Prescott additional info - seems there are a number of politicians lining themselves up to take over the Deputy PM position should it become vacant, including former foreign secretary Jack Straw. I guess they may know more about his future situation than we do....

The governement has again come under fire for producing more hot air than action in respect of its commitment to deal with illegal immigration.

Against the PM's promise to automatically deport* foreign criminals, it's been revealed that the Home Office has already decided not to deport over 200 of them.

On top of this the current Immigration and Nationality Directorate chief has declared to a House of Commons home affairs committee that it would take at least a couple of years to get the immigration service back into good shape, admitting that there were staff trainingb issues to overcome on top of everything else.

She had been given six weeks by Home Secretary John Reid to turn around the department. Seems she may need a little longer....

*my god - I split an infinitive - see what all these Americans are doing to me...!

Naah , we just wish we were allowed to drink six bottles of Champagne a day like he was .

Sorry Cyclefrance , the above was in reply to Elspode at the end of page 1 . Elspode had asked if the British longed for a re-incarnation of Churchill . I have only just realized that there are several pages to the subject . I shall now read them . Abject apologies .

*Smiles* I haven't enough time to read the hwole thread, however I read most of the first two pages....Very informative, I must say.

Just to show the other side :) There was one area of the country which bucked this national trend considerably, I am glad to say. In Yorkshire, we had an overall good showing for labour candidates and a poor showing for conservatives and the BNP (far right neo nazi) lost three seats; two in Bradford and one in Calderdale.

The reason I am glad about this is that I am a newly elected Labour Councillor :P

Hi Dana

Congratulations on being elected as a Labour Councillor. I occasionally do some work for one of our councillors, and she certainly puts in the hours - not an easy job - it certainly requires a lot of dedication.

As to the voting patterns, hmm, well this may have something to do with the way government cash is channeled arguably northwards - at least that's what that unbiased rag the Daily Mail would have us believe - so it must be true....:right:

Whatever next? While Gordon Brown, John Reid and others call on Civil Servants to sharpen up their act and deliver better value (some say holding them to blame for all that's gone wrong), David Cameron heaps praise upon the Whitehall workers and government departments that control and run our public services. All seems the wrong way round - we won't know who are the ones to vote for at this rate come next election.... Socialist Conservatives or Capitalist Labour...?

That's a shame - we could have started a nice little rumour going that John Reid is an alcoholic!

SINCE you brought it up...:) I do have a question for you. I heard on BBC last night a couple of words which I knew, but was startled a little by the pronunciation. Would you attempt to spell, phonetically, how you pronounce these words, please?

corollary


military


(also heard this morning, but from an American voice, these interesting words)

inculcate

(sorry, work distracted me...anyway...)

your pronounciation please?

I have been known to have people in tears with laughter at some of my pronunciations, so you have been warned:

corollary - (not so easy) core-awe-lurry


military - mill-it-airy (some pronounce mill-it-tree)

inculcate - inn-cull-kate (someone's bound to tell me it should be inn-cull-sate)

I beg to differ .

'corollary' should have the accent on the second syllable ' ke'rOlari . ( can't do a proper phonetic rendition on this computer, unfortunately)

'military' should ALWAYS be 'mill-it-tree' , never 'airy'

As for 'inculcate' . It is obviously to do with Kate , and nothing whatsoever to do with being sated .

Thank you both.

I heard core-RAWL-ler-ree and did a doubletake at the radio, like looking at the radio in the dashboard would help me understand... I pronounce it CORE-row-larry, precisely 3.5 syllables.

The second word gets plenty of airplay these days, and I have heard both versions, mill-it-airy and mill-it-tree. The second one feels pretentious rolling off my tongue, but I can hear it without the doubletake.

YAY! Congrats, Dana! You beat Radar into office! The last I heard, you were teaching immigrants the British tongue.

So what's a Councillor?

Hey Mar! How's you?

Councils are our local government machine. They are comprised of elected members ( councillors) who represent a ward (in my case about 7000 people). Each ward has three councillors who often also work a day job. The council I serve on has 51 councillors. People can call their councillors and get advice, try to lobby for stuff and get their support in various matters. A councillor can ask questions and generally act as an mediator between their constituents and the local machinery.

They also make decisions around various local matters particularly budgetary concerns and so on.....but since the councils are made up of various party representatives the make up of the executive branch varies. In my council I am in an opposition party (labour) and the controlling party is the Conservative party...They get the Cabinet posts, they are the portfolio holders for the main directorates (Health and Social Care, Childrens services, Regeneration etc etc)

We as one of the opposition parties managed to broker a deal which gave us a strong role in the 'Scrutiny Panels' which hold that cabinet to account....*whew*

Policy is set primarily through the Cabinet but major decisions such as the annual budget needs full Council approval (a majority of the 51 councillors)

:) Bit longwinded and not sure how clear that is, but there ye go.

Oh and I got made redundant from the teaching job :P I was intending to leave in August anyway, so it wasn't as bad a blow as it could have been.

I had actually moved into a different department before I dropped off the radar screen; was teaching native speakers with literacy and numeracy issues (not to mention some fairly extreme social problems often)
Still, it was fun whilst it lasted and I have kept in touch with a couple of the students (am accompanying one to the dentist tomorrow in fact:P)