Yeah, ideas like that! Only a matter of time....

[ELECTION GEEK]

The body that chooses the constituencies is called the Boundary Commission. Anyone can make representations to them. Fact is, at the last major redrawing of the boundaries (mid 90s, IIRC) , the Labour Party were far better at putting recommendations forward than the Tories. In fact, there weren't many Tory recommendations at all. I should know, I helped draw up one of the Labour ones. Until the 90s, the Labour Party were at a disadvantage by the boundaries (due to the flow of people from the North to the South).

Take a city like York. A fair size is York with a semi-urban core of mainly Labour voters and a semi-rural fringe of overwhelming Tory voters. The total votes in York at the last election were

Tory 37000
Labour 34000
Lib Dem 22000

If York were split from left to right (York North and York South - imagine a burger bun) then York would have two constituencies both of which were Tory marginals. As it is, the city is split (imagine a doughnut) into one constituency made up of an urban core (City Of York) which is a fairly safe Labour seat and an outer ring (the Vale of York) which is an overwhelmingly safe Tory seat. Two Tory marginals transformed into one seat for each party.

The Boundary Commission hold regular meetings where issues like this are looked into. They are well publicised at your local town hall. Here is the page for the last one. There should be a transcript of the last meeting also.

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pbc/rev...ournemouth.asp

[/ELECTION GEEK]

The playgroup my children went to....you had to zap the empty toilet rolls in the microwave for 15 secs, before they were considered safe to use !!

Here in Edmonton....I was told the school is not allowed to use them.

Also last week my little girl came home and rushed to the bathroom telling us she had been told she must wash her hands as soon as she got home......that's what the teacher had told them because a few kids that had taken poorly that day.......

A bit late by then I would have thought!!!!!


Nearly as bad as the ' no running in the playground ' rule at my nephews school a number of years ago.

Linda
Linda

Thanks NewWorldMan, very interesting. Always nice to have context to random internet statistics!

I completely agree, if you failed a module on the recent post-grad course I took you were marked as "refer" rather than "fail". I felt that this was extremely patronising for a class full of adult professionals but is just as patronising to university age students who I am sure could cope with the 'rejection'!

Read an entertaining piece in one of the papers the other weekend with the basic premise that popular knock-out programmes like "The X-factor" and "Strictly Come Dancing", whilst being traditionally sneered at, are the last remaining outpost of legitimate failure presented to many people. People either win, or are voted out as losers.

Elsewhere in life, it's all deferred success and alternate achievement.

Make me chuckle anyway.

All she wanted was a Christmas party



TO: All Employees

DATE: 4th November 2005

RE: Christmas Party



I'm happy to inform you that the company Christmas Party will take

place on December 23rd, starting at noon in the private function room

at the Grill House. There will be a cash bar and plenty of drinks!

We'll have a small band playing traditional carols...please feel free

to sing along. And don't be surprised if the MD shows up dressed as

Santa Claus! A Christmas tree will be lit at 1.00p.m.. Exchange of

gifts among employees can be done at that time; however, no gift

should be over £10.00 to make the giving of gifts easy for everyone's

pockets. This gathering is only for employees!

The MD will make a special announcement at the Party.



Merry Christmas to you and your Family.



Pauline



----------------------------------------------------------------------



FROM: Pauline Lewis, Human Resources Director

TO: All Employees

DATE: 5th November 2005

RE: Holiday Party



In no way was yesterday's memo intended to exclude our Jewish employees.

We recognise that Chanukah is an important holiday, which often coincides

with Christmas, though unfortunately not this year. However, from now

on we're calling it our 'Holiday Party'.. The same policy applies to

any other employees who are not Christians. There will be no Christmas

tree or Christmas carols sung. We will have other types of music for

your enjoyment.



Happy now?



Happy Holidays to you and your family,



Pauline.



----------------------------------------------------------------------



FROM; Pauline Lewis, Human Resources Director

TO: All Employees

DATE: 6th November 2005

RE: Holiday Party





Regarding the note I received from a member of Alcoholics Anonymous

requesting a non-drinking table...you didn't sign your name. I'm happy

to accommodate this request, but if I put a sign on a table that

reads, "AA Only", you wouldn't be anonymous anymore!!!! How am I

supposed to handle this? Somebody? Forget about the gift exchange, no

gift exchange allowed now since the Union Officials feel that ?10.00 is

too much money and Management believe £10.00 is a little cheap. NO GIFT

EXCHANGE WILL BE ALLOWED.



