed teams, and sometimes 3rd & 4th.Bayer Leverkusen reached this years' final without ever actually having won the German league in their history.

The inclusion of runners up/3rd/4th has detracted from the prestige of the UEFA cup because it now has fewer of the big-name teams in it. To compensate, the European cup winners cup was abolished, and the winners of the FA cup now compete in the UEFA cup.

The UEFA cup now consists of 3rd-5th placed teams and cup winners.

If a team wins both their national league and cup, then they take their place in the Champions league and the cup final runners up get the UEFA place.

Hope that wasn't too confusing!

"If they need to be punished"

surely that just means waiting until the investigation is complete?

p.s. Canada,Australia,New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, British Honduras, Jamaica,Trinidad & Tobago,Nigeria, St Kitts Nevis etc etc didn't "fight to the death" to get away from London.

Several, including the Seychelles (Diaego Garcia) even had to be persuaded to take independence.(their price was a new airport) and Bermuda recently rejected independence in a referendum.

Review the Westminster Statute of 1931 - it recognised several dominions (Aus,Can,NZ,South Africa) as equal nations in law and was the beginning of the evolution of the old Empire into the Commonwealth.

Violent rebellion, as in the case of US,Ireland and Zimbabwe, has been less usual than you may think.

Cheers for making a Brit laugh. : )

Have a look at my previous reply; we don't hate America, not the real Brits anyway. Ignore the politicos.

Us Brits (in general) certainly aren't acting like a bunch of pansies over this.

UK paper The Mirror, after protesting for several days, had a phone in vote for readers. The management obviously expected support from their readers in Britain, but the result was:

Support U.S. treatment: 17,000 (91%)
Support Mirror's criticisms:1,700 (9%)

Today the Mirror was desperately running another article asking readers "will this change your mind?" (seems not...)

Regards

Us Brits aren't having a "collective snit".

The Mirror (one of the rags mentioned in the article) had a phone in vote to see if their readers agreed with the Mirror's critical tone.

The result

Support U.S. :17,000
Support Mirror :1,700

Today the Mirror printed another article asking "will this change your minds?" (apparently not...)

Don't take media comment too seriously, it doesn't reflect most Brits opinions.

Thanks for those comments. It beats being told that all Brits are ars@holes. :)