Gerard

But Russia do have nukes. Loads of countries are nuclear-armed, including the US, UK, France, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and South Korea. Iran and Syria are well on the way to joining that list, and Israel have never officially declared whether they are or not. The whole idea of a nuclear deterrent is that if any country DID launch an attack (for whatever reason), the attacked country (and its allies) can blow the shit out of them. It is impossible to wipe out all of the nuclear weapons of the country you are attacking without them (or their allies) attacking you. You would have to blow up every square inch of Russia, China, North Korea, Iran and Syria in one go, AND all of their ships and submarines, before they had a chance to launch any weapons back the US/UK/France/SK. Trust me, that is absolutely ludicrous and beyond impossible. So with Raybob as President, the entirety of the devloped world would go up in smoke. Sounds awesome D; Let's not mention the millions of innocent civilian lives that would die in ANY nuclear attack, and billions in a nuclear war. At least stick to trade sanctions (causing poverty, causing revolution) or army-on-army battles.

If Labour win this election, then they will know they are invincible. They will stop trying to please the public, and just do whatever they like. Even after two stupid wars, bankruptcy of the entire country, uncontrolled epidemics (foot-and-mouth, MRSA, swine flu), a crippled health service, cash-for-honours, an unelected Prime Minister and the expenses scandal, they still get re-elected? They might as well give a knighthood to everyone in their familes and kill everyone they don't like. At the very least, Labour need to lose to prove to ALL parties that they ARE accountable, and that we DO have a say in what they do. If Labour in, ALL parties will know they can ignore the public and do what they want. Out of the other parties, the Conservatives are the most democratic and have sensible ideas and clear policies. Other parties either live on disagreeing with whatever the government says (Lib Dems), or are just single-issue parties (eg the Greens, BNP, UKIP).

That wasn't a suggestion - that was just a problem you've observed. What's your suggestion to solve that? We know there are certain things that need to be tidied up since we've rearranged the forums, but obviously the staff here aren't full-time.

I've got a 2048x1152 resolution (and I sometimes rotate it to 1152x2048) so screen space isn't an issue for me. However, firefox has been buggy for a while now. I've disabled a few addons which have sped it up a bit though. I'm just not a fan of Chrome really.

As a bit of a festive surprise, we have a new staff member joining us. General Gaming Forum Boss Mpilk901 is our new Super Mod - so congrats to him. He's proven himself to be a thoughtful and useful Boss, and I think he'll be a great addition to the team. Hopefully he'll still continue to act as the Forum Boss for General Gaming - the first person to hold both Staff and Boss status. He is in fact our first ever Scottish staff member, so another first.

There are so many awesome welsh musicians and bands: Stereophonics, Lostprophets, The Autoamtic, Feeder, Super Furry Animals, Bullet, FFAF. Oh and Lloyd Daniels <3

Sounds like a good plan. I'm 30mins from London, so I'd probably vote for that! Bit of a bitch to get anywhere though, and to find a good place to eat or whatever, so maybe would be better someone smaller like Reading?

Free prescriptions should exist - it's just not something that should depend on how much money you have. The money to pay for that should come out of the unnecessary benefits that are currently being given to people who are technically "disabled" but able to work, and those who choose not to work or jobseek. Same with free education.

That's a good point, but remember that people aren't here forever. So someone might be here for a couple of years and be the most knowledgeable/helpful Classic-GTA person. But over time they're not going to be able to keep up the activity and helpfulness, so someone else would take over eventually. It's not really a massively prestigious award, compared to some of the others.

Rising sea levels means more saltwater, less ground for fresh rainwater to land, freshwater lakes turning into saltwater lagoons. Global warming theorietically means more rain, and pollution in the atmosphere is a catalyst for rain too. However, rising temperatures mean that water will be in much higher demand, especially in hotter parts of the world, and the cost of freshwater would probably end up rising (like oil) and thus wars start.

