HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: traub@rtf.bt.co.uk (Michael Traub)
Newsgroups: uk.politics,soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Simple message
Date: 10 Apr 92 07:37:13 GMT
Organization: BT Customer Systems, Brighton, UK

In article <1992Apr9.184013.29985@maths.nott.ac.uk> anw@maths.nott.ac.uk (Dr A. N. Walker) writes:
>In article <1992Apr9.075013.15123@rtf.bt.co.uk> traub@rtf.bt.co.uk
>(Michael Traub) writes:
>>He has *thirty* times as many computers? *Thirty* times as many cars?
>
>	Don't be silly.  [More than, actually] *Ten* times as much *value*
>of computers/cars as I have, and [more than] thirty times as much [and as
>many, in this case] as my poorer friend, who has none.  VAT is *value* added
>tax, not *number* added tax.
>
So he spends thirty times as much on computers and cars then?

>	Thirty times nothing is still nothing.
>
Yes but thirty times even a Sinclair Spectrum is an expensive computer.

>>I  claim  the  VAT  back  on  the  majority  of VAT-rated goods I currently
>>purchase,  and  I  actually  don't  remember  saying  that I buy negligible
>>quantities  of  VAT-rated  goods  in  the  first  place. While my household
>>expenditure  would  drop  slightly  if  I  was  unemployed it would drop on
>>*non* VAT-rated items.
>
>	You said that already had all the luxury [which you are now equating
>with VAT-rated] items you require, and that a drastic loss of income would
>make no difference to your expenditure on them.  Most households, mine
>included, are in no position to claim back most of our VAT [which clobbers
>most things other than food and children's clothes];  how do you manage it?
>Do you claim shirts, bicycles, theatre tickets as business expenses, or
>what?  Enquiring minds wish to know.
>
No, I claim back anything which can be claimed as a legitimate business
expense.


-- 
Michael Traub
BT Customer Systems, Brighton Systems Centre. traub@rtf.bt.co.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,rec.arts.books
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Subject: Re: ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
Originator: mnemonic@eff.org
Organization: Electronic Frontier Foundation
Date: Tue, 24 Mar 1992 20:46:49 GMT

In article <1992Mar17.175309.10922@athena.cas.vanderbilt.edu> sappenc@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu writes:

>I beg to differ.  I grew up outside of Dallas and we called all
>soft drinks "Cokes".  Both of my parents did this as well.  My
>father was from North Texas and my mother was from South Texas. 
>I also found the practice prevalent in Austin when I lived there.
>Perhaps "cold drinks" is an East Texas phenomenon.

I side with Kathleen Much on this issue. I heard "cold drinks"
as the generic term for soft drinks in Houston where I grew up,
as well as in other parts of Texas. The use of "cokes" was much rarer.


--Mike




-- 
Mike Godwin,     |"Les vrais paradis sont les paradis
mnemonic@eff.org | qu'on a perdus."
(617) 864-0665   | 
EFF, Cambridge   |          --Marcel Proust
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: davet@oddjob.uchicago.edu (Dave Thomas)
Subject: Re: Pommy consulate address/#
Organization: U. of Chicago, Astronomy and Astrophysics
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 15:45:41 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.012232.26873@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> jmwise@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu (Maine Yankee) writes:
>
>Could someone so kindly post the British Consulate's phone number
>and address for Chicago? Please? 

Try
 British Consulate General
 33 N Dearborn St
 Chicago Il 60602
 (312) 346-1810

-- 
David Thomas                        University of Chicago
davet@oddjob.uchicago.edu           Astronomy and Astrophysics
From: livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Great Britain as a malfunctioning democracy
Date: 14 Apr 92 04:59:06 GMT
Organization: sgi

In article <1992Apr13.111841.26803@hasler.ascom.ch>, kevinh@hslrswi.hasler.ascom.ch (kevinh) writes:
|> 
|> In article <jflm94s@zola.esd.sgi.com>, livesey@solntze.esd.sgi.com (Jon Livesey) writes:
|> |> 
|> |> There is no ANSI standard for political ideas, and democracy
|> |> isn't supposed to be a system for producing sensible ideas, but
|> |> rather one for letting people chose the ideas they want, no
|> |> matter how daft.   If only twenty percent voted Liberal Democrat
|> |> then their ideas may be sensible as you like, but popular they 
|> |> ain't.
|> 
|> But a party (LibDem) that should have received 116 seats in the Commons,
|> based upon the number of people who voted for them, and actually received 
|> 21 (3%) is not, IMHO, democracy.

