Jamie, this is in no way an attack on you, I thought more a thread to lighten the mood. We could also ask questions on subjects and you can give an opinion. A bit like a debating society?

I'll start:

"Pickled Onions"

Personally, I prefer the pickled onions my grandfather used to make, which has set me up for a taste that is sharper the better. That said, there is something to be said for the cocktail pickled silver skin onion, which I find has a nice delicate sweeter flavour.

Supermarket own brands are generally very good. But I'd recommend buying a load of jars, pickling vinegar and a s**t load of shallots, and doing what my Grandad did, perfecting the art of making the perfect pickled onion for his taste buds.

Phillip William Henry Norris, no longer with us, but f**k me he could pickle onions.

Well, Nick, I've been giving this some thought, and it appears that the answer is tricky, but the answer seems to be, that if you are 'a common sense bloke who says what he thinks, ordinary geezer chap' then the answers seems to be that a no, means yes, if

1) They are on your property, or you were invited onto their property.
2) They've been drinking
3) They're in a lower socio-economic class
4) They've had more sexual partners than you
5) Wearing insufficient clothes
6) Not wearing enough clothes
7) Knew you were a footballer
Owe you for dinner / drink / lift
9) Walking in 'the wrong part of town'
10) Engaged in physical contact with you, especially kissing
11) You play professional football
12) You work for the BBC in the 1970s.
13) They are Unconscious, and thus able to exactly say no.

These all seem to be current states where no actually means yes, and society will either take your word for it, accept you when you lie and say they did say yes, or at least make excuses for you.

I think its mostly a British thing. My missus had never heard of them in South Africa, or more criminally Pickled Onion Monster Munch. I can't imagine a world without access to pickled onions. Whilst I don't eat them often, I like to know they are always there when I want them.

The ploughman's dilemma, I would generally agree, with the silver skin hypothesis, provided they are five or more provided on the plate, with a good pickle.

Chip shop, always go large, and always get two. In fact I prefer to have pickled onion vinegar to malt vinegar on my fish and chips.