Just got home and first thing I see is this. Take care mate, be strong and remember the good times. My thoughts are with you at this difficult time.
Sorry to hear that - take care Pete and hope tomorrow goes as painlessly as possible given the circumstances. All the best.
Good luck Pete and good to read your stuff ... I have been told in the past that I need join in etc and honestly after many many years I can proudly say I have stood firm on my views ... not being pig headed ... I have pondered a lot having had a few life events that of course shape you ... but I can no longer watch TV for any length of time as its the source of most that has gone wrong with this country. People are brainwashed and this latest episode with the Queen is nothing but a emotional load of ****. On the subject of the Royals they have never done anything for me, they say nothing about what I believe in and in fact its an excuse for people to talk with a different twang. What a ****ing mess the UK is .... Her majesty ... Resplendent in her own glory while many are on the bread line ... where does the money come from for this? 13 Million Quid a year from us and a published worth of 50 billion ... most know its more like over 200 billion ... This Royal industry does bring in an estimated 20 billion ... its all sums BUT ... Imagine if she was to make a statement that the rich must all give £250 per head poverty tax immediately? ... that may help the people in real need ... instead they are allowed to spend it on extra food, more food , silly hats and flags, more food, flags for the car, more food, jubilee outfits, parties.... Jubilee merchandise and of course more food. Stupid lost people
Dave! I am with you 100% here. If I am watching TV and the English royals come on, I switch the channel or turn it off immediately. Same with Norwegian and other Royals. The whole concept makes me want to I don't see that they have any function other than to show meaningless pomposity, and live lives at our expense as out of touch with reality as they themselves choose them to be. The money they bring in to the UK from tourism could be brought in many other more pleasant and constructive ways - like for instance shutting them all up in the Tower in hospital corridor ward conditions, and increasing the entrance fee there for the pleasure of seeing them enjoy NHS standard hospitality.
I just find the thought of a President, someone like Tony Blair for instance, infinitely more puke inducing than the Queen/Charles/William...
When Elizabeth became Queen sixty years ago, the people in real poverty were thin. Nowadays, they all seem to be bloated, tattooed, body-pierced munters mouthing off about how they don't get enough 'off the social' as if it is their right. In the meantime, people like me resign themselves to the fact that we're going to be a net contributor to the welfare state our whole lives, then get means tested in our dotage. If you want to put things right, then you have to kick out the whole of the ruling class of every colour and standard. None of these people represent you or me. So very few of them have ever held down a real job, having ascended the political ladder from student politics, union representation or daddy's helping hand. Most of those whose fat arses are splayed across both front benches are a bunch of self-interested ****ers who couldn't give a toss about you or I. For me, there's something pure and honourable about somebody like Her Majesty who, not necessarily born to serve, is instilled with a strong sense of duty. I agree that there are too many minor royals and hangers-on, but the core Royal Family serve us far more effectively than Cameron, Blair and their ilk. We need a country where hard graft and ability is justly rewarded, regardless of social class. For instance, we should bring back grammar schools, which gave the opportunity of a first class education to anybody irrespective of status or money. Instead, we have an educational system based on the ability to pay either directly or through one affording to live in the right postcode. Don't accept what left-wing, social engineering liberals tell you about grammar schools. We need selection based on ability and not selection based on wealth, else this country will never address what is really wrong with the 'system'. If you want to maintain the current welfare state in which it is more rewarding to be lazy and profligate, then it's no surprise that this country is damned. Make the unemployed work for their benefits and you'll give them back their self-esteem. Why do we accept a flood of uncontrolled immigration when the jobs they come in to do could be done by our indigenous unemployed? Too grand to work in petrol stations and wash cars, you see. The hardworking Eastern Europeans and Asians that come here shame our own unemployed and unemployable. P.S. Dave, your £250 poverty tax would most likely go on Sky subscriptions, spliffs and McDonalds. Don't be fooled into thinking that many people on the so-called breadline are the equivalent of the Dickensian urchins of old. They're not. This is going to be good...
uber i agree with everything you say pity that the people who can sort out the mess britain has become are cowardly jobsworths
These are at least elected by the people, even though the system and choices are not always the best. I don't see we need any Monarchy or a President plus entourage that is not elected.
Spot on Uber. I worked in a school for 30 years and have to say that the number of parents who had children getting free meals and free after-school provision but rolled up in fairly new motors and designer clothes dripping in bling was laughable. All these snotty little badly-behaved buggers who had smart phones and designer gear on the state yet they would disrupt lessons to the point where any half-bright child was ignored whilst all the resources and support time was given to these aresholes. Kiwi posted a joke this morning which actually isn't a joke. Please read it and weep because it really is the way it is these days...