Pauline.



----------------------------------------------------------------------



FROM: Pauline Lewis, Human Resources Director

TO: All Employees

DATE: 7th November 2005

RE: Holiday Party



What a diverse group we are! I had no idea that December 20th begins

the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which forbids eating and drinking

during daylight hours. There goes the party! Seriously, we can

appreciate how a luncheon at this time of year does not accommodate

our Muslim employees' beliefs, perhaps the Grill House can hold off on

serving your meal until the end of the party - or else package everything

up for you to take home in a little foil doggy bag. Will that work?



Meanwhile, I've arranged for members of Weight Watchers to sit

farthest from the dessert buffet and pregnant women will get the table


closest to the toilets, Gays are allowed to sit with each other, Lesbians

do not have to sit with gay men, each will have their own table. Yes,

there

will be flower arrangements for the gay men's table too. To the person

asking permission to cross dress - no cross dressing allowed. We will

have booster seats for short people. Low fat food will be available for

those on a diet. We cannot control the salt used in the food: we suggest

those people

with high blood pressure taste the food first.. There will be fresh

fruits as dessert for Diabetics; the restaurant cannot supply "No

Sugar" desserts.



Sorry! Did I miss anything?!?!?!?!?!



Pauline.



----------------------------------------------------------------------



FROM: Pauline Lewis, Human Resources Director

TO: All F****** Employees

DATE: 8 November 2005

RE: The F******** Holiday Party.



Vegetarian pricks. I've had it with you people!!! We're going to keep

this party at the Grill House whether you like it or not, so you can

sit quietly at the table furthest from the "grill of death", as you so

quaintly put it, you'll get your f****** salad bar, including organic

tomatoes, but you know tomatoes have feelings too, they scream when

you slice them. I've heard them scream. I'm hearing them scream right

NOW!! I hope you all have a rotten holiday, drink, drive and die.



The {female dog} from HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



----------------------------------------------------------------------



FROM: John Bishop - Acting Human Resources Director

DATE: 9th November 2005

RE: Pauline Lewis and Holiday Party



I'm sure I speak for all of us in wishing Pauline Lewis a speedy

recovery, and I'll continue to forward your cards to her. In the

meantime, the Management has decided to cancel our Holiday Party and

instead, give everyone the afternoon of the 23rd December off with

full pay.

Not that safe. Until 1992 it used to have a Tory, Conal Gregory (or Conal the Barbarian, as we used to call him).

K.

Werent most of the constituancy boundaries reviewed in the early 90s?

Perhaps its just coincidence that after that this Tory lost his seat and its been a safe labour one ever since?

For the next election, it's changing to York Central and York Outer (of all the names they could have chosen ).

It looks as though the next redrawing of the map helps the Tories nationally.

http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/2006...4467b2aaec.htm

I wonder how the Canadian constituencies are chosen .....

Ridings, old chap, ridings.

or more officially "electoral districts"


As far as how the boundaries are determined..this is lifted from wikipedia...

"election boundaries commission in each province reviews the existing boundaries and proposes adjustments. Public input is then sought, which may then lead to changes in the final boundary proposal. For instance, the proposed boundaries may not accurately reflect a community's historical, political or economic relationship with its surrounding region; the community would thus advise the boundary commission that it wished to be included in a different electoral district.

For example, in the 2003 boundary adjustment, the boundary commission in Ontario originally proposed dividing the city of Greater Sudbury into three districts. The urban core would have remained largely unchanged as Sudbury, while communities west of the central city would have been merged with Algoma—Manitoulin to form the new riding of Greater Sudbury—Manitoulin, and those east and north of the central city would have been merged with Timiskaming to create the riding of Timiskaming—Greater Sudbury. Due to community opposition, however, the existing districts of Sudbury and Nickel Belt were retained in the final report with only minor boundary adjustments.

Once the final report is produced, it is then submitted to Parliament for approval, which is given by voting on the report as a piece of legislation."