Well that's the trouble, isn't it.   By saying that they "should" 
receive 116 seats in the Commons, you are assuming your conclusion.  
After all, what is the basic purposes of the election?   Is it to 
allow each constituency to choose who is to represent it, or is to
conduct a kind of national popularity contest with prizes for all?

Personally, I'd be pretty upset if my local Party-X candidate spent
a lot of time finding out about local affairs, and was duly elected
by and the othe voters in my constituency, and was then bumped out 
of Parliament to make room for some dink whose party just happened
to get 1% of the vote throughout the nation, but never put in the work
to get elected in any specific constituency.


|> |> You are perfectly correct when you say that third parties get 
|> |> short-changed under the present system, but that does not lead to
|> |> the conclusion that we ought to change the system just because
|> |> a third party has popped up.
|> 
|> That's not the point, as you well know. The point is that it took
|> over 300,000 votes to elect every LibDem MP, and around 40,000 to
|> elect every Tory MP - is that fair?

Is it fair that each US State has the same number of Senators?   Is it 
fair that the UK and Belgium each get one turn at the EC presidency?

jon.
From: firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Sponge bag
Date: 15 Apr 92 14:18:01 GMT
Organization: Software Engineering Institute

In article <1992Apr13.155752.2014@microsoft.com> frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney) writes:

>In my favorite novels, Forster, Sayer, Wodehouse, et al., I
>run into references to sponge bags. What are or were they?

Ah, my dear old sponge bag.  Bright orange it was, with a white cord
to close the end.  Wonder what became of it.

A sponge bag is a small soft waterproof bag in which you keep your
toothbrush, toothpaste, soap (in its own soapdish), and, of course,
your sponge.  When the Matron rings the bell at 0630, you leap out
of your hard, cold bed, run barefoot to the washroom, and open your
sponge bag... and dream of the day when your gentleman's gentleman
will open it for you, as you are doing your morning calisthenics on
the verandah, while below in the blue ocean the sponge divers are
plunging like seals, clad only in beauty and sunlight...
From: J.W.Harley@newcastle.ac.uk (Jon Harley)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Election Fraud by the Conservatives
Keywords: Poll Tax
Date: 10 Apr 92 14:55:39 GMT
Organization: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU

david@guadet.gr.osf.org (David George) writes:

>A dissapointed Labour voting friend of mine claims that "Labour was robbed" by  
>the poll tax.  He says Labour would have one but for the 'million Labour voters  
>who couldn't afford to register to vote".  In view of the 77.5% turn out is  
>there any truth in this ?
>
>David

The 77.5% turnout will be 77.5% *of those registered* to vote - not 77.5% of
the real adult population. So it's impossible to say. Certainly it was a
news story last year that the electoral roll was down by over a million, which
*is* odd given the increasing population.


/jon
   _________________________________________________________________
  / -- Jonathan Harley  ____   One cannot be precise and           //    //  //
 / J.W.Harley@ncl.ac.uk \bi/  still be pure.      --Marc Chagall  // // //////
/_x8504_____B2t+w-g+svrp \/ __________________________________///////////  //
From: spinoza@next03wor.wam.umd.edu (Prince Lev of the Domovoi)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
Date: 17 Apr 92 17:10:55 GMT

In article <1992Apr17.104030.6643@bsu-ucs.uucp> 00rdharringt@bsu-ucs.uucp  
(Rob Harrington) writes:
> In article <kujhdnINNtd@early-bird.think.com>, wark@think.com (Mark  
Warkentin) writes:
> > Here in beanytown lots of the locals use the word "tonic".  Anyone  
heard of
> > the usage elswhere?
> > -- 
> 
> For pop????
> 
> never... heard it used in terms like "gin and tonic" or "vodka and  
tonic"
> but never as a word for pop...
> 
> -- 
Gin and tonic, yes. But the otherdrink mentioned is a vodka tonic. No and  
is needed.


Ps. HAppy Easter/ Passover!
shalom,

lev

"Lo yisa goy el goy cherev, lo yilmedu od milchama...........until then,  
keep the Galil oiled and loaded........................................."
From: smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Election Fraud by the Conservatives
Date: 10 Apr 92 16:37:53 GMT
Reply-To: P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee)
Organization: University of Bristol

In article <PLUMMER.92Apr10085146@tulum.cs.swarthmore.edu> plummer@cs.swarthmore.edu (David Barker-Plummer) writes:
>
>Is that 77.5% of those on the roll, or 77.5% of the voting-age
>population.  

