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Off Topic Politics Thread

Discussion in 'Southampton' started by ChilcoSaint, Feb 23, 2016.

  1. Schrodinger's Cat

    Schrodinger's Cat Well-Known Member

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    My parents brought up 3 kids on one and a bit salaries, and were always careful...one foreign holiday in my entire childhood (camping in France), one second hand car at a time, saving for stuff rather than credit, that sort of thing.

    I took my first steps into adult responsibility in the early 80s, got stung by high interest rates and narrowly avoided negative equity in 89/90 when the housing market crashed, so also had to live a fairly frugal, cautious lifestyle for a while.

    In the mid 90s after getting made redundant (no huge payout though) I went to university full time as a mature student just before tuition fees became a thing but still had to rely on student loan payments and deal with the £10k debt that resulted as I was still paying my mortgage on the family home. I worked 30 - 40 hours per week on top of my Uni studies for 3 years doing anything I could get in order to keep my head above water and it was tough, really tough at times.

    But I wasn't special, or exceptionally driven, I just did what I thought I had to do in order to get what I wanted out of life. I'm comfortable these days but not through luck.

    2 of my grown up kids have houses, mortgage, kids, all the stuff I have but apart from the kids, they have cheaper versions of what I have. They are happy with what they have believing that they can gradually improve their lot over the coming years. They keep credit to a minimum and still save up for things, taught themselves some useful DIY skills and are generally doing well and staying solvent.

    None of us had to do it in London though and house prices were and still are relatively affordable in the part in the part of Somerset where my parents and kids still live (Chilco country) so I can only speak for what I know, and what I know is that all 3 generations of my family have faced challenges, all 3 generations have gone without in order to achieve an end, and all 3 generations were and are still careful to live within our means.

    My parents had those values instilled out of necessity being born just before WW2, I had those values passed down to me as good advice (which I actually listened to unlike most if what they told me :emoticon-0102-bigsm) and in turn, I tried to pass those values on to my kids. It seems to have worked.

    My point, after that ramble is that with a bit of luck, and a lot of hard work, it is still possible to make your place in the world, to own your house, and to get to a position where you can afford to bring the next generation up. Same as it was for me, and the same as it was for my parents.

    But my real point is that I'm not typical, nor are my parents and neither are my kids - but there are large numbers of people who did exactly what I did, just as there are large numbers of people from all 3 generations who didn't or couldn't and didn't have such an easy time, so the whole idea that an entire generation can be better or worse off than another kind of grates because it just isn't true. Some people will always do a bit better than others given the same starting point, some areas will always be cheaper to live in than other however moving to where you can afford to live is an option that often doesn't get considered but can make a difference to what people can and can't afford.
    Stereotypes are usually frowned upon these days, yet the generational stereotypes thrown around so casually by both sides of the arguments about who had it better or worse seem to be acceptable and I don't understand why.

    I'd better stop now before I get RSI in my finger :emoticon-0102-bigsm
     
    #9641
  2. ImpSaint

    ImpSaint Well-Known Member

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    This is precisely the reason why I was brought up in Lincoln and not Winchester. My Mum and Dad decided that they would be better placed to bring up their family somewhere else because of the cost of housing in Hampshire (even in the 70s) and my Dad who was working for the DHSS (or whatever it was called in the early 70s) asked about the possibility of a transfer to Lincolnshire. I don't know why he/they specifically chose Lincolnshire but they did. So at 3 months old I became a Northerner.

    Was still tough for them though but like I said above, they did what they had to do and sacrificed their social lives for a decade (more like 15 years) to reach where they are today. I say 15 years because I can't remember my Dad ever going out at night.

    The holiday abroad part made me chuckle. My Mum boarded her first airplane to go abroad for the first time in 2006 aged 54 to Portugal while my wife and I were on holiday there. She has been all over the place since then. USA 3 times, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt etc. Sometimes with my Dad, sometimes with my sister. But it wasn't because they didn't want to. Holidays were just not on the list of priorities because the money was not there.

    My Dad had been abroad once to Italy as a child. I didn't have a holiday abroad until I was 17 and of course that was me paying for that not my parents. My eldest has been to Portugal 7 times, France once, Holland once and he is 12.

    Anyways. Welcome to my bubble RJ ;)
     
    #9642
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  3. Onionman

    Onionman Well-Known Member

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    One of the reasons why I stopped reading anything by people who hold the views of every other tedious conspiracy theorist is that some people spend so much time on the underbelly of the internet that their opinions cease to hold any weight.I work hard to try not to believe anything that isn't true.

    I mention this because, as a leading light in the New World Order, my pledge of alliegance to George Soros forces me to say this.

    Vin
     
    #9643
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  4. Schrodinger's Cat

    Schrodinger's Cat Well-Known Member

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    To be fair Imps, I never said my folks were poor, just hard working and careful. My mum actually got left a few thousand in a will, with instructions to use it for "frivolous things" as the Auntie that left it had a bit of a sense of fun and wanted her niece to enjoy life a bit more. 2 weeks camping in France was that bit of fun. I next went abroad on holiday when I, like you, paid for it myself. :emoticon-0100-smile
     
    #9644
  5. Missing Lambo

    Missing Lambo Well-Known Member

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    Like so many debates there are truths in all the arguments on whether the current generation "' 'ave it 'ard, mate". One of my grumpy old man bugbears is the ease with which credit is made available. I bought a terraced house in Liverpool in the late 60's when I got a job there. The mortgage was one thing, but trying to get hold of money to buy furniture was another story. I ended up getting an extension on the mortgage by getting a lad I knew to give me a bill for re-pointing and then doing the work myself. That way we got the cash to buy furniture and move me and my heavily pregnant wife off the floor onto a settee! I couldn't get a credit card; no bank was willing to give me a loan and the deal at the shop was cash only.

