HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: finlay_j@spcvxb.spc.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Questions on the election
Date: 10 Apr 92 21:34:17 GMT
Organization: St. Peter's College, US

> -- What was the "conservative newspaper" that endorsed Labour this time
>    around?  The local news didn't identify it.
> 

		My understanding is that the Financial Times endorsed
		Kinnock. 

I'd still like to get a final tally of seats of each party, which with
all the thoughts  and reflections has not been given out yet.

Thanks,

Jeff Finlay
St Peter's College
Jersey City, USA
From: livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: dweeb?
Date: 13 Apr 92 04:37:53 GMT
Organization: sgi

In article <1992Apr12.143625.6155@bsu-ucs.uucp>, 00rdharringt@bsu-ucs.uucp writes:
|> 
|> Dork is a slang word for dick.  I don't know where it came from but 
|> Gary Larson (author of the Far Side) tried to use it a comic once and
|> the editor balked.

That's pretty sad when you think of what Americans can hear on
British imports on TV all the time.   I was watching Space Cop
a while back.     "He's a turd", "Screw you", "Sod off" "WHAT!"
"Sod off, sir!".

And then there's Red Dwarf.  I often wonder if they understand
what Dave says, or if it's just "British, so it must be funny."

jon.
From: pschauer@den.mmc.com (Paul Schauer 1-1090)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Election results
Keywords: ELECTIONS
Date: 10 Apr 92 15:28:29 GMT
Organization: Martin Marietta Astronautics, Denver, Colorado USA
Originator: pschauer@evans

Actually got to see live election returns last night from ITN 
via Philadelphia's public
broadcasting station. The results will be well known by the time people read
this, but I would like to point out one observation - Neil K's "concession
speech" seemed to be most ungracious. Continued recession, greater unemploy-
ment, less services... I thought we Americans had the monopoly on rude
politicians. :-)
Paul
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:6142 soc.culture.usa:2904 alt.politics.british:6
From: buckland@ucs.ubc.ca (Tony Buckland)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.usa,alt.politics.british
Subject: Re: Why should Libya hand over the PanAm bombers?
Date: 6 Apr 92 23:28:51 GMT
Organization: University of B.C. Computing Services


 How about, because the UN Security Council has told them to?
From: Trevor.Kirby@newcastle.ac.uk (Trevor Kirby)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Manipulative election broadcasts
Date: 6 Apr 92 16:35:19 GMT
Organization: Computing Laboratory, U of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK NE1 7RU.


In article <1992Apr4.195148.4007@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu>, cscdc@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Dan Carpenter) writes:

>
>I got a question:  What really does politics have to do with Culture?
>
>Shouldn't Politics on here go to  .politics.british?
>
>Just curious.
>
>Dan

probably a bit more than American gun nuts, Americans shooting up grenada, Iranian
airliners etc. There's an election coming up on thursday, there is no cricket to 
talk about, the weathers pissy and apart from sunderland getting through to the 
FA cup final nothing else has happened, or if it has, it hasn't got past the 10 hours a day analysis of the polls that seems to infest the telly. What would
you like us to talk about?

 Trev
Newsgroups: uk.politics,soc.culture.british
From: livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey)
Subject: Re: Why wait 5 years?
Organization: sgi
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 01:43:37 GMT

In article <8992@scott.ed.ac.uk>, sharder@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Soren Harder) writes:
|> p
|> 
|> As a non-scot (non-celtic, non-english, non-british etc.) inhabitant
|> of Scotland, I guess I am the kind of person who will suffer most
|> unnecessarily under a standstill. But still I support Steve Wallis on
|> this point; please do whatever you can to give Scotland the freedom it
|> lost in 1707 back. (Short of violent revolution, of course)

Say what?   "Do whatever you can"?    Like for instance have the
Scots themselves vote for the SNP last week?

Oh, no.   That's too easy.   Far better to vote Tory (25.7) and 
labour(39.0) and then complain afterwards.

