Off Topic Other Stuff (anything you want to share)

Hopefully women's football might get noticed soon...and then Sky can have it please....being subjected to watching womens football and only seeing the highlights of the men's England v Switzerland in the late evening is not on.

If they make pensioners pay for their telly....that's ok by me as long as it is up until 80....so I'll be ok then.

I've got visions in the future that the only free-to-air sport will be Marbles, Conkers (only with maximum safety equipment of course), Tiddly-winks etc....with fantastic slow-mo replays.....imagine an exploding conker going everywhere after being hit....just can't wait for the day to come.

 

I think you are being a bit disparaging about women's football unnecessarily there Plym. It's relatively new and you cannot expect it to develop into the man's game overnight. Lets face it the standard of the game 40 years ago compared to now bares no comparison does it. They are quite reasonable but the differences between teams in terms of class and ability is a bit too stark. That makes it a bit too predictable too often. When other Countries come on with time then I think it won't be half bad as a spectacle. In Cricket they are a lot better than I had thought they would be and the gaps between nations isn't so marked. Makes a match quite watchable for me. It's not that they showed women's sport for free that got me so much it was that Sky was cornering the market in virtually everything else.

I for one could not care less whether I get a free TV license or not in the future. I'm getting quite used to approaching an age where I might get a freebie and finding it changed when I get there. That and the £200 allowance can go for me as I don't really need either as don't a whole load of people. Don't see why you should automatically qualify for something just because you reach a certain age. Just be grateful you've made it that far should be enough. Plenty of people in the Cemetery who would love to be in your shoes.

 

2245 hrs...Well it's been raining here for over 17 hrs since I got up...none stop....in fact this evening the rain has been pouring over the gutters...because they can't cope with the amount at the moment...and now we've got thunder and lighting as well.....been quite cold as well today (50F or 10C).

Will need water wings for my mower.....unless the pond on the lawn subsides.

 

Theresa May is disappointment at the BBC regarding withdrawing free viewing for all pensioners not getting pension credit....she has asked them to reconsider......the government used to cover this cost until a certain Chancellor (Osborne) changed it.....with PM May's track record....I'm not holding my breathe over this.

 

Seriously plym can you put your hand on heart and say you really need a free license? Just because people are of a certain age it doesn't follow they need a hand-out from anywhere. I grew up and worked in an era of self provision and so did many others. I have provided for myself pretty much over the years and don't wish to be considered some sort of charity case now.

 

£154 a year I believe for a licence....now if I were an MP I would know how to get that back....probably hidden in my moat or duck pond expenses.

 

Yep maybe so plym but that doesn't answer my question of need does it.

 

There will be pensioners that have not claimed benefits that they are entitled to, pride etc stops them doing that.....and there will be quite a few others who come into that other category of being property rich and cash poor....whose homes have been valued far beyond the buying price that they bought it for....which means the council tax band that their property falls into is more than they can really afford compared with their income......that is very much the case in the south east and there will be others bills that will fall into that same category.....if pensioners live in council or housing societies rentals...then they will find paying for a TV licence more difficult because of high rental costs.

Originally a Blair/Brown perk for the elderly.....then along comes that evil git Osborne who stops the government paying the cost to the BBC during his austerity push and in fact penalizes the BBC by saying that they in future will pay for pensioners licences. Maybe a lifting of the age to say 80 might have been fairer.

 

It's more than that. There are a group of Conservative MPs who don't believe in public service broadcasting. They want the whole thing thrown open to Rupert Murdoch and his ilk.

Welfare benefits are the Governments responsibility, not the BBCs.

I think the Beeb have played this quite well in linking it directly to the Governments own measure of OAP poverty rather than being put in the invidious position of deciding for themselves. I hope they'll send out the Pensions Credit forms with the licence reminder so poorer pensioners take up a benefit they're entitled to. No shame in that.

 

Anything that has passed through George Osborne's slimy hands needs changing back....odious git.

 

You clearly haven't heard of Housing Benefit or Council Tax Benefit then plym. That depends on your income not the size of the CTax band. What about a pensioner who is on peanuts who is under 75? Haven't heard anyone shout about their lack of ability to afford the license. It is simply bollox to suggest that just because somebody lives past a milestone number that they require free entertainment. This rubbish that pensioners can't afford this or that because they are all so skint. The same applies to the fuel allowance in winter. The vast majority of pensioners use it to either book a holiday the following spring or pay for their Christmas presents. Paying for the heater to go on is the last thing they do with it. It is quite novel to hear that the South East is such a deprived area for the old though as I would never have guessed that if not told. All this talk of poverty in the UK is a bit scarey really. I am surprised the News isn't full of reports of mass body finds where people have starved and frozen to death. Or maybe the reason we don't get that on the News is because it ain't happening.

 

They should spend it on servicing their boilers.. just hand it over to me as us younger ones need the help..

The tv licence fee is not worth paying for as what is there on tv to watch?

 

You are right Joe the standard of TV is crap and a lot of it isn't worth watching. Getting rid of the license fee altogether would mean that if the BBC continued it would have to go private and use advertising as it's revenue source. A lot of what they do now would go that's for sure. I guess somebody would miss whatever they got rid of somewhere as there is always an audience of even just a few for everything. The standard which is already pants would no doubt go down throughout the industry because the lack of competition would mean none of them would want to produce any half decent dramas given the sort of money they pay for them now. I don't subscribe to the oft accusation thrown at the Beeb that it is biased one way or the other. Whoever is being put to one side opinion wise is always going to think it's a conspiracy. It would never occur to them they are just plain wrong.