    Had there been easy access to money when I was in my late 20's with a young family I'd have probably taken it like a shot. We had a crap car that I wouldn't trust to take us further than Southport never mind Southampton and yeah, we "did without" but it was hardly a life style choice.

    We've gone too far in my view. Because, what goes with easy credit is a loss of the value of money. I still live in a world where spending £3.95 on a coffee (you must tell me where they are only £2.50, Imps. Don't come to Chester, mate!) is something I will only do under sufferance, and where £1000 is still a lot of money. One of my daughters spends that in a clothes shop. OK, she has a six figure salary, but she's still saddled with debt from her long past student days when they knew her future was bright and threw money at her (her old man only discovering this later!).
     
    #9645
  6. Archers Road

    Archers Road Urban Spaceman

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    You can get a latte for £1.60 in Finsbury Park, if you avoid the chains <ok>. Who said the capital was expensive?

    Trouble is, you need half a million quid to buy a studio flat, but hey! Brexit will probably see to that. Trouble is, interest rates will be going up just as the property market implodes, & a lot of people will be up to their eyeballs in debt they can barely afford now. Hey ho.
     
    #9646
  7. ImpSaint

    ImpSaint Well-Known Member

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    I have no idea. I was guessing. So £3.50 x 240 working days equals £840 spent on coffees alone!!! I guessed because I don't do "coffee shops" or anything else like that. The only time I spend money on pre-made food is on the way to the game my boys and I pop into Poundland and get a pack of sandwiches each and they get 2 bottles of pop for a £1. So that's a total of £4 for lunch...............then we go to the pub so I can buy my fortnightly 2 pints before the game and 2 pints after.......such a treat :)

    Lol at your comment over the crapped out car. My Dad still does that even though they are pretty loaded in retirement. Always seems to be in the garage yet he will warble on about never having a problem with it. I still remember the days when I was young going camping near Chester on a farm with just a spider infested dark toilet and a sink as washing facilities and the rusted old Austin Maxi always broke down either on the way there or on the way back a week later. My Dad was overjoyed when he replaced it with an Austin Princess (or was it BL by then) and that had rust when he bought it. But both cars "never had a problem." lol.
     
    #9647
  8. ImpSaint

    ImpSaint Well-Known Member

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    Clive Lewis eh? Rising future star eh?

    Are you on the side of the liberals who are denouncing him? Or think it is a mountain out of a molehill? Lot of the usual "feminsts" within the Labour party have been quick to condemn him. Discuss....
     
    #9648
  9. Whiteley Saint

    Whiteley Saint Well-Known Member

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    It seems it was said jokingly to a man so to me it's not the same as if it had been said to a woman. The guy was not bothered. In these circumstances it doesn't upset me. Do I think as an MP he should be making remarks like this in public? No he should have had more sense.

    Here's a link for those who haven't got a clue what we are talking about.
    http://news.sky.com/story/labour-mp-clive-lewis-apologises-for-b-comment-11089712
     
    #9649
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  10. Puck

    Puck Well-Known Member

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    Seems like a fuss over nothing to me. Mind you, that's the way the world is now so I guess he should really have known better.
     
    #9650
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  11. ImpSaint

    ImpSaint Well-Known Member

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    I agree with both of you. I am just laughing at the way he is now enemy No1 because he and they have no choice. They have made such a fuss over this sort of thing that they have no choice but to castigate him.

    Not allowed to joke anymore and you are only allowed to say words that have been passed as acceptable within the liberal dictionary.
     
    #9651
  12. Missing Lambo

    Missing Lambo Well-Known Member

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    Is it my age, or is this simply not funny? Awkward, cringe-worthy, and more, but funny?
     
    #9652
  13. fatletiss

    fatletiss Well-Known Member

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    Were Ryanair doing 9.99 flights back in the 70s Imps? :emoticon-0105-wink:
     
    #9653
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  14. ImpSaint

    ImpSaint Well-Known Member

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    Probably not. Shall we add that to the list to counter this generation saying that past generations had it easier?

    Personally I fly on TAP or BA. Had too many problems with the budget airlines.
     
    #9654
  15. ImpSaint

    ImpSaint Well-Known Member

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    #9655
  16. Whiteley Saint

    Whiteley Saint Well-Known Member

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    Well I don't pretend to understand your first sentence but if you mean this crazy then I agree. <ok>
     
    #9656
  17. TheSecondStain

    TheSecondStain Needs an early night

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    Perhaps they can can have a free and fair election in Zimbabwe while he's on tour. Or perhaps an assassin can take him out. Something that I utterly don't condone normally, but in his case...
     
    #9657
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  18. TheSecondStain

    TheSecondStain Needs an early night

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    I understand that Trump is more than willing to release secret papers regarding the assassination [that's two posts which talk of killing - blimey, I'll get the forum taken down by the CIA] of JFK, in a few days. Normally, presidential behaviour would spirit this stuff away, but in this bloke's case his absolute oafishness may actually work in the truth's favour. Probably take the sting off him for a while too, which he'll realise, so I've no doubt he will release them.
     
    #9658
  19. fatletiss

    fatletiss Well-Known Member

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    #9659
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  20. Archers Road

    Archers Road Urban Spaceman

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    He might be tempting fate, talking about asassinated presidents. Or do they only shoot the good(ish) guys?
     
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