Last time I checked BT owned a lot of the hardware and other companies payed them for the upkeep etc and then made their services using the existing hardware. I do think that that is changing as companies seem to be upgrading existing connections very slowly.

The irony in that is that BT are basically the most expensive provider in the country

Edit: Worse is the BBC that can still legally charge a license fee when others rely on advertisement. But in order to own a TV in the UK you basically have to pay the BBC. There was a story a long time ago about someone who's TV was modified so he could not get BBC channels, He got fined for not paying the license.

Your country is nothing BUT Immigrants! Your country doesn't have that problem because you enslaved and killed off most of the natives. Stupid uneducated shit.

We have NAFTA over here and even though some people on the left (both sides of the border) want to blame it for all evils, it has not been on the headlines for decades. Before you say that NAFTA is not in the same as the EU, I can tell you that the having the world's only superpower as a neighbour is in a problem category in itself, ask Canadians if you may.

Politicians over here want to blame all their ineptitude to our northern neighbours, but we have heard that lie often enough to recognize it, can the british with all their education accomplish the same?

Think of the children! Think of the children!
A free and open Internet's probably going to kill them!

- Letter to David Cameron, Dan Bull

Sorry, couldn't resist. ;-P

Watch out! We have a badass around here.

You just got me preparing myself to move to the UK on the next months with an already signed job contract.
Hope to not destroy any Halloween parties on my stay, amigo.

Edit: I don't have anything against British citizens either the UK. Indeed on of the reasons I'm moving up there is because I like it. I either want to destroy any british traditions while I'm there, since I believe is my duty to try the best to fit on it's society. Saying this... Sir, you're a radical, I don't blame you, you may have good reasons for it, but you should relax a bit, don't you think?

Because the EU in many ways functions like a mobster gang. They'll bait you with the very same tactics that the mafia does, "Hey you over there, you look strong. Join us and we'll make you even stronger, we'll amplify your power."
But once you join, you'll realize that your bottom now belongs to the collective (or more precisely, an elite within the oligarchy) and there's going to be a disproportionate amount of bending over to pick of soap bars.
And then they have the audacity to make anyone who doesn't want to join, or anyone who wants to opt out, look selfish and backwards. Hypocrisy Deluxe! Astonishingly, there's plenty of people who buy into this crap. Maybe in their mind they picture the EU as something like the United Federations of Planets from Star Trek. I, too, sometimes dream about all nations being in peaceful cooperation but the EU is not even remotely that, sorry to disappoint.
I'ts unfortunate that many people see it as a question of political and social ideology instead of soberly looking at pro and cons and being honest about what works and what doesn't. On the bright side, all the Germans and English citizens I've talked to in real life want out of the EU but sadly it is not up to the population to decide.

Right because if there were more native Americans running around, we wouldn't be able to throw Halloween parties. We'd be forced to do rain dances every Halloween, right? You are either a moron or a troll.

... and that ladies and gentleman is the difference between fiction and reality. The same thing can be said about democracy, after 70 years of living the perfect dictatorship, when we got to live in a real democracy we discovered it stinks (and some people are waiting for the "real" democracy they saw in movies to materialize later on). So if you do not like the EU do not expect something better to come along the way later on and if you are sent to the future by a freak accident and there is a federation of planets, I can assure you that you will not like it.

Your point is accurate, however if the US has survived (some might say thrived, at least in most respects) as a melting pot then maybe Europe can too? Shake up the populations? To me, as an outsider, that seems to be what the EU means in the long run, eventually.

I could see it being somewhat traumatic if you're not used to it though. Also banning Halloween because of other cultures not liking it or celebrating it is pretty dumb, the way melting pots work is all cultures together, not some restricted.

Yep, it is a free market out there, and with the new Pixar movie (2018+) and Grim Fandango being one of the three most wanted games in gog I can see the "Dia de muertos" making headway into Halloween >: )

No, it's not that it's a pet project of the PM, it's that the spin doctors use the "Child Porn" argument in a way similar to the witch hunt strategy of claiming anyone who disagrees is therefore a supporter of said porn. It's very crude, but very effective. The PM isn't particularly waging a war on porn (though it is one of his goals), he's just using it to further his actual objective (in this case likely lobbied by Google).

It goes like this:

1) This bill will inhibit our ability to block child pornography (which is of course untrue, there is nothing in this bill that prevents takedown of a criminal site).
2) Those who disagree clearly do not care about the protection of your children as much as we do.
3) There have been a lot of studies to indicate children are increasingly accessing adult material oneline (notice the nice inversion there from people accessing material on children to children accessing adult material. A significant shift, yet the two keep getting conflated, something noteable in your post).
4) we need wide ranging powers over the internet in order to protect your children.
5) you DO care about children don't you?

It's a very obvious ploy, but it works, and it furthers any political end with the internet that they like, not just against porn.

I would like someone to do a study of how many 16 yr old boys had a copy of Razzle stuffed under their mattress 30 years ago. Randy schoolkids accessing material is not a new thing.

You are close but maybe a telecom company with whom a select few government officials have high friends and potential fall back jobs?
Remember that politicians are only interested in their own pockets, never mind the damage, death or fallout so long as they have what they want - money. Personally apart from the US lot ours must be the worst, and they only get second place because they are too stupid to lead so they follow their Yanky bretherin.

This is made worse because our papers have too much control over what people think and feel. Our schools are a discrase where we study WW2 for two years but focus almost entirely on the persicution of the Jews with no reference to gays, gypsies, blacks etc, the reason we should be happy with other religions, how to do business the goldman sachs way and how we British once ruled the world. Yet our maths and IT studies did not really pick up until we could tell kids "you could grow up to be just like the guy who made Facebook" such a hope.
Then you wonder why the English are so screwed up as a populace.


As to why we act so badly in the political ring? All our politicians come from the same mould set by Margaret Thatcher but with less knowledge of the true working class and no real thought process.

Virgin Media? If so is there any reason I shouldn't be with them? I've never had any issues with them and my gogs come down at around 7.50 MB/s whitch I'm cool with.

No, no, no, no, you are doing it wrong! Didn't they teach you anything at school? Your statement should be as follows:

I, For One, Welcome Our New Virgin Media Overlords.

Looking for an intelligent, well-articulated post? Then move on to the next one.

- The UK represents the pinnacle or hypocrisy when taking a stance over global political matters. Are we really threatening Russia? What with and why the fuck are we involved in Ukraine?

- UK politicians have a sense of self importance. We're no longer a global power and that's why we align ourselves with the US.

- UK has an obsession with national surveillance. Think 1984 was scary....pah, that's not even close to how much data is collected from each and every individual.

- UK politics is as corrupt as any other nation. Money changes hands so the rich and powerful thrive at the expense of the masses. The problem is not unique to the UK but it's made worse by our moralistic high ground.

Right, I can feel my blood-pressure racing so I'm off for a smoke.