ECCOnoob

Purely playing Devil's Advocate..... whilst at the time it was a disaster to lose such a prestigious shopping mall project, with the benefit of hindsight maybe we had a lucky escape. After all, what we could now have ended up with was a massive redevelopment skewed primarily for retail units which thanks to the 2008 recession, Brexit and subsequently Covid could have led to even more empty vacant spaces to those the city already naturally suffers from. Of course John Lewis and Debenhams are massive blow but at least the current redevelopment works has a smaller retail focus and more work on offering other non-retail uses. In trying to look for a positive, failure of 7stone give us a chance (albeit luck rather than judgement) to scale back and reconsider a project to create things that people are actually going to use and occupy rather than chasing now much more turbulet and risky premium retail pipedreams.

Neither are a large majority of the residents in Kelham. It has being under redevelopment with a drift towards residential for at least 20 + years. It's bars, restaurants and venues attract crowds well into their grey hair years. Can we stop going down the road of wild stereotypes. Not every middle-aged person or retiree wants to live in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields with nothing more than a tin pot village shop 5 miles away..... Some people enjoy living in a city centre and it's not all young, hipster student types. With some of the new central apartment developments attracting a price tag starting from £200,000, city living is certainly not simply a domain for the young crowd as they simply could not afford it. The fact is that there has been some evolution in the world of work and the way people live. With the recession, many people living in big houses in the suburbs have found themselves having to downsize into smaller or even apartment living. Others, whose family have grown up and flown the nest are now deciding not to keep a big empty house and move somewhere smaller and more central so they can enjoy facilities in walking distance. Now we have another factor, thanks to the recent change to home or hybrid working, where people formerly living in a run down shoe box bedsit in London are coming back up north where they realise they can get a huge new build apartment, nice townhouse or terrace on the fringes of of the town centre and a short walk to the station for those occasional office visits, for significantly less money each month. Such factors are changing the demands on the local housing market and also where people are choosing to live which does not fit into traditional default stereotyping.

Damn. That must be why my tube was cancelled and I had to faff around finding an alternative. Oh what a disaster... it all ends with me stuck on a train...... oh wait. False alarm everyone. But....... maybe it happened. Maybe this is it. The afterlife exists and seems its nothing more than a mirage of sitting in a budget hotel room eating Five Guys and drunkenly replying to SF posts

No. The present case being brought is a civil compensation claim seeking monetary damages award for alleged sexual assault. All such criminal issues have already been heard and resolved including said alleged victim signing a big fat damages settlement agreement previously. Now the money appears to have run out and Mrs Victim is clearly seeking another payday. No arrests waiting to be made. No jail cell waiting for Andrew no matter how much people wish otherwise - it isn't going to happen.

It suspect so. Although within teenagers there is some difficulties as it's such a grey area. Example, an adult couple with 5 years age difference would not turn heads. However it must be difficult circumstances when faced with a legal 16-year old having consented sexual relations with a underage minor at 14 or 15. Around the world the opinion also differs where I think even today Japan still has the legal age of consent down at 13 in some regions.

I agree to both of these. If this is so serious as has been made out, people need to stop using such blatently emotive and inaccurate language. People might think that disputes over words is "trivial" but in law that it is very much the fundamental detail. Words are absolutely the key. Nothing has yet been evidenced or proven. It is time people realised that. I have said before, distasteful as the lay public and sensationalist media think it may be, the fact is she was a 17-year old at the time of the alleged offences which is over the age of consent. If she fails to categorically prove that she was there under duress or forcibly made conduct a sexual act (seemingly three times in three different locations) then there is no claim against the Prince. Simple as that. There is lots of uncorroborated smearing of the high profile individual, but what about the possibility that the accusor is professionally playing victim to hide the fact that she is nothing more that some former tart who was perfectly content and agreeable to shagging around with high-profile individuals to get lots of nice goodies, lifestyle and travel opportunities. That could be the reality in all this just as much as any of her allegations.

It already is a suitable modern workplace. It employs thousands in offices all over the city and wider UK. The Chamber is just a tiny, but most interesting, part of the process and that's what gets focused on. Its the same way as the visually archaic court room is just a tiny speck of the legal world. All these easy armchair statements about reform are well and good but there are obvious flaws. Who actually gets to be that strong leader? What then stops them dominating and pushing their own agenda and agendas of their privileged followers and yes men........just like now. Human nature chooses sides and loyalty is open to reward no matter what system. Who then decides exactly what is deemed common good. Good for whom? A government can't give the people everything they want nor let business and corporations have free ride. There has to be a balance so who gets precedence? How does that then play out on the global stage where we are always going to be in competition no matter how much we as an individual nation try to reform - countries like China and emerging nations certainly won't share. Then, what makes so called 'ordinary' people. Jobs, background, income level, qualifications. Putting aside that so called "real world" down to earth lifestyle does not magically equal advanced skills required to run the country, how does one differentiate what is real word experience. Catch all stereotypes like "wealthy" for example could mean very different things to someone living/working near Burnley with a £50k salary and comfortable 4 bed house when compared to someone on £50k in Belgravia, strugggling to pay rent for their micro-bedsit with shared bathroom. There are 650 elected representatives in the House of Commons and we cannot get so distracted by the few headliners. Reform is one thing which I agree should be regularly considered but let's not sell it like its some magical transforming victory for the working classes. Let's not continually belittle the educated and well paid as some evil scurge on society which seems to frequently be the underlying agenda being pushed. Quite frankly, I want educated, experienced, qualified people in charge. What I don't want is Bob the bus driver who knows nothing about anything playing politician. Angela Rayner has given an example of a politician with the common touch and boy does she live up to it.

