Quite. Here in the UK the convention is that no Parliament may be bound by its predecessors, with the actual effect that we can change our "constitution" with a simple majority vote in the Commons. Considering the power of the party whips, and the tendency to one-party rule, we do effectively have an elected dictator.

Less so this time round, with the coalition, but even they have shown they can change the constitution with a simple majority vote and are willing to do so without an explicit mandate.

Of course. They don't bring it to your house and demand money with menaces! The Royal Mail is craftier than that; they don't tell you what it is until you pay up.

Here in the UK it's the recipient who normally pays. Every election some idiot candidate sends out leaflets with insufficient payment, so their potential voters have to pay to receive propaganda.

The Pope is German. Not that I think that helps much.

Some of us live in Europe, you insensitive clod!

It's all very well for you to get preachy sitting in a safe western home*. I should imagine the people living in poverty in Asia, Africa, and some parts of South America and Europe would all much rather we put our resources towards giving them a reasonable existence than this my-rocket-car-is-bigger-than-your-rocket-car nonsense.

*Ok, this is an assumption, but you're on Slashdot so it seems a fairly reasonable one.

I have no idea what you're talking about. BBC wheeled out Flight 9 every hour of the airspace closure.

It is an interesting point though. European regulations, intended to stop airlines leaving passengers in the lurch because they over-booked a flight, have made airlines the insurers of last resort for people stranded due to natural disaster. The airlines have incurred a lot of costs, not just on lost business but also on having to pay for accommodation and food for their passengers while they've been stranded. They're also liable for reasonable alternative means of transport. There's a nice summary on the BBC.

While this is nice for passengers, the airlines themselves have no-one to lean on. As this is an act of God, the insurance won't pay out. The government closed the airspace, and is the normal insurer of last resort for natural disasters (see Chile, Haiti etc.). While the summary rags on "greedy airlines", this is not the fault of an airline having mis-judged its margins but an unprecedented restriction on normal business. I think that there is a good case, in moral terms, for at least having the EU refund the costs brought on by passenger rights legislation.

I'm not crticising the government for closing the airspace either, to clarify, I have nowhere near enough knowledge on volcanos or jet engines to form an opinion. I just think that we should note that the airlines have been forced into an uncomfortable, and I think unjust, position.

I'm working the UK and have a psuedo-relevant experience myself. I'm an Engineer and it is explicitly stated in my contract that I must work towards chartership (IChemE). The company pays for professional membership for all of its employees, but we're expected to study and work on it in our own time.

A lot of people are complaining about SMS being expensive. I suspect this poster is in the UK or EU, but here in the UK an unlimited SMS plan costs the same as a data plan on most carriers and contracts (3 being the possible exception).

A data plan is only useful really if you have a smartphone. 1GB of WAP browsing? Thanks but not thanks. People here are still more likely to have a large or unlimited text allowance than a data plan, though that probably won't continue for much longer with the explosion of smartphones.

Spoken like someone who's never had to use Windows ME.

It's over London now, entirely unnoticeable here.

"Volunteer efforts" are a part of the market too. You just mean paid-for.

In my personal experience, it's the paid-for ones that are substandard. I've seen MacAfee corporate bring the entire office grinding to a halt.

It's pretty easy to second-guess; the Liberal Democrats haven't even bothered to campaign. I've had four letters and a leaflet from the Tories and a letter and a leaflet from Labour, but nothing from the LDs.