Thanks Soops. The modern schooling system is a complete left-wing, social engineering, namby-pamby liberal joke. Mrs Uber and I have had some fun and games with Uber Number One Son's headmaster recently. Apparently, there is a policy whereby a disruptive child is moved next to a hard-working and diligent child, in this case UNOS, because they think this work ethic and diligence will rub off on Dwayne. As any idiot will know, the actual result is that the hardworking and diligent child suffers 'cos he's spat at, sworn at and stabbed with pencils during lessons. Read Kiwi's post. It's sad but so true.
Ignoring the royalty and the politicians (who seem to all be of wealthy upbringing and products of private schooling) for a moment, you and Uber make a very valid point - that is the working class has got distorted beyond what is reasonable. The welfare state has put itself into a position whereby those on benefits (perhaps unfair - those with kids where the parents aren't working) are at the higher end of the class, instantly surpassing the lower paid workers who graft to pay their own way. We live in a society where careers advice to 14 year old girls may as well say "be a mother - it's the most profitable thing you can do." The irony is that Cameron keeps making claims about trying to address this situation and yet does so little despite the fact that this is the demographic that votes in least numbers and so carries the least threat to the ruling party's future hopes (and will garner support from the mass-voting middle class). I will admit that I grew up with my mum on benefits (single parent with prolonged and regular spells of back trouble) and find it very humbling to think of all the sacrifices my Mum had to make in order to ensure there was food on the table for me and my brother and we could be clothed (from the cheaper shops by necessity). There is no such thing these days just a perpetual cycle of non-working families breeding non-working families with no incentive to try and better themselves. I loathe the education system that has been dumbed down beyond recognition (despite record results every year). I think my year at University (some 16 years ago) was one of the first to require a (very minor) bridging course due to the A-levels not meeting the standards needed and this has definitely got worse (with the advent of modular courses etc). This is not the kids' faults - they can only pass the exams to the standard they have been taught but, considering we've abolished manufacting to the most part, the skills market was a previous export that we could rely on due to high educational standards. Schooling moves as fast as the slowest person and I can remember spending the first two years at high school treading water despite being intelligent (albeit lazy) while other kids caught up. As great as Great Britain supposedly is, it makes me sad and slightly embarrased that we're in a country that, if it were a business, would be verging on collapse after using up all it's resources and not planning for self-longevity.
so the season ends and we put the worlds to right,first the queen reigns over us not rules,most republics on the whole are as bent as butchers hooks, american politics is about money and nothing else and the best part of our monarchy is the fact that most of europe are totaly green with envy, just look at there "figureheads",plus we would have to change our name REPUBLIC PARK RANGERS-PEOPLES PARK RANGERS-MURDOCH PARK RANGERS i've had enough must get drunk "power to the people"
On the money UBER as usual excuse my quickly typed 2 second poverty tax idea and I agree a big pool of money would leak away like London's water supply. Its maybe what i have been harping on about to my friends for 25 years .. we have become a service industry state ... a lot of hot air and bullshit and we pay people to work for us. The system is done and I can see a lot of points of views ... give someone £1200 a month benefits they aren't ever going to work for 70% of that... Then you have people who want to/must make £1200 a day. There is no solution so they keep the non working class sweet and in control with a few quid while everyone else attempts to make even more to adhere to a UK lifestyle that is **** beyond belief. I am no telegraph reader and have been lucky to get out that doesn't make me forget the reason why nor the people who struggle still. The big questions ... is this life? is this enjoyable? if you answer No then don't expect that money will solve that. There is a degree of will power required to cut through this ****e and that doesn't come easy. In the rest of my lifetime I expect two things... as this lot is on the boil ... A serious new approach after it all blows up (revolution) or the economy gets a false band aid and we are back to I'm alright Jack and we return to eating cash we haven't actually got. My three sons all men now have got to live through that ... thank god they have some French grounding
QPR ... I may have overlooked that for my life to seem more exciting I have followed a football team for what seems forever They are called QUEENS Park Rangers so I must say I am aware of that is the name. Therefore I have to use just QPR and if i am asked I say QPR stands for Quibbling People's Republic
Valid point Sutton about the Queen reigning. the people with the real power are the bankers who have their hands up the backside of our wonderful mob in parliament. i am not sure if the news mogals will ever get their power back but then again if the Sun says vote for someone the masses still will. Have to say i thought the effects during the Madness song 'My House' were brilliantly projected onto the palace. we stood in front of the palace 2 weeks ago with our Spanish friends and have sent them a link showing what it was like. On another point, watching the crowds on television outside the palace you hardly saw a dark face. Where were all those 'British' people that have been invited into the country.