......yes fine. But just watch how expensive Sky, Netflix etc will suddenly become once they can no longer rely on vast archives from the BBC or its subsidiaries. How will people react when Freeview stops being, well, free.... Let's just see how happy people are when their free bbc news app suddenly disappears behind a paywall or some prime national sporting event suddenly goes pay per view or their local radio station which used to broadcast football commentary for some small league team in full suddenly gets broken up by ads or simply removed altogether for not making money. Commercial radio is not all its cracked up to be. Hallam fm for example only has about 2 shows a week made local. The rest are just networked shows from Manchester/Leeds stations Grass is always greener and that...

Do people actually still watch adverts? Since the invention of things like freeview recorders, Tivo, sky digital etc most people I know (older and young) record TV and watch back skipping ads. Such is not really new technology. To me the biggest argument for keeping the BBC free is less for advertising aversion and more for the fact they provide niche but still vital public service broadcasting which commercial networks won't touch i.e. proper impartial consumer affairs, live parliamentary feeds, disability accessible services, religious programmes, non-native language services, eduction broadcasting etc.

"Inconvenience". Jesus, if the neighbours are that sensitive they need to buy some earplugs or move into the middle of nowhere. Life is 24/7. Not everybody is bed at 23:00 up at 07:00. Back my student days when I used to work night shifts at hotels, I would get home at 4.30am, crack open a beer and have my dinner before catching up on TV, relaxing up to my midday "bedtime". I'm sure if you speak to lots of other shift workers they have similar patterns. If we play your game, what about all those selfish daytime individuals driving around, delivering things, talking and shouting, mowing lawns, DIY, and "inconveniencing" those poor night workers trying to sleep.

You mean like Teresa May or Maggie Thatcher were? I assume on that basis you are gunning for Pritti Patel to get the top job.... right? Incidently how many female leaders have ever reached the top in the Labour Party. Perhaps they are still a bit stuck in the 1970s attitudes eh. Just like most of their policies

When are you going to be standing for election then Anna? What's your proposed strategy to elevate yourself from successor local MP to leader of a party? Perhaps of course you may be proposing to go in as an independent? Anyone can shout on the sidelines complaining, and criticising and finger pointing..... the hard part is actually having the will, skill and guts to actually put one's neck out there and do something about it. If it's all such a complete shambles, in your opinion, and we have got the worst of the worst, then who exactly should we be voting for? Bear in mind the simple rule of elections 101, we don't vote for leader of a party we vote for a local MP. That's it. You continually seem to present that you know best what people want, you constantly dismiss those who don't follow your stance as totally wrong, you continually seem to be pushing a position which you are so adamant is always right.... so go test it. Put yourself up against the court of public opinion and media spotlight. Presumably you don't think you cant do any worse than the current lot.

I can't imagine why you would ever think that to be the case. All they are trying to bring in is to stop people blindly following "use by" days every time they open the fridge at home and thus creating mountains of food waste every week. The fact is that many foods are perfectly edible beyond that date and it's encouraging people to go back to their basic common sense of looking and smelling something to see if it's gone off.

That's not how petitions work. If you don't support it you don't sign it... However I am sure two seconds of your time Googling will easily find one of many petitions seeking to "scrap the BBC" or "abolish the licence fee". You can easily choose to sign one of those of those instead. 🙄🙄

They haven't. In the majority talk shows have always been nothing more than avenue to plug some show, film, book or event. There has always been a power struggle between host and guest as to what, how and when things can be asked. Failing which they risk a guest refusing to answer, walking out leaving the host hanging or vowing never appear on their talk show again. Producers know that big-name guests are the key to attracting viewers and if they are antagonised or alienated they will simply not appear and neither will any of their showbiz friends..... proper catch 22. At the very least, British talk shows do attempt to liven things up a bit with the format, content and style. If you watch any of the American talk shows they really are nothing more than a glorified publicity junket. They don't even try pretend is nothing more than plugging a product over there. Back on topic, the reason for the wealth of cookery shows is simple economics. They are cheap to make and they bizarrely attract massive amounts of viewers. Why would a network spend ridiculous money producing some highly crafted drama when a cheapo Homebase Kitchen and some glorified short order Cook shoved front of the camera can get just as many viewers. Even in the online world, just have a quick look at YouTube and see how many cooking channels or food-based videos there are which attract viewing numbers that the television networks would be in absolute awe of. No expensive Studios, no teams of highly paid cameraman and technicians and lighting, no six-figure contracts for ego filled presenters.... just somebody with a camcorder propped up in their kitchen raking in the ad sense dollars. I have often wondered how much of the watching cookery translates into the doing it. Surely it seems crazy that cooking tv shows are extremely popular and yet orders on food delivery apps and takeaway services are equally through the roof.

