h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://Im_surprised_no_one_has_mentioned_this_yet_in_the_forum:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/

http://Seems_like_a_great_achievement_by_all_parties_and_something
http://which_will_affect_the_UK_for_decades_to_come.

http://Discuss.

it is, but tinged with memory of previous attemots. The last one had rocky ride through 4yrs until it ended.

We'll see how long this one lasts.

Ha ha. Look at all the links. How funny Arnie is. It appears my sides have split.

When I heard Paisley & McGuinness today, for the first time I started to believe that a lasting peace was possible. When the bigot and the bomber can finally grow up and act like adults, there's hope for us all.


Talking of which, one for Arnie: http://www.allposters.com/View_HighZoomResPop.asp?apn=348682&imgloc=8-821-VW3Y000Z.jpg&imgwidth=874&imgheight=687

You've had the links thing explained to you Arnie, can't you just move on?

The difference this time is that the agreement is hard-fought between the two groups in NI *least* likely to compromise on anything. That is it's strength, in a way.

In previous attempts there were too many people outside the talks trying to undermine it. Now, these voices have by and large disappeared. There were also too many things that had not been properly resolved: disarmament, demilitarisation, policing, criminality, the RUC. All of these have been dealt with now.

During the elections earlier this year, the message went out to both the DUP and Sinn Fein by the electorate that enough was enough. The electorate wanted devolution and were tired with direct rule. The "anti-agreement" candidates were left high and dry, with not one of them getting elected as far as I know.

So, yes. I think this is historic. It's historic because it's inevitable, and has been so for the past 15 years. The idea of going back to the bad old days of romper rooms and detention without trial and bus-stations being blown up and hunger strikes and tit-for-tat killings and old men being sprayed with bullets in pubs and women being left in unmarked graves for informing is just unthinkable now.

It was a miserable couple of decades and good riddance to it.

This post has been removed.

To whomever has hidden my post above: all the information that I put in it can be corroborated from many sources on the net...including the BBC website and the Today programme this morning (where I got Paisley's 'my men' quote from.

I was very particularly in ensuring I did not libel anyone I mentioned and the data was correct.

This post has been removed.

who bothers posting a single emoticon?

...hmmmm....prophetic...

I never expected to see what happened these days in N-Ireland.

Really hope they'll create a peaceful society. A whole generation grew up in hate and violence.

I hope Bono gets the credit he deserves for this.

This post has been removed.

Oh, come on. I have verified EVERY FACT in the post above.

This is absurd.

It must be the silly season again...the Moderators hiding perfectly legitimately, factual posts reporting what various peole have said and done which are not involved in court proceeds(contempt of court) or condoning illegal acts or crimes (I simply reported what Ian Paisley had said. Radio 4 said the same thing as well.)

Would it help if I put a note on each one saying I did not condone what was said or done at all but it is all fact?

Or are the BBC to cowardly to actually allow someone to post in a forum what the two heads of Nothern Ireland have stood for and done in the past now that they are legitimate statesmen? Which is EXCTLY what has been all over the media for the past few days?



I wil precis my post:

Google Ian Paisley for a few minutes and look at what he has done and stands/stood for.

Google Martin McGuiness for a few minutes and look at what he has done and stands/stood for.

Look at the fact that neither of them have had any sort of 'advanced' education or training in economics or running of anything in particular and they are now in charge of a whole country.

I make this statement about any MP/PM at all really. We have people running countries whose only main reason for being there is how they have persuaded the public into thinking they can do a good job even if they have no real grounding in economics or project management (which is basically what running a country is).

And one other thing I would really like to know whether my posts were hidden due to condoning violence or illegal acts as this means *I* agree with these things.

I do not and by the BBC removing the posts and making this accusation they are libeling me as they are stating that *I* condone the violent acts and statements that I was reporting.

I do not condone terrorism or violence in 'civilised' society at all and I find it reprehensible that someone would accuse me of this. If I was in a really foul mood I would be onto the BBC lawyers about this. I am not at the moment.

Are you making a point about the voting system? There is no pre-requisite on education or experience in order to stand for election. Do you think there should be? How would you define "democracy"?

Yes, I am. My hidden facts about the two people mentioned above are on the extreme of the type of history people can have and still be allowed to run a country.

However, the basic argument is that you give people a job that they are qualified to do.
I would say neither of these two people (and many others around the world) have the education or experience to be able to run a *country*.



The question I was hoping would be thrown back at me.

Yes, I think there should be a pre-requisite on both: education especially, and for people who will say, qualifications aren’t everything, no, but they are the best indicator we have that someone HAS got the requirements for doing the job. If they get it wrong we suffer.

Experience: toughy…experience of what? Possibly, running companies, departments in companies etc.

Age: I actually think there should be a minimum age under which one can not stand for Parliament, say 27years old. Enough tiem for further education and sometime in the real world.

An 18year old ‘boy’ was elected as a councillor last week. Far too young: no-one has enough self-awareness of how little one actually knows at that age…until you are older. Myself included.



Same as everyone does…it is just how we then put forward people to be democratically elected. I would say democracy falls down in that almost anyone can run a country…which is a bad thing in my opinion.

What if any qualifications should be required for office other than votes is:
a) off-topic
b) an important enough subject to deserve a thread of its own

When Winston Churchill was first elected to office he'd done indifferently at school, spent a brief period as a junior army officer and been a military correspondent. He certainly hadn't done anything prior to entering politics except being the son of a famous father that would've suggested the long and periodicly successful political career he had.