You say that like it's a bad thing or a secret side-effect of nationalised healthare. Yes, you have to pay tax instead of insurance. That's exactly how it works, and that's why it's good. People who earn more pay more tax. So the rich are paying for the poor's healthcare. That way everyone can get the treatment they need, irrespective of their income. That's the only fair way of doing it. It's not as if the taxes are horrific - its still a small percentage of income. Imagine a fabulously rich millionaire - 20% of his income would pay for the healthcare of thousands of people. As a result of it being nationalised, hospitals and doctors do NOT make a profit. They have a budget which they use to run. So no more moneygrabbing healthcare companies, you actually get what you pay for.

What? How is that terrorism? He didn't terrorize anyone. He didn't try to scare people into changing their beliefs or government. He hacked US military computers to try and find evidence of UFOs and aliens. The fact that the computers were in another country doesn't make it terrorism. Bear's point is that he is British, and he commited the crime whilst in Britain, so he should be tried in Britain according to British laws and receive British punishments. Just because some of the targets were American does not mean he should be deported to the States and be tried under US laws in a US court and receive American punishments. He is a Briton - American law does not apply here (as much as many yanks would like to think it does).

I'm Gerard Boyers, so always pretty close to the start. Although at one school there was a time when 50% of the people on the register began with a B.

I disagree. Pinning topics can make them less visible, because they're always there, people just overlook them. If it's at the top of the recent-topics list, then it's always there and people see it keep coming up. Pinning is good for topics that you need to be at the top of the list when they don't have recent posts.

Japan is a lot smaller than Afghanistan, never mind all those countries put together. Oh let's not forget that half of those countries could fight back pretty effectively, wiping out most of the US at the press of a button. Missile interception is so sensitive now, that if the US launched some atomic missiles, Russia could launch lots long before the US missile got there. Missile interception is advanced but unproven, so millions would die on both sides.

@Raybob The popular vote is not quite as good as you may think. The public react to spin and the media a lot, and there's no way that the "real" facts can be communicated clearly every time to every single voter without someone twisting them. Of course not everyone would vote, but even so it only takes one dodgy newspaper article or blog or TV show to change the result. One celebrity says "vote yes" and millions follow suit because they believe the one-sided argument they hear. Referenda are best to be used occasionally when there can be a lot of media coverage - one a month would be stupid. That thesis sounds pretty good, but I'm sure there are a thousand theses in scientific journals that convincingly explain the opposing view. This is a good example of where one side of the story is so convincing that you don't feel the need to listen to the other side. In truth there is a big 'maybe' over global warming, and the chances are that no estimates will be right, but I really don't think it's as devastating as the media/government are making out. The language issue is also annoying. Some road signs in Britain are actually written in Polish as well as English, in areas of high immigration. We need to cater for multicultural visitors, and enable immigrants to learn English. Nothing more than that. Both the US and UK have strong Christian histories, and our laws and traditions are Christian in nature, but that doesn't necessarily mean that we need to continue to be Christian to keep those. However, I'd much rather everyone become Christian than another religion; such as the Muslim Sharia law which keeps getting pushed for integration into British law. If they want a muslim country, go to a muslim country. This country is different because of its Christianity and its history. You can't really say "bomb them all". It's not as if everyone in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran, Russia, China and North Korea are terrorists or evil. Sure the governments may be evil, and lots of freedom-fighters and religious extremists may be terrorists, but you can't just bomb the entire countries without killing millions of innocent civilians. That would be evil. The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK works pretty well, although since it isn't profit-making, it doesn't have much money. It's just a case of where anyone who is ill gets treated, paid for by tax - and it's such a simple system. Yes it means the people who work are paying for the people who can't, but that's an acceptable amount of state welfare. Having companies who refuse to treat people based on their credit rating, and poor families forced to spend thousands of dollars on basic medical treatment is evil. Just replace insurance+profit with tax, and you'd wipe out a lot of the greed in the system, and it would be massively fairer. As for gun ownership, it's very simple. In the US gun crime is a problem, in the UK it is not. Sure, organised criminals have guns, but that's about it (and has nothing to do with the law). Even the police do not carry guns here - and the specialist armed response units very rarely fire any shots. Guns do NOT help civilised society. However, they are necessary in the US because everyone else has one.