Am I the only one who is beginning to think that whatever the Scots
claim to want, in practice they act so as to minimize achieving it,
and to maximise the opportunity to whinge afterwards.

jon.
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Election stats (3/5) Votes by sex, age & class
Date: 14 Apr 92 17:15:14 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAXcluster

In article <MATTHEW.92Apr13230031@matthew.ntl02.decnet.nokia.fi>, matthew@ntl02.decnet.nokia.fi (Matthew Faupel) writes:
> Breakdown of voting proportions by sex, age and class.
> Source: Independent on Sunday, 12 Apr 92
> 
>               Con      Lab   LibDem   Other
> Men            42       37       17       5
> Women          43       34       19       5
> Age 18-24      36       37       21       6
> Age 25-34      40       38       17       5
> Age 35-54      44       34       18       4
> Age 55+        45       35       17       2
> AB             59       20       19       2
> C1             52       24       20       5
> C2             41       38       17       5
> DE             29       50       17       4

Just a moment. Surely these are poll results, not actual results. Or have all
our votes been suddenly registered by class, age and sex. I think a retraction
is in order here?
Stephen 
> --
> ---* Amnesiac the Wizard *------------------* matthew@uk.tele.nokia.fi *---
>  Opinions expressed here are not those of my company.    | NB. ntl02 is EN
>  They're not even my own; I plagiarised the lot of them! | TEE EL ZERO TWO
> ---* matthew@ntl02.decnet.nokia.fi *------------------* Matthew Faupel *---
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: sue@netcom.com (Sue Miller)
Subject: Factory farming
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 92 05:40:56 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

>>(Ernest Adams) writes:
>>>probably still grown by Farmer Brown using methods that haven't
>>>changed significantly since the invention of the plowshare in the
>>>14th century.
>>
>>Yeah, and they still milk cows by hand and... Sheesh!!  You have
>>a very quaint view of the rest of the world outside of the US!!
>
>Sue, Sue, aren't we forgetting the s.c.b. Implicit Smiley?  Chill!

OK OK.  Still, the original statement represents a rather
romantic (if this is the word) but egregiously wrong 
opinion about farming methods in the UK.  The reason
why Britain had the first industrial revolution is because they
first had an agricultural revolution.  Britain was able to become
a food exporter by ~1800 as well as greatly reduce its
number of agricultural laborers.  Those people now not needed to
produce food became fodder for coal mines and factories of all
sorts.  Anyway, the UK pretty much invented "factory farming".

>Talking of farming, has Shula farrowed yet?

Errr, Shula?  Don Shula is having a litter?
From: jim@cs.strath.ac.uk (Jim Reid)
Newsgroups: uk.politics,soc.culture.british
Subject: Mortgages (was Re: Simple message)
Date: 14 Apr 92 17:17:21 GMT
	<1992Apr10.074341.21951@rtf.bt.co.uk>
	<1992Apr13.074114.26058@ssd.ukpoit.co.uk>
	<1992Apr14.154104.17609@cl.cam.ac.uk>
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Glasgow, Scotland.
In-reply-to: mrw@cl.cam.ac.uk's message of 14 Apr 92 15:41:04 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.154104.17609@cl.cam.ac.uk> mrw@cl.cam.ac.uk (Michael Warner) writes:

   Seriously, are banks willing to lend 100% of the purchase price,
   particularly in today's market where prices are falling ?!?!?

Of course they are! They get the poor sucker who takes out the
mortgage to pay for an insurance policy (the mortgage indemnity
premium) that guarantees the bank or building society gets its money
back. [i.e. You pay for their risk.] They probably get commission from
the insurance company for this rip-off as well.

		Jim
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,alt.politics.british,soc.culture.european
From: livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey)
Subject: Re: The Decline of Britain (was Re: Great Britain as a malfunctioning democracy)
Organization: sgi
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 92 01:28:22 GMT

In article <1992Apr15.200958.7848@leland.Stanford.EDU>, rna@leland.Stanford.EDU (Robert Ashcroft) writes:
|> In article <ji7i7r0@zola.esd.sgi.com> livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey) writes:
|> >
|> >But each European country pays a price for its good statistics.   France
|> >has high unemployment, Germany has a balance of payments deficit,
|> >Italy has huge public debt.    So when you compare country for country,
|> >things look a little better.   Not perfect, but not disastrous.
|> >
|> >jon.
|> 
|> If by "balance of payments deficit" you mean a trade deficit, you are
|> wrong.  Germany traditionally runs a trade surplus.  This has been changed
|> to a slight trade deficit because of reunification, but they are already
|> moving back to a surplus.

If I had meant trade deficit, I would have said trade deficit.  I
meant Balance of Payments Deficit, and that is why I said Balance
of Payments deficit.   Germany currently has a rather large Balance
of Payments deficit.

