pluk

Unfortunately the idiotic views of the BNP and their ilk have tarnished whole swaths of political points of view with the brush of racism, extremism and Nazism. It seems to me it's not possible to have any meaningful opinion or debate about immigration (among many other things) without being labelled racist by someone somewhere. Politicians know this so keep quite about and do not act on things which need to be disused and fixed. What does this do? Leaves people with concerns about those things with no one to turn to other than the BNP, so they grow in popularity even though they are a bunch of ridiculous racist halfwits.

Probably dumb ass question time, but what is that cottagey looking building with a massively steep pitched roof in the background?

The ride hardware itself (river, boats etc) is sound for a kids ride and doesn't need to go anywhere. It's just everything around it that is shockingly awful, it could be replaced with pretty much anything and be an improvement.Decent ideas are no good without a budget, decent budgets are no good without ideas. I don't know where they should go with it but something should be done and soon. It's an embarrassment to the park as it stands, even without knowledge of it's former glory.

Nice report, never been to Wicksteed and probably never would if it wasn't for those Nautic Jets but I need to try them. It's now on my to do list.Please tell me they are not for children only? Are adults allowed on?

I think the short answer is no, nothing else in the UK is up to the level of it's type to be the barrier of expectation when it comes to coasters. Air is actually my favourite flyer I've ridden, I think the pace and forcefulness of it suits the type perfectly, much better than the bigger US ones I've ridden. But I could improve air greatly without touching the track; flying through a bare concrete tunnel and over a corrugated tin roof is not the pinnacle of anything, so the best it could be - no.But with dark water/rides I'd throw in opening spec Valhalla as the yardstick to perfection (maybe it still is, I've not been for a few years but have heard bad things about it's upkeep recently). It was absolutely amazing, I don't really see how it could be bettered in any way.

Going back to work tomorrow after 26 days leave sucks. I'm so out of the routine, and don't want to get back into it.

And a bit more non info from the bloghttp://disneyparks.d...t-disney-parks/Hmmm, not an Avatar fan myself, thought it was dumb pretentious crap (Unobtainium? F**k off, and if I can correctly guess the end of a film about an hour before it happens then I don't think anyone has tried hard enough really).I think it's a massive bad move. Avatar may have been a big film, but it is not like Star Wars/Tours, Indie, Harry Potter etc in that they have gone on for ages and people have grown up with them so really care about the characters. Anyone even name an Avatar character? Or remotely give a crap about what happens to any of them? Probably not.Will be interesting to see where they go with it though (or if they run out of money and change heir minds). Just a shame Disney doesn't have the confidence in anything they are producing at the moment to create major park experiences which open to coincide with the release of the picture, rather than a few years after even the inevitably less successful sequels have been released (this, cars).

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/09/avatar-coming-to-disney-parks/http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/09/answering-your-questions-about-avatar-at-disney-parks/Hmmm, not an Avatar fan myself, thought it was dumb pretentious crap (Unobtainium? F**k off). Will be interesting to see where they go with it though (or if they run out of money and change heir minds).EDIT - just seen this is already in 'news', so I've gone there. This won't delete though for some reason, if any clever mod can do the honours? Ta.

I've been a massive Dr Who fan for years, but suddenly and surprisingly find myself not caring any more.I think Matt Smith is a great Dr, but the writing feels formulaic and it just does not hold my attention at all. I haven't even watched the last couple of episodes and I don't care at all.

This is amazing news!!!!

And you may like them but I see MCR as untalented idiots who can't make music so they make noise instead.Just because you do or don't like something does not mean you are correct - it means it is your opinion.EDIT - Yep, what Ryan said. I'm too slow.

Agree. I'll go for quality over quantity. I love a lot of what Thorpe do and there's a great variety of mazes, but what Alton does it it does better. Terror of the towers is consistently the most complete scare attraction I've been in.

I love The Saturdays. And what?

I watch plenty of TV, although I have an awareness of the name I have no idea who this lot are. Having just read a little about them I'm glad I don't know them.Why do people look up to and aspire to be like 'celebs' who are famous for the sake of fame and have no discernible talent? Beyond me.

I've only just started using twitter and don't really understand what the hell is going on, but I got retweeted by CoaserForce this morning. Exciting!!!

*except X / X2, which has been there for years. Just because it is also 4D that does not make it any less of a winged coaster.Does look good though.Why are they getting a taller longer coaster built in more difficult terrain for £12.4m when Swarm costs £20m (if the published costs are correct)?

Vying for number one place in my most hated advert list comes Haribo, which is number 1 after only a couple of views. Shocking.Seriously, it's Wilkinson Sword and Natural Juice Co things from now on.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-14755678Good news, considering.

Not been tagged in any more since we did this in chat. So it's the same one.

Full opening....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-14743747Calling everything that is a little bit high an 'eye' really gets on my tits. Otherwise, it's got to be good. Was a run down mess when I visited a few years back, I look forward to seeing the improvements for myself.

New series of Celebrity Juice starts tomorrow night. Shaa-ting!!

Just daydreaming about how a beautiful wooden monster would really suit this rustic sort of area, sharing a lifthill with a redesigned flume perhaps. Mmmmmm.

Went for the first time (that I remember, think I went years ago) last week. Overall quite impressed, but then I was very very drunk at the time. Musings:Was a lot longer than I expected, a good couple of hours, which with bogof vouchers I'd call good value.A rat ran across my hand at the till - nice touch!The actors throughout were quite spectacularly good, made it really atmospheric, involving and entertaining. They stayed 100% in character even while dealing with stupid wandering guests.The batching system didn't quite work out. We ended up being part of three groups in the end, you'd think they'd know exactly how many to batch together to fit in each section.Loved the boat ride, quite unexpected and fun.Vengeance was better than I expected, I agree with the pointless gun grumblings but can see why they've done it like that. It's obviously a tight fit time wise and if everyone was messing about comparing scores there'd be a big back up. But the disorienting spinning with the 3d works quite well, feels like it could do with a bit more theming around the room though to link between the screens.Extremis was brilliant, was expecting so much less from it as it looks quite small, but is very forceful and the loose fitting lap bar means some major out of seat time was had.Some of the scenes were seemed a bit pointless and didn't really go anywhere, but they were in the minority.It's all quite tongue in cheek and deliberately funny in many places (especially the court room), I know it's a family attraction but I think it could be a little bit out and out scary at times, maybe some more things to make you jump. Some of the models and props looked a little tired/amateurish, think it would be a fairly small spend to tart them up a bit.Both entrance and extremis photos were very well done, so we bought them both. Shame there was no email/digital copy option.Lots of stuff I can't remember, mainly due to the drinking. Overall we had a great time and I'll be going back sober to see if is actually that good.

More a mishap than accident, but I can think of better ways to spend a couple of hours than hanging sideways for a couple of hours in Skegness.....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-14723194Updated, turns out there were injuries, one serious.

As a museum type of place it looks like it is a good day out, but I don't understand the short-sightedness of their money grabbing tactics. If they said it cost £x to enter and this was enough for them to cover their costs and make their profit guest would know where they stood, relax and enjoy themselves. Instead they trick you there with a low headline price and slowly fleece you throughout the day stressing you out. No matter how good the attraction is it's going to leave you with a bitter taste in your mouth and strongly dissuade you from returning.