I'm still loving all the reporting going on now with the Tory Leadership competition. The absolute bollox being spouted by some of them is hilarious. They are all going to march into Europe and demand another go at a deal and they are all going to march out of Europe in the end with a much better one than May negotiated. I have asked loads of people now what was in May's deal that Parliament wouldn't pass and have yet to receive one single answer. Amazing that everyone thinks it was rubbish yet nobody knows what it was. If they don't know what was in the last one they don't like then how can any of them negotiate a new one and be sure it is actually different. Boris was his usual idiot self today but the News people still think he's favourite. I wish, if he gets chosen, that I could just up sticks and pee off somewhere else in the World. It will just cement a hattrick of election balls ups for me. Brexit then Trump and to round it off Boris. What's the point in giving the masses a vote if they are just going to take the mickey out of it.

 

Plym....................hot news on the Beeb news page.

Ben Fogle is talking about donating a years salary to the free TV license cause for over 75s. If you get in quick and write to him he may buy you one.

 

I'm afraid a TV licence is going to look small fry.....after Theresa announces today that by 2050 we're going for zero carbon emissions,

Expensive electric cars.....no gas boilers.....no gas cookers....millions of unsightly turbine propellers on every street corner......no more half a dozen air flights a year to go on holiday anymore....we'll turn the UK into the most expensive country in the world and the poorest as well....while most of the world will go their own way becoming richer.....that also means that 90% of all we buy won't come from China anymore if we morally do zero emissions......of course I'll have to live until I'm 111 yrs old....to see if we've done it.....that's about the same time before be Argyle reach the Premiership.

 

Do you take a happy pill every morning Plym? Do you only ever see how something affects you personally or do you have any concept of a greater good? The old saying about **** happening when good men do nothing fits most of that quite well. Somebody has to start a ball rolling and actually do instead of just spouting about it. Maybe, and I agree it's a long shot, if somebody takes the first step then others will follow even if it is screaming. Some people drive at a 100 miles per hour around housing estates. Just because some do it does that make it ok for everyone to follow suit? You get my drift I'm sure. I'd like to think the Planet was still here for my Great Great Grand children's Great Great grand children. If I have to change a bit of my lifestyle and give up a few things then I actually think it's a small price to pay in all honesty. Don't worry though Teressa won't be here much longer so whatever she announces now probably won't happen anyway and Comrade Jessa will be taking over the asylum soon. He'll nationalise everything again and nothing will work.

 

Just wish they'd get on an build some nuclear power stations if we're going to be so reliant on electricity....

I did note that they're talking about replacing gas boilers and some cars with hydrogen power, which can be produced by spitting water into it's constituent parts using... yes, more electricity, It just then produces water when burnt, Good thinking Batman, but who's going to pay for it?

I very belatedly just watched the final episodes of the fly-on-the-wall documentary series from Guy Verhofstadt's office during the Brexit negotiations up to the first extension back in March.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0004vyd

I appreciate there'll have been stage management from Verhofstadt's side but what a shambles from the UK. Completely ignoring the EU's initially patient reminders that the Four Freedoms (goods, services, capital and labour) were NOT divisible until the air was blue with EU frustration. The Luxemberg PM pointing out that a no deal would damage both the EU and the UK as a 50m population market was lost but that bringing down the Single Market would damage the other 450m, so it was a simple matter of financial arithmetic that the EU wouldn't compromise to save the UK's hide. David Davis visiting Europe so infrequently that he had to be re-introduced to everyone every time he did show up. Dominic Raab immediately trying to rip up everything that had gone before, including one memorable occasion after the Chequers summit when he contradicted what had been agreed May and the EU only two days before.

Now we have most of the Tory leadership candidates saying they'll negotiate something different. They won't, and we're doomed.

 

Brexit so mishandled that it is embarrassing....David Davis was so wishy-washy over his approach....Theresa May a remainer was no better.... controlled by the Whitehall mandarins....and to finally come back to Parliament with a "deal" that "she had agreed to" without taking soundings from Parliament first was criminal.

The EU new that they had a good deal.....the UK should have ironed out what we wanted clearly before starting the article 50 process....the Tory Party became a shambles....and now Boris looks like being the new leader.....cannot they see the folly in that....all they can see is Corbyn needing to be beaten and they think Boris is the man.

Boris Johnson might of "decided" to be a leaver....but he took awhile to come out as such....he was weighing up the for and against facts....before deciding.....at least you know what you get with Nigel Farage....and Ann Widdecombe talks a lot of commonsense has joined him....and those that don't like her have tried to put a spanner in the works and make her look racial...when there is nothing further from the truth.

Johnson can't be hidden away for ever by his backers....and they can't duck tape his mouth up for ever....I would give him twelve months as PM.....and red Corbyn is in the wings waiting.

 

No no, wrong interpretation Plym. The EU were crystal clear from the start that they wouldn't compromise the Four Freedoms.

They've stuck to that consistently but Brexiteers aren't listening.

Brexiteers are still telling you they can fart wonders and s**t miracles but it's not going to happen.

We are careering towards a No Deal exit which will be disastrous for the economy.

Did you hear the leaked comments from Singapore this morning? Just the sort of tiger economy we'd want to do a trade deal with but they're saying they'll invest in France and Germany rather than Britain outside the EU.

 

You are wasting your time notdistant. The thing I've learned about the out brigade is that they just don't listen unless you are singing from their very own song sheet. They voted out and that is that no matter what else might prove to be true that they create. We are Great Britain so it will be ok in the end and the world will bend to our will. It won't make any difference to us economically. All the foreigners will go home or stay home. The rest of the World will welcome us with open arms anyway. None of our jobs will be forfeit. The NHS will get another £365 million a week because Boris said so on his bus. The deal that May and Co negotiated is complete bollox even though I have yet to come across anyone who knows what was in it. Turkeys always vote for Christmas. Cuckoo Land does exist and the clouds there are pink and fluffy and made of marsh mellow.