I've said all along that Boris is a media clown - he's not even a competent politician, much less a statesman. He's way out of his depth , but I don't think responsibility lies with him alone. Our PM doesn't have the autonomy of a president, and big decisions are more of a collective issue. I think it just shows that the standard of our political leaders is horribly inadequate, and they can't seem to see further than their own noses. Sadly a large part of the electorate seem similarly blighted, which is why he's there in the first place. Never has an image more completely summed up a man - dangling impotently in mid-air, waving his plastic flags... please log in to view this image
Him and biden have somehow managed to continue the trump slide towards international distrust. Rather than rebuild alliances and NATO's they have managed to against drive china to redouble its fleet building exercises and drive a massive wedge into the nato alliance that was already opened by trump.
Now I've become a Grumpy Old Man I realise the reason why there are so many of us. When I was young, I innocently expected the world to be on a trajectory of continuous improvement - it's just one of the many mistakes my younger self made.
Easily done, that's just the false narrative of history that suffers under the illusion that it, and us, will only get better and always be moving towards refinement, advancement and positive change. If I met my younger self I'd probably give him a good slap.
Maybe I'm just not old enough yet, but I think the world does tend to get better. If you look at stats, the.amount of crime is continually getting lower. Even the poorest people have more now than they did generation ago. There are more freedoms , etc. Some things get worse, but I think the world gets better over time. I get happier as I age too.
Think of all the kids who voted for Corbyn v may and vanished once corbyns crappyness became clear. They all expect and get dissappointed and disillusioned
Don't believe the hype. More people in prison (you should know this living in the planets largest prison system. You have less than 5% of the global population yet 25% of the inmates ) The gap between rich and poor grows wider and wider and the west bombs the **** out of anyone in the way . You also have 600,000 homeless folk and state snooping is at an all time high. Snowden has confirmed our worst suspicions.
Even the media are stuffed with images of war, disaster etc, so I'm unsure how anyone would believe the world is actually improving. There's technological advancement, of course, and that brings a certain improvement in some areas but my comment was more about social responsibility and political stability.
The only things I'd tell a younger me are the lottery numbers and the importance of pensions and investments Young people never listen but there you go. Back to the future ii right. Old grays almanac, or what have you, with all the results.
For about 18 months in the 80's I paid an extra £50 a month into my pension as a voluntary contribution, then got married and could not afford it anymore so stopped. That bit of my pension will now give me about £1800 a year plus a lump sum, not fantastic but just shows what putting spare cash into a pension when you are young can add up to 35/40 years later.
Imo something people have to learn themselves and something's they need to be told about. People need to learn how to treat other people well and interact. But things like the power of compound interest is a shame to go oh wish I'd known that.
Tbf schools need to teach more about finances at secondary school. Can’t remember the last time I used my knowledge of ox bow lakes, but would have been handy to have some sort of knowledge on credit cards, pension info and mortgages before I needed to get one.
Very true. It's quite dry stuff in business studies or what have you accounting and economics. The best universities lecturer I had was a craft wearing southern twat and a toff. He taught no decent modules and the real top lecturers really stuck to the course. That guy taught us how to make a hydrogen explosion in a biscuit tin and the power of compound interest. Random stuff he showed how much a bank would take on a 20 year 100k mortgage. 400k in npv I wish he'd have done more on pensions and investments. I cant even really what his actual modules were. I can remember our alcoholic higher.maths lecturer and our Beardy tweed jacket wearing thermodynamics guy and of course the trying to hard to be cool dynamics guy.
What is an average house though? 3 bedroom 1800sqft in an estate or 4 bedroom 2400sqft on half an acre. The former would be about £150k where I am now the latter about £225k. Of course, houses are much cheaper over here... A lot fewer requirements they have to meet, etc... Most aren't brick, they're the vinyl siding kind.
