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Im a unionist with a  small u, I vote alliance, but admit if I was in a seat that was touch and go between a republican and unionist candidate, i would transfer my vote to the unionist candidate because while i believe in sharing power/co-operation etc, i want that to be done in the context of northern ireland remaining in the united kingdom.

If the majority of the people of N. Ireland of course wanted a UI then i would obviously abid by that decision. So that sort of sets the scence to what sort of unionist i am (garden centre unionist maybe).

What would a UI offer to me, would there be any benefits to reunification, surely nationalists/republicans can make some sort of case for a UI that offers something to the average prod/unionist, after all if you want to acheive it you'd get there a damn site quicker if you can convince/persuade the likes of me to swop allegiances.

TBH i can see several disadvantages, but i've never seen much in the way of persuasive arguments which held any benefits (for the likes of me, as some on here like to label me).
NI has a heavy reliance on the public sector, we are presently a small region of the UK which isn't to much of a drain on the public purse, but in the context of a UI we would be an enormous drain and huge numbers of public sector jobs would have to go due to duplication.
We have a NHS which despite the media is still held in the highest regard by people, thats just a few.

We would also become a significant minority, would our rights and ability to express our culture be properly protected in a UI??

Can anyone make the case, or is it a UI for republicans only.

I was going to post this question in the religion thread but i thought it might get lost in amongst all the other stuff about peados etc.

I was wondering what is the purpose of religion/worship does god get excited about how many people sing to him on a Sunday or is it more about they way god wants us to live our lives (as good people presumably).

Take for instance a person living somewhere like the amazon rainforest who has never had any contact with the outside world and knows nothing of god/Jehovah/Christ yet they live out their life without sin, they don't steal, they don't murder, the treat others like they would like to be treated etc, basically all the things would be expected from the teachings of the bible everything bar the singing on a Sunday.

Despite leading this perfect life and without the need for the carrot/incentive of eternal life held out as part of Christianity would they being going to hell?

Im in the market for a new console, thought long and hard about xbox vs ps3, i love the idea of a blue ray player but at the end of the day i want a console and the xbox seems to shade it on the game front (online and number available).

I've seen what i reckon are to decent deals, a 250GB with forza 3 and 2 controllers for £225 and a 120Gb with forza 3, modern warfare 2 and one controller.
My natural inclination is to pay more and go for the larger harddrive but seeing as Microsoft don't want/allow you to save music films on it and instead want you to stream from a PC or download from them im struggling to see the advantages of paying extra for the larger harddrive.

Anyone have a convincing case for the more expensive larger hard drive version??