[alantf]

By the way, the name's Alan. The tf is the licence plate code for Tenerife. I use that as a computer name because every time I tried to use just alan the computer would tell me that it was taken. Same with my e-mail. My second name's maxfield, so I wanted to use madmax, but it wouldn't let me, so I use madmaxtf.

As for the "homo" thing, it's just that I was citing the things that the political animals are telling us we must accept, same as tree hugging, veggie, whale saving, black, lesbian. I'm not saying it's all bad, but I'm sick of having every nutter's crackpot ideas forced down my throat.

One of the craziest things in England is that you're not allowed to smoke in any public building, such as bars, restaurants, workplaces (even company cars, even if no one else ever gets in them) yet if you want to take drugs in the same premises the police will turn the other way.

As for the pollution problems you have, yes, I didn't realise they were so bad, but surely, if the emission controls that are in place are having such a small benificial effect, doesn't that show that they're wrong. If, after such drastic measures as you describe, there is still a problem, surely there must be someone who can come up with a solution. Moving slightly away for a moment, England had real problems in the 1950s with smog (SMoke/fOG) The problem was that most of the houses had coal fires, & the smoke was polluting the atmosphere so much that we called them "pea soup" because it was so thick you could nearly cut it. The solution was to force all the coal merchants to sell only smokeless fuel. The problem was solved at a stroke. I know (think!) that this is not the problem in your area, but if it's as bad as you make out, surely someone can come up with a better idea than, for example, cannisters on bikes that can make only the most minute difference.