Not necessarily. As I said before, language evolves all the time. At the point when they are digging up our fossils it might simply be a declaration of ".....look here we have a human skeleton...." Is there really relevance to what gender it may have been.

Are there enough customers for that?? Do they make enough money to afford prime real estate? People raise complaint about those big identikit chain stores but let's not forget the only reason why they become so dominant and powerful is because we customers keep choosing to shop there. Independent and quirky is all well and good but if people simply walk around, point at the unusual thing before laughing at the price tag and walking out again - it isn't a business. If developers and landlords can make 10 times the money selling the empty building for apartments, leisure or office use rather than subsidising some non-profitable small craft shop they are going to do it because they're in business too. That is the unfortunate but harsh reality. That is why independent, boutique, small value, startups stores are found on the fringes.

May be some truth in that. But given that there are the usual uspects on here who are still, 40+ years later, banging on about the "travesty" of The Moor and Fargate being pedestrianised... .....still whinging and demanding they should go back to their days of a two-way traffic filled streets, the chance of the either getting developed into full-blown undercover shopping precincts were slim to none. In my opinion for the major flaw in this city is far far too many people who simply don't like change. Anything that evolves, anything redeveloped, any change of use, anything new and unfamiliar instantly gets slagged off, criticised, and put down to an inch of its life. Meadowhall of course was a major catalyst in the decline of city centre retail, but as I have said multiple times before - a city centre is far more than just about shops. Thinking about it, what really would we prefer, the steelworks were going to close one way or another, so i say better to have Meadowhall bringing people into the area than a massive empty decaying industrial wasteland. A quick look back in history to the time when the centre first opened and people will be amazed how far and wide it's catchment was at it's peak.

My goodness that is some chip you have got on your shoulder. It's a chief executive officer position. It is a job that someone interviews for, shortlisted and selected for their skills and experience. It is separate from the personality cult and revolving door of elected committees.

Sacked on the spot for what exactly? There is a clear anti-Boris bandwagon rolling here with every Tom Dick and Harry throwing around their uncorroborated opinions and wild speculations when nobody in any official capacity has said that an actual law has been broken yet. Distasteful or hypocritical as lay members of the public might think it, number 10 and the entirety of the House of Commons is not a normal location. Whilst the rest of us may have been on furlough or home working, the highest government office in the country has people there all the time including several who live there. The pm's office and his highest other authorities do not have a fixed work time agenda. They don't pop in for a shift and then pop off home again. Even the House of Commons still has debates and committees and meetings running into the late evening on a regular daily basis. For God's sake what exactly is happening here - the way people are talking it as if there's been some debauched orgy going off every night. In reality we are looking at small groups of people already working there day in day out having a few drinks socially distanced in the same building. Even the opposition party have being caught doing the same only theirs appears to have been in someone's house which IMO is even worse. You are not telling me that in hundreds of other organisations up and down the country there were not work places doing the same. Not one single socially distanced gathering over lunch time in the break room or someone cracking open a few bottles of wine for a leaving do or having some informal staff meeting in the car parks or terraces socially distanced to thank the essential staff coming in....my backside. Yes she has apologised, of course she has, she can't even have a choice in the matter. But are we really going to permanently tar people like this. What sort of society are we becoming with this nitpicking, finger pointing, constant tribal deluded support to one party or another. No she should not resign.

Your solution would be of course??

There is a very obvious reason for that. St. James is private property - A city centre isn't. Highly unlikely. The whole area is one giant construction site at the moment..... add-on the council's perceived reputation for hatred of anything petrol powered, and the chances of getting any feasible steady flowing vehicle access to that part of town is impossible now. Let's face it, we all knew it when they brought in the "temporary" covid changes. The days of Pinstone Street ever returning to a road are long gone. I will concede, whilst I will never sign up to some of the OTT hysteria about Sheffield road systems portrayed by some people on this forum, I have to admit the Pinstone Street closure was one of their poorer ideas.

Well this thread is predictable.... Everybody get your buzzword bingo card ready

It's all a complete mess. Woman who lives in Australia using New York Court for issuing proceedings against an alleged defendant who is British with incidents allegedly occurring in London. Just a big legal game for her and her lawyers. Cherry picking the jurisdiction they feel will give them the most sympathetic outcome and biggest payout. Truth and justice...........hmmmm.

There are already laws and regulations in place for everything you list. If you suspect they are driving round uninsured then report them, there is already a law for that. As for the rest of your post it all seems a bit he said she said.... delivering some food is a big difference to operating a public service vehicle. Do you really think that consumers are happy to pick up the tab of the vast amounts of cost that regulation and licensing will bring to someone delivering a £3.99 burger and chips. The problems you are describing on your list is not regulation it is enforcement which is an entirely different matter. The solution to that is not engaging in more paperwork and bureaucracy. After all, there are plenty of licensed professional drivers who still speed, ignore traffic markings or park like a tool.