An obviously American question.  It's a bit of an oversimplification,
but in essence, over here, it's the Government's responsibility to make
sure that all eligible voters are registered; not like the States,
where if you don't go in and tell them about you, they don't care.  So,
to a very good approximation, if you are of voting age over here, and
the government is aware of your existence, you will be on the electoral
roll.

-- 
Paul Smee, Computing Service, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1UD, UK
 P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk - ..!uunet!uknet!bsmail!p.smee - Tel +44 272 303132
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: francis@oas.stanford.edu (Francis Muir)
Subject: Re: Any minority candidates?
Organization: Stanford Exploration Project
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 01:29:59 GMT

Ajai Banarji writes:


		ANY MINORITY CANDIDATES?

	I am interested in knowing how many minority candidates have been
	>put up by the major parties in this election. If I remember right, 
	there were a couple of Asians who won on a Labour ticket last time. 
	Have the Tories got round to picking any Asian or West Indian 
	candidates so far?

I am afraid it would make too much sense; the Tories no longer seem to have
the wit to do such a bright deed. My guess is that there is a reasonably
high proportion of black Asians who would fit very naturally into the
petit bourgeois milieu -- particulalrly in the North of England. Of course,
the way the Bank of England and the Thatcher Government handled the Bank of
Credit & Commerce matter was not likely to win them friends in that community.

						Francis Muir

francis@sep.stanford.edu
From: jim@cs.strath.ac.uk (Jim Reid)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: TORIES AND THE SELFISH,AROGANT ENGLISH
Date: 13 Apr 92 13:10:09 GMT
	<1992Apr13.101817.20250@newcastle.ac.uk>
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Strathclyde Univ., Glasgow, Scotland.
In-reply-to: Steve.Varty@newcastle.ac.uk's message of 13 Apr 92 10:18:17 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.101817.20250@newcastle.ac.uk> Steve.Varty@newcastle.ac.uk (Steve Varty) writes:

   We in the NE of England have suffered for years, and can understand
   why Scots are up in arms about the Tories win. However you must ask
   yourself why they won more seats in Scotland. Obviously many Scots
   are selfish too.

No doubt there are selfish Scots. However, the reasons why the Tories
gained two seats were increased support for the SNP and the collapse
of the LibDem vote. Granted, the Tory vote in Scotland went up 2-3%
and this was probably due to greed.

		Jim
From: gdb15@grebe.cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Great Britain as a malfunctioning democracy
Date: 14 Apr 92 19:19:00 GMT
Reply-To: gdb15@cl.cam.ac.uk (Guy Barry)
Organization: U of Cambridge Computer Lab, UK

In article <1992Apr14.160129.9946@bristol.ac.uk> P.Smee@bristol.ac.uk (Paul Smee) writes:

>(As a side note to this, Parliament occasionally expresses dismay at the
>way British football fans behave abroad, and wonders aloud where they
>got the idea that that was an acceptable form of public behavior.  My
>suspicion is that they learned it by watching televised Parliamentary
>debates.)

I'm afraid our football fans behaved like that long before Parliament
was televised (only two-and-a-half years ago, would you believe).  It's
far more likely to be the other way round.


--
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
Xref: sparky soc.culture.british:6039 soc.culture.celtic:3476
Organization: The American University - University Computing Center
Date: Friday, 10 Apr 1992 10:41:59 EDT
From: <SNEWMAN@auvm.american.edu>
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british,soc.culture.celtic
Subject: Results in Scotland

I am far away and cannot get results from Scotland. Could somebody
please post the percentage and seat results from Scotland along with
reactions? THANKS. If you can send me a message directly that would
be even better.
Saul Newman
SNEWMAN@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
From: koumis@husc4.harvard.edu (Anthony Koumis)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: election 92: LORD SUTCH'S RESULTS
Date: 14 Apr 92 22:02:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc3.1992Apr14.180226.11092
Organization: Harvard University Science Center

In article <1992Apr14.161555.22165@newcastle.ac.uk> w.p.coyne@newcastle.ac.uk writes:
>Screaming Lord Sutch of the Monster Raving Loony Party stood against 
>all three party leaders here are his results, with a few other candidates
>thrown in for comparison - notice how bady the Greens (a serious party) do.
>
>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

Out of curiousity, was #9 from the "forward to Mars" party?
I think I saw on the PBS link up to Independent News that he 
got 91 votes????