[EN] I think it is acceptable to post in English if you're having trouble translating certain words. If you're not quite fluent in a language, this is a great place to learn it directly from natives, rather than textbooks and translators. Lots of people have learned English on TGTAP, so now let's help people learn other languages, and if they need to say a few words in English to make that work, then there's no massive problem.

The BNP is a silly party, however they are tapping into a legitimate public concern. People think that this country is going to the dogs, that it's being overrun by immigrants who are let in for no reason and given benefits & housing completely free. In reality, immigrants are a vital part of our economy. They provide stimulation and competition in our Capitalist culture, and many immigrants are willing to work cheaply in crap/demeaning jobs. However, this does mean there is extra competition for jobs, and there is a strain on resources such as housing and healthcare. I personally think we should slow down immigration and sort out the country. We can grow when we're ready, and right now we aren't. I also think that there should be stricter criteria for entry - such as professional skills. I think immigrants coming here to work is great, but coming here to live off our state welfare is just rude. The UK can't be the home of the entire world - if they wanted our governance and lifestyle, then they shouldn't have claimed independence from us. There are some silly policies in place, such as that they don't have to pay tax, and yet they get more/better benefits more easily than most people who have paid tax in the UK all their lives. Doesn't really add up to me. The most annoying thing is that if anyone says "no more immigrants", they are branded as racist. This stops the main political parties from taking a stand, and leaves actually-racist parties like the BNP to take the votes, which would make things much worse down the line.

My heritage is very mixed. I am half English/Scottish and half Pakistani, with some Welsh, Norse (Viking) and a few other types of blood in me. I was born in the UK and I've (almost) always lived here. I also know that both the Pakistani and Scottish lines of me are Royal - the Khans and Lockhearts. Thomas - that's quite bizaare, I grew up between York and Newcastle, and now live in Reading!

So it goes up to 2010 - what happens then? The game ends? People play the game at different speeds. Some people just hurry through the storyline and never play again. Some people hurry through the storyline then continue playing and RPing for years (like me). Some people just play slowly and don't bother with the storylines. So if you played it quickly, and it got to 2010, would you be stuck in 2010? Cos you'd miss out on all the 1910 stuff after the first few missions (unless you replayed and lost everything).

I personally disagree with a lot of labour policy, and prefer a lot of conservative policy (and methods). However, I don't identify my political views as being conservative (republican) - I'm certainly liberal and democratic, but it doesn't always align like that. The politicians themselves are all boring talentless lawyers (except Boris Johnson). So this year I would vote Conservative. I know a few labour politicians, and they are all absolute twats. One ex-councillor I know is the most arrogant person ever, and actively hates everyone who disagrees with him, and has launched personal vendettas on people including myself. He is the main reason I would not vote Labour. He got beaten by the BNP at the following election, which just shows how shit he really is.

A few of you have voted for two people for one award - you'll need to edit your nominations or they will be ignored. GTA Awards Most Knowledgeable (GTA Portables): Most Knowledgeable (Classic GTAs): Most Knowledgeable (GTA 3 Era): Most Knowledgeable (GTA IV Era): Most Knowledgeable (Modifications): Best Member Awards Most Respected Member: Urbanoutlaw Most Respected Staff Member: Best Forum Boss: Mpilk901 Most Helpful Member: Most Intelligent Member: Best Debater: Highest Quality Posts: Most Improved Member: Spider-Vice Best New Member of 2009: Random Awards Funniest Member: Spaz Biggest Geek: Chris82 Most Original Username: Urbanoutlaw Most Missed Member: 888ball Member You'd Most Want to Meet: Sherman Creative Awards Best Avatar: Best Signature: Best Graphics Designer: Best Creative Writing:

What political goals do you believe in? Most people sit in a grey area of the policial spectrum, not completely agreeing with any specific ideology (such as conservatism). So where do you draw the line, what do you believe? This poll is completely party-neutral and country-neutral. However, reply with which political parties you support in your country. If you have any more suggestions for the poll, just add them in a reply.

It's very clear why the Americans want him to be extradited. If he was tried in his own country, that would set a very dangerous precedent for Chinese and Russian hackers. If Gary has a legal right to be tried in his own country, then the US will never get their hands on any foreign hackers ever. This never was about what Gary did, it's about what the commies are doing.