Balance of Payments and Trade deficit are usually two quite different
things.   For example, the US has a trade deficit of $68bn in the past
twelve months, but becasue of invisible earnings and some extraordinary
payments due to the gulf, they have a much smaller Balance of Payments
deficit.   For other countries, it's the other way around. 

jon.
From: gdb15@grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Great Britain as a malfunctioning democracy
Date: 13 Apr 92 13:23:31 GMT
Reply-To: gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK

In article <1992Apr13.111654.10388@bristol.ac.uk> P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:
>In article <1992Apr13.083753.25455@cl.cam.ac.uk> rjb17@cl.cam.ac.uk (Richard Black) writes:
>>In article <12APR199219172328@zeus.tamu.edu> Philip A. Carney writes:
>>> What Great Britain (and notice they have PR in Northern Ireland ...
>>
>>Wrong. Elections for Westminster in NI are by the same method as
>>everywhere else. It is only _European_ Elections where STV is used.
>
>And, interestingly, in the election of the Tory Party leader 15 months
>ago.  

What they used to elect the leader of the Tory Party was far more
complex than good old STV.  In the first round (Thatcher vs
Heseltine), one candidate had to poll 15% of the total vote more than
the other.  Mrs Thatcher failed this by four votes, and so we went on
to a second round (Heseltine/Major/Hurd after Thatcher had pulled
out), where one candidate had to poll more than half the votes.  John
Major failed this by two votes, but luckily the other candidates
conceded, otherwise we'd have had to endure a third round decided by
STV.  I've never known anything quite so convoluted.  In particular,
the second round seemed completely redundant, since the whole point
of STV is that the winning candidate has to end up with more than
half the votes.  Or was this just to heighten the tension?

--
Guy Barry	Phone: +44 (0)223 334757 | University of Cambridge
		  Fax: +44 (0)223 334678 | Computer Laboratory   
	   JANET: Guy.Barry@uk.ac.cam.cl | New Museums Site, Pembroke Street
        Internet: Guy.Barry@cl.cam.ac.uk | Cambridge CB2 3QG, England, UK
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Re: Why the exit polls were wrong ?
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1992 00:44:51 GMT

Paul Smee writes:

	Was a letter in the Grauniad today by someone suggesting 
	how the exit polls could have been so wrong.  I can think 
	of a number of possible honest reasons for this, and a few
	dishonest ones.  

I'd be fascinated to hear what you considered a dishonest reason. The
Grauniad is being its usual absurd self, God Bless 'Em. There are
several obvious reasons, and they include the one that would control 
my own answer were I so asked.

	(1) Why the fuck should I tell you how I vote?

	(2) For some, an unwillingness to appear "traitors" to
  	    their class. A public vote would get Labour in.

But I like the first one best. The inate independence of the British
voter. 

There is another issue that's worth mentioning. A number of posters have
given the impression that now nothing can be done for 5 years. In fact,
the opposite is the case. Now that the election is over, Major has to
cast around for a mode of action, and there is no time when a Party
Leader is more susceptible to suggestion than right now. If I was back in
the UK, I'd be working my butt off for any causes I thought worth promoting.
It is really silly to think that the Tory Party is a monolith, or that
the Opposition has no influence. I see no reason why Devolution for
Scotland should not now be put forward to the Tories as a reasonable
notion. Thatcher is dead, and Major is well aware of it. The last Thatcher
years were marked by a rigidity of thought that rivalled Moscow's.

Now, where's that Burton. Ah. Thanks.

Francis Muir

francis@sep.stanford.edu
From: gdb15@grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Elections stats (2/5) Regional vote share
Date: 14 Apr 92 10:47:31 GMT
Reply-To: gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK

In article <MATTHEW.92Apr13225924@matthew.ntl02.decnet.nokia.fi> matthew@ntl02.decnet.nokia.fi (Matthew Faupel) writes:
>Share of the vote by region.
>Source: The Guardian 11 Apr 92 (UK+NI), The Independent 11 Apr 92 (NI)

>I printed both the Guardian's and the Independent's breakdown of the
>Northern Ireland results as there seemed to be some rather large
>discrepancies.  They are in more agreement about the rest of the country.

The Guardian's figures on this are totally unreliable; they give a total
of only 7 seats for the NI parties when there are 17 seats in total, and
they calculate a 5.5% swing to Labour (sic) in NI.  They should clearly
be ignored.