>
>Islwyn: 5 candidates
>            1st Neil Kinnock (Labour) 30,908
>            5th Lord Sutch (Loony)    547 
>
>Yeovil:  6 candidates
>            1st Paddy Ashdown (liberal Dem) 30,958
>            4th Jay Risbridger (Green)      639
>            5th David Sutch (Loony)         338 
>-----------------------------------------------------------
>...........................................................................
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: dbrooks@osf.org (David Brooks)
Subject: Re: Fill in the ___...  major, minor; maximus, ___, minimus
Organization: Open Software Foundation
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 13:40:25 GMT

In article <1992Apr4.055955.26554@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, ai888@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Thomas Flesher) writes:
|> 
|> Traditionally, in English public schools, if two brothers named, say, 
|> Smith are attending the school at the same time, they are distinguished 
|> as Smith major and Smith minor.

At Dulwich College, which had pretensions to public school status, the
school directory sidestepped this (maybe still does) by enumerating the
brothers.

And, because the directory was alphabetical, families with common names
were interlaced:
	Smith, A. C. (i)
	Smith, D. deB. (1)
	Smith, E. Q. W. Q. Q. (I)
	Smith, G. van der Z (2)
	Smith, J-M. (ii)
and so on.  This also carried the advantage that one family which sent 6
brothers to the school (4 contemporaneously) didn't fall off the Latin
lexicon.
-- 
David Brooks				dbrooks@osf.org
Systems Engineering, OSF		uunet!osf.org!dbrooks
April is the crullerist month: time to make the dougnuts.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
From: jgshir@athena.mit.edu (John G Shirlaw)
Subject: Re: Rampant paranoia (was Voting slips: what happens to them,DANGER!)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 1992 04:28:42 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.015816.2107@usenet.ins.cwru.edu>, esh2@po.CWRU.Edu (Evelyn S. Hlabse) writes:
|> 
|> In a previous article, jp@tygra.Michigan.COM (John Palmer) says:
|> 
|> >In article <1992Apr04.213121.8468@robobar.co.uk> gtoal@robobar.co.uk (Graham Toal "gtoal@vangogh.cs.berkeley.edu") writes:
|> >"
|> >"OK, what you missed (and haven't noticed any time you voted) is that
|> >"when you go to vote, they find your name in a large book.  [BYour name
|> >"has a number next to it.  You are given a voting form with that
|> >"number on it.  Therefore it is trivially easy to find out how you
|> >"voted.  Wht we Brits have stood for this blatant disregard for
|> >"democracy for so long never fails to surprise me.  The 'party line'
|> >"is that the information is needed to catch abuse of the voting system
|> >"where unscrupulous people may vote more than once or some such rot.
|> >"Doesn't make sense to me.  The names alone should be enough...
|> >"
|> >
|> >Got new for you: They do that here in the USA too. The good old 
|> >City of Detroit Election Commission has such books as do almost
|> >all other places that I know of.
|> >-- 
|> 
|> Same problem in Cleveland, Ohio.  When you vote in a primary you
|> have the option of voting for the issues as well as the party
|> candiates.  You must declare which party and the next time around
|> you get hassled (my term) if you switch party affiliation which some
|> do in the hope of putting a weaker candidate opposite the sure thing
|> candidate of the opposite party.  Sounds like things are much the
|> same on both sides of the Atlantic.
|> 

Not quite true for the UK... As I understand it the papers are sealed after
counting and then stored...The can not be looked at with out a court order so
unless fowl play is suspected and a good case can be made no one knows how
people voted...the only slips that can be looked at in the case of a court
order are those in question.  I forgotten how long the slips have to be kept
for.  So peaple are relatively safe...its a reasonable compromise between
keeping the votes secret and being able to sort out posible cases of fraud.

john.
From: etbc@levels.unisa.edu.au
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: RE: TORIES AND THE SELFISH, AROGANT(sic) ENGLISH
Date: 13 Apr 92 04:43:45 GMT
Organization: University of South Australia


clg308@vaxa.strath.ac.uk ( Andy - a true Scot ) wrote a long diatribe
about the downtrodden existence  of his fellow Scots. Most rubbish
deleted, except...

>FACIST(sorry conservative) goverment inflicted
  FASCIST government

>thier on.
 their own.

>The fact is as long of the people in England
 The fact is as long as the people in England

>reccession
 recession

>make the country and life for it's
			       its

>independance
 independence

>disaproval
 disapproval

>singed Andy(a true scot)
 ^^^^^^
 You have been!

>P.P.S This is ment to reflect the views of myself and other Scots
>so please don't clutter up any newsgroups with your flames.

What, and let you get away with it Scot (pardon the pun, or is
it punn?) free?

>If you have anything to say please e_mail me directly.

You obviously have nothing ( new ) to say, so don't bother
e_mailing me in any way at all.

