billybudd

They are both good machines although the blu-ray player in the PS3 is excellent and you can watch BBC iPlayer through your PS3 if it's a UK version (serial number should end in a 3). I have a PS3 because I've always been a PlayStation boy but you need to know that both machines can fail. XBoxes can die with RROD - red ring of death - but I think Microsoft, to its credit, gives a 3 year warranty against this from date of purchase, not manufacture. Some PS3s have also died with YLOD - yellow light of death - Sony won't repair it for free and charges more than £140 to fix it. It was shamed on Watchdog a few weeks ago. I have yet to see any meaningful stats on failure rates for both machines. But you won't regret buying a PS3. You can upgrade the hard drive very easily on the old phat PS3 - I popped in a 320GB HD in mine and it works like a dream. Took 5 minutes and one screwdriver! Dunno how easy it is on the new machines. You may still get a very good price on the old 80GB phat model as stores look to get rid of old stock. Check out hotukdeals.com for any user posted deals (Costco was knocking out the 80GB for £144 or so a few weeks ago - all gone now!) or the Argos clearance store on Ebay.

I have spent my whole working life in PR and politics and have also been thinking about how to get this shower out and get Justice candidates in. There's never been a better time to make this happen - the public mood is fed up with the traditional party system and there are already calls for an non-political party era to emerge from the expenses mess. It costs £500 for a non-returnable deposit to stand as a prospective MP - you lose the money if you don't poll 5% of the vote, which wouldn't be an issue here. Candidates just need to be nominated by 10 electors of the constituency they want to stand in, again this wouldn't be an issue. My thinking was that there's already an army of skills out there - lawyers to help with the legal status of setting up any new party, accountants to make sure there's no issue with the financial standing, printers to help with leaflets, PR, journalists, people to help with canvassing, etc Like I said, it's something that has been on my mind since the anniversary though I haven't approached anyone and anything like this would need HJC support/blessing. Single issue candidates have been successful before - Martin Bell on his anti-sleaze ticket and Richard Taylor, who kicked out a junior Labour minister in 2001 with a majority of 18,000. His issue? Keeping his local hospital open. As mentioned in an earlier post, who would you and your family vote for next year if given the choice of a Justice candidate?