--
Guy Barry	Phone: +44 (0)223 334757 | University of Cambridge
		  Fax: +44 (0)223 334678 | Computer Laboratory   
	   JANET: Guy.Barry@uk.ac.cam.cl | New Museums Site, Pembroke Street
        Internet: Guy.Barry@cl.cam.ac.uk | Cambridge CB2 3QG, England, UK
From: sharder@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Soren Harder)
Newsgroups: uk.politics,soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Why wait 5 years?
Date: 15 Apr 92 20:31:24 GMT
Organization: Centre for Cognitive Science, Edinburgh, UK

potter@movies.enet.dec.com (Alan T Potter) writes:


>In article <STEVEW.92Apr13120006@mushroom.cs.man.ac.uk>, stevew@cs.man.ac.uk (Steve Wallis) writes...

>>has the power to force the Tories to give in, if they
>>decide to use it.  If nobody (or perhaps only the 25% who voted Tory) works,
>>then the country would be brought to a standstill.

>Oh, brilliant.  No hospitals, no public services, no electricity.  Yes, I'm
>sure the country would be brought to a standstill if enough people were stupid
>enough to strike for it.  And you'd be comfortable enough in Manchester.  Pity
>you don't give a shit for the people of Scotland who would suffer.  Did I
>mention the word hypocrisy?

As a non-scot (non-celtic, non-english, non-british etc.) inhabitant
of Scotland, I guess I am the kind of person who will suffer most
unnecessarily under a standstill. But still I support Steve Wallis on
this point; please do whatever you can to give Scotland the freedom it
lost in 1707 back. (Short of violent revolution, of course)


>>So why wait until 1997 to ditch the
>>Tories when they shouldn't be in power now?

>Because that's the difference between democracy and anarchy.

The democracy of the thing is questioned (and I mean _questioned_, not
non-existent). And please tell me: what is so wrong with anarchy?
Soren Harder

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Soren Harder, (MSc student)
Centre for Cognitive Science, 2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh
E-mail: sharder@cogsci.ed.ac.uk
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
From: w.p.coyne@newcastle.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,uk.politics
Subject: election 92: LOWEST VOTE
Date: 14 Apr 92 16:17:11 GMT
Reply-To: w.p.coyne@newcastle.ac.uk
Organization: Chemical & Process Engineering Dept, University of Newcastle, UK.

Here is the lowest vote I came across at the election (there might be some
even lower). 26 votes!

Huntingdon:  10 candidates
            1st John Major (Conservative) 48,662
            5th Deborah Birkhead (Green)     846
            6th Lord David Sutch (Loony)     728
            8th Lord Buckethead (Gremloids)  107
           10th David Shepheard (natural law party) 26

-----------------------------------------------------------
Dept of Process and Chemical Engineering,+|If builders built buildings the 
Newcastle University, United Kingdom.    +|way computer programmers write  
                                         +|programs,                       
JANET: W.P.Coyne@uk.ac.newcastle         +|then the first woodpecker that  
UUCP : ...!ukc!newcastle.ac.uk!W.P.Coyne +|came along would destroy        
ARPA : W.P.Coyne@newcastle.ac.uk         +|civilisation.                   
...........................................................................
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:5839 rec.arts.books:7574
From: cam@castle.ed.ac.uk (Chris Malcolm)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: Difference Engine: Request for Information
Date: 6 Apr 92 22:14:10 GMT
Organization: Edinburgh University

In article <1992Apr3.025611.22014@leland.Stanford.EDU> francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir) writes:

>I visited the Science Museum last time 
>in London, and there they are constructing Babbage's Engine. It was thought
>to be impossible, but apparently not. They are cheating in some respects,
>but not in others. I think they allow themselves modern alloys, but will
>use traditional tool-making technique -- remember how apprentices in the
>trade used to begin by making all their own tools?

In fact they used materials as close as they could get to the
originals, but used modern methods, such as numerically controlled
machinery, to fabricate the parts. They were careful, however, not to
achieve levels of tolerance beyond those available to Babbage.

These details are from the Science Museum Booklet on Babbage.
-- 
Chris Malcolm    cam@uk.ac.ed.aifh          +44 (0)31 650 3085
Department of Artificial Intelligence,    Edinburgh University
5 Forrest Hill, Edinburgh, EH1 2QL, UK                DoD #205
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:5895 soc.culture.usa:2814
From: smith@canon.co.uk (Mark Smith)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.usa
Subject: Re: Why should Libya hand over the PanAm bombers?
Date: 8 Apr 92 08:45:01 GMT
Organization: Canon Research Centre Europe Ltd

buckland@ucs.ubc.ca (Tony Buckland) writes:
>  I hope this won't come as too much of a shock, but last year there
>  was a substantial, if short, war fought in the Persian Gulf.  It
>  established a new principle in world affairs, that the SC can issue
>  enforceable resolutions, particularly if it seems likely to be able
>  successfully to call on the US to carry the brunt of the effort of
>  enforcing.