Yours deprecatingly,
  Bill Cooper (An Englishman abroad for meteorological reasons).
-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|                                                                   |
|Bill Cooper - Digital Communications Group - Uni of South Australia|
|                                                                   |
|               Life? Don't Talk to me about Life                   |
---------------------------------------------------------------------
From: mmh@cs.qmw.ac.uk (Matthew Huntbach)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Natural Law
Date: 13 Apr 92 12:27:02 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept, QMW, University of London, UK.

From: skenny@nano.engr.mun.ca (Shawn Kenny)
>I saw an article on the CBC National News about the "Natural Law Party"
>with the company of the Maharishi, Doug Henning and George Harrison. I
>was wondering whether this was on the ballot and if so how many votes
>did it get from the populous?

It is extremely easy to get on the ballot in the UK. To get a
candidate on the ballot in any constituency, all you need is
the signatures of 10 of its electors. You also have to pay #500
which is returned if you get over 5% of the vote, but this was
clearly no problem for the Maharishi. I particularly liked the
Natural Law Party's policy on poverty "We will help the poor by
reducing tax on the rich since when the poor get rich they will
benefit too" :-) They got about 200 votes per constituency
where they stood. Winning candidates tended to get at least
20,000.

The best results for a small party, and so far as I can see
completely unreported in the press, were those obtained by "The
Liberal Party". Not to be confused with the Liberal Democrats,
this consists of members of the old Liberal Party, mainly from
its left wing, who refused to join in with the merger with the
Scoial Democrats. They stood in about 70 seats, in many places
getting 1000 or more votes, despite getting zero national
publicity. The fact that people were prepared to vote for these
rather than the Ashdown fan club is further evidence that Paddy
Ashdown is to blame for the poor third party results.

Matthew Huntbach
From: pwe@slipknot.mit.edu (Paul W. Emery)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Gas stoves
Date: 7 Apr 92 14:01:29 GMT
Organization: Massachvsetts Institvte of Technology


 In the UK the thermostats on  gas stoves (ovens)are calibrated in"Gas
marks"can somebody give me the equivalent of this in degrees
fahrenheit.My Mother's coming over here and if I'm going to get any
Yorkshire pud she's going to need to know.
 
Thanks
-- 
pwe@slipknot.mit.edu                  "  'ave a good time,all the time
Paul W. Emery                            that's my philosophy"
M I T Magnet Lab Cambridge Mass U.S.A.    -Viv Savage(dec)- Spinal Tap.
From: traub@rtf.bt.co.uk (Michael Traub)
Newsgroups: uk.politics,soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Simple message
Date: 9 Apr 92 07:52:14 GMT
Organization: BT Customer Systems, Brighton, UK

In article <1992Apr8.114317.5436@osf.org> sp@mirabeau.osf.fr (Simon Patience) writes:
>In article <1992Apr8.080132.8373@rtf.bt.co.uk>, traub@rtf.bt.co.uk
>(Michael Traub) writes:
>> >	Students rarely own houses, have wives and 2.2 children, etc.  It's
>> >difficult to extrapolate from the typically rather bizarre student patterns
>> >of expenditure to what people spend when they have responsibilities and a
>> >steady job.  How much do you think your expenditure on luxury goods would
>> >decline *now* if your income were slashed by 97%?
>> >
>> It wouldn't change at all. I have all the luxury goods I require already
>> (and I bought most of them while I was a student).
>
>I suspect that you are an exception. Most students can't afford luxury
>goods (and if they can then this is a good argument for getting rid of
>student grants!).
>

I never had a student grant. My father gave me $15 (AUS) a week to live on.
Rather than spending my money on alcohol or cigarettes I spent it on setting
up my Hi-Fi, piece by piece over four years.


-- 
Michael Traub
BT Customer Systems, Brighton Systems Centre. traub@rtf.bt.co.uk
From: wilcox@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british
Subject: Re: Oxford lore question
Date: 14 Apr 92 17:09:04 GMT
Organization: Oxford University VAXcluster

In article <1347@hydra.bucknell.edu>, jhill@coral.bucknell.edu (HILL, S JACKSON) writes:
> I saw a reference the other day to "Pop" Hall, Oxford.  I take it to be a
> nickname for one of the colleges.  If any one can enlighten me, please post
> here or e-mail.  Thanks.  
 It's not a current nickname. Where did you see it?
Stephen

>  jhill@bucknell.edu
> Message-ID: <13APR199212581766@coral.bucknell.edu>
> Organization: Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, USA
> News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Newsgroups: soc.culture.british