Tim McVeigh wrote:
No one's going to read zig-zag posts, you're wasting your time.
Please tell me, in my time remaining, how to copy text from latimes.com (without sending html) and I will learn. Meanwhile, be glad I'm not choating the list with meaningless urls and emptier comments.
By using edit commands to "s/ / /" then word-wrapping it like this off-topic post quoted from latimes.com merely as an example (and for the silly Thatcher comment - she is so widely hated that Labour were putting her on their ads!): LONDON--Britons voted in bright sunshine on Thursday in an election that opinion polls forecast would make Prime Minister Tony Blair the first Labour leader to win two successive full terms of power. Polls predicted a landslide victory for Blair despite dire warnings from Conservative icon Margaret Thatcher that Britain was headed for an "elective dictatorship" if Blair was returned to office with another big majority. Some bookmakers even paid out on a Labour victory days before the 45 million electors started making their choice. Voting was to end at 10 p.m. (5 p.m. EDT) and the result was expected early on Friday. The bitter campaign debate over Britain's membership of the euro, opposed by the Conservatives, hung over election day. The pound buckled to its weakest levels against the dollar in 15 years as uncertainty swirled around Blair's intention to lead the country into European economic and monetary union. Sterling also fell to two-week lows against the euro for the second day running. Investors bet that a hefty majority for Labour would give the government a green light to join monetary union sooner rather than later. Analysts say sterling needs to be lower than current levels to join the euro, the currency of its main trading partners. Apathy was the big danger for Blair, who has pushed his party from the left wing toward the center of British politics while the Conservatives have edged further to the right. When Blair swept to power in 1997, the turnout was 71.5 percent -- the lowest figure since World War Two. BIG LABOUR MAJORITY FORECAST The latest polls forecast that Blair's majority in the 659-seat House of Commons would be bigger than the 179 he garnered in 1997 to end 18 years of Conservative rule. Blair's northern England constituency of Sedgefield was bathed in sunshine when voting began. Among the first to vote was 61-year-old William Maughan who said: "I voted for Tony because I have always voted Labour and he's trying to get the country on its feet. There are a lot of things to put right and you can't do it all at once." In the adjoining constituency of Richmond, ironically held by Conservative Party leader William Hague, the 30 voters who turned up in the first hour were outnumbered by the media awaiting Hague's arrival. Local milkman Colin Graham said: "If a pig was put up around here he would get in for the Conservatives. Nobody votes Labour. If they do, people think they are a bit odd." Hague fought a dogged campaign to "save the pound" and stop Britain adopting the euro -- but pollsters predicted the party of Thatcher and Winston Churchill, which dominated 20th century politics, could be heading for oblivion in the new millennium. There were forecasts that if the Conservatives did badly, Hague -- reported to have come within seconds of a mid-air collision in his campaign helicopter -- could be replaced. During the campaign, politicians were accused of fighting a lacklustre battle short on contact with "real people." John Prescott, Blair's portly and pugnacious deputy prime minister, provided the only spontaneous spark when he felled with a left jab a protester who hurled an egg at him. Blair and Hague sought to seduce the voters from diametrically opposed corners. Hague argued: "The battle lines are very clear. A re-elected Labour government, by hook or by crook, will scrap the pound." Blair, who has promised a referendum on the thorny currency issue within two years, retorted: "The issue of the euro is not the issue for this election." For the crucial swathe of middle-class voters in England, the burning issues were better schools, better hospitals and a better police force. As always, the economy was the big battleground and here Blair could play his trump card -- unemployment and inflation are at their lowest for a generation. Like former U.S. president Ronald Reagan, Blair has become a "Teflon leader," to whom bad news refuses to stick. He has maintained his popularity despite a popular revolt against fuel prices, severe flooding, a disastrous public transport network and a foot-and-mouth epidemic which delayed the election for a month.