Given that this "new principle in world affairs" leaves the US 
free to do as it damn well pleases, ignoring resolutions unless 
it happens to agree with the SC, how exactly does it differ from 
the old principle in world affairs?

---- Mark Smith ---- Canon Research Europe ---- smith@canon.co.uk ----
 meet the new boss                               same as the old boss
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:6325 rec.arts.books:7923
From: tewok@cs.umd.edu (Uncle Wayne)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.books
Subject: Response to _The Gospel According to Peanuts_ request
Date: 13 Apr 92 21:20:05 GMT
Followup-To: soc.culture.british


Within the past few months, someone posted a request for a copy of the
book _The Gospel According to Peanuts_, since their copy had grown legs
and walked away.  Last week, I found a copy in a used bookstore in
Mystic, Conn.  If the person who requested this books contacts me, we
can arrange a transfer.


			Wayne Morrison
			tewok@cs.umd.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: henry@trilithon (Henry McGilton)
Subject: Re:  Dork (was dweeb)
Organization: Trilithon Software
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 18:35:10 GMT

In article <1992Apr12.143625.6155@bsu-ucs.uucp> 00rdharringt@bsu-ucs.uucp  
writes:
    *  In article <1992Apr6.114612.7573@rz-berlin.mpg.de>,  
gray@rz-berlin.mpg.de writes:
    *  > 
    *  >     Struan
    *  > 
    *  > ps. Where does "dork" come from?
    *  
    *  Dork is a slang word for dick.  I don't know where it came from but 
    *  Gary Larson (author of the Far Side) tried to use it a comic once and
    *  the editor balked.  Would weenie be better?

Years ago I met a bunch of American people in Europe and I was under the
impression they used the word `dork' as a synonym for copulation.  At least,
they were always breaking into laughs at the notion of  `Dorking in Surrey'.

	........  Henry
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: horne-scott@CS.YALE.EDU (Scott Horne)
Subject: Re: dweeb?
Organization: Computer "Science" Dept, Yale University
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 07:45:22 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.132108.11398@cl.cam.ac.uk>, rwe11@cl.cam.ac.uk (Richard Earnshaw) writes:
<
<Then I suggest that you go and read Fowler "Modern English Usage".

I own a copy of Fowler and have read it.

<It 
<explains that the  'ise' ending comes from the French;

Exactly what I said.

<and that to adopt it
<here, when the pure ending is ize is grammatically incorrect.

Not at all.  If a word came in through French, what's wrong with adopting
the French spelling?  Anyway, there are plenty of "incorrect" spellings--and
even entire words--in English.  Are you going to stop using `female' and
`edit' because they're in some sense "incorrect"?

					--Scott

-- 
Scott Horne                               ...!{harvard,cmcl2,decvax}!yale!horne
horne@cs.Yale.edu      SnailMail:  Box 7196 Yale Station, New Haven, CT   06520
203 436-1848                Residence:  Rm 1848 Silliman College, New Haven, CT
Shao2shan1 sheng1 de tai4yang2 yong3 bu2 luo4!
From: mlemmerm@nl.oracle.com (Mick Lemmerman Publisher)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Democracy?????
Date: 13 Apr 92 12:25:02 GMT
Reply-To: mlemmerm@nl.oracle.com (Mick Lemmerman Publisher)
Organization: Oracle Europe, De Meern, The Netherlands

The tories have an overall majority of 21 seats - seemingly large.

If the labour party had managed to win only 11 more of the marginals
they were aiming for, this majority would have been denied.

Many of the marginals were won by tories with a majority of around 100
to 200.

11 x 200 = 2200 votes determining who should govern the country.

To quote Gil Scott Heron : 'Mandate, my ass!' (he is an American).
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: rbailey@wc.novell.com (Robert Bailey)
Subject: Marmite in S.F. Bay Area?
Organization: Novell, Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 17:37:52 GMT

This may be a FAQ, I don't usually read this group... 

I have a friend who is having serious Marmite withdrawal problems. Is
there a place in San Francisco, or nearby, where she can get some?

Thanks
Robert Bailey
rbailey@wc.novell.com