Off Topic How Are You Celebrating Brexit Day ?

A good friend of mine earns about 2 grand a month and every month, without fail, he puts the lot in the machines on the day he gets paid. He then has to borrow and take on extra work to get through the month. Then the cycle repeats itself. He starts off with a couple of hundred win some times, but every time he loses. The machines contain an algorithm that ensures that ‘’the house’ always wins ...in other words you are beaten the moment you start playing them. Unfortunately for problem gamblers their brains are wired differently, something non punters don’t always understand.

 

They are being cut to a maximum £2 spin in April, thanks mainly to some really superb work behind the scenes by Tracey Crouch. The Labour Party has also done a good job to be fair, as many MP’s communities have been decimated by these machines. It’s mainly been families benefits money and wages that have been fed into them in their billions. The High St bookies knew exactly what they were doing - they invented something which couldn’t lose and which targeted the most vulnerable of people. When thousands of their shops are now forced to close in 2019 - which they will - I for one will p1ss myself with laughter.

 

There are some streets with 5 or 6 bookies in them …. they are not there for the sports bets but the machines!

 

Mainly in poor areas of the inner cities

 

I for one can understand the excitement of the machines, although I stopped playing the one-arm bandits years ago. I also stopped playing high stake card games after thinking long and hard about how hard I had worked to earn the money I lost in a couple of minutes at a three card brag game. Cards were my grandfather's weakness, and could have been mine. I also had an uncle who lost so much money at the bookies that even after he kicked the habit the bookie was happy to let him sit in the shop without making a bet.

 

Just watched Dune again ….. ummmm Francesca Annis and Sean Young... yum

 

I'm not somebody who automatically attacks Jeremy Corbyn whatever he does. But I've seen the TV footage today of what he said in the House of Commons after being goaded by the Prime Minister.
You don't need to be a qualified lip-reader to see he clearly said "stupid woman".

Now that in itself isn't a hanging offence, despite the hysterical reaction of the politically correct brigade.
But then Corbyn came out and lied about what he said, trying to claim he said "stupid people".
He did not say that. Anybody with eyes can see what he said.

An unguarded comment said in a flash of anger is something any of us might do. Regrettable but not an unforgivable sin in my view.
Blatantly lying about it later though in an attempt to bluster it out does him no favours at all.

 

I'm no Corbyn fan, but no jury would convict him on the evidence of that replay. It could be either woman or people, in fact different lip-reading experts are disagreeing about it. It's certainly unleashed an amazing amount of self-righteous indignation.

 

I was in the Chamber yesterday for PMQs - the faces of the Labour MPs behind Corbyn were a picture.

The man is an embarrassment to both Party and country.

 

Good way for the media to ignore the real issues. Literally, a homeless person died a few yards from Parliament, but you know the masses need to know what Corbyn uttered...
JEEZ! This is a Huxley distopian nightmare we're in.

 

Eastern Europeans. It once again begs the question, why do we have a system that allows homeless, jobless people to move to this country?

The one who died previously was a convicted sex offender and paedophile from Portugal, who had re entered the UK illegally on the run.

 

Daily Mail today -

Les Reed to be appointed the F.A's new technical director

How does Les do it?

 

Just checking the names Roston. Is he the guy who did such a great job as coach for us, and then a terrible short stint as manager? If so Southampton got a great coach that we literally chucked away through a desperate attempt to find a new Lennie Lawrence. Different strokes for different folks as they say. Les Reed wasn't cut out to be a manager, but he did a great job working on the training ground for both us and Southampton (if we are talking about the bloke I'm thinking of - age is taking it's toll on my memory).

 

Regarding the Teresa May/Corbyn incident, sums up the state of the UK beautifully. There are those who decry the want of decent politicians on both sides of the house (May and Corbyn are both good examples of the paucity of talent) but after two years of talks, May and her party are now talking about crashing out of the EU with a No Deal, troops on the streets, and problems about lack of medicine and food, and the press are talking about a mumbled remark. If you like Corbyn he said stupid people, if you don't he said stupid woman. Even lip reading experts disagree. But with people being banned from benefits while being physically unable to work, and the homeless population spiralling out of control, and within 100 days of what could be economic armageddon for many businesses and workers, that the press want this to be headine material speaks volumes about what they want for the UK.

 

We have a government which barely governs and an opposition which barely opposes. And the bottom line? Politicians are only as good as the people who elect them. Us.

 

Certainly Labour have barely shone, and their front bench hardly reflects what a lot of their core voters want. As for the likes of Rees Mogg and Teresa May the less said the better. But sadly, the country is so split that it would be impossible to achieve a Brexit that more than a quarter were satisfied with. From there it would be impossible to negotiate that (and sadly many politicians have cheerfully refused to admit that any negotiation needs give and take -- you are never going to come out of a negotiation of this type with everything you want). Someone on CL posted a good article from the Economist last week by someone who is often in Westminster and he basically decried everyone. ALL the politicians around Brexit have lied, over and over again, and his point was that he found the entire parliament depressingly bad. It's on the EU thread, but a few pages back (I think NornIrish Addick posted it). Well worth a look, but may make you feel voting is a waste of time.

 

I still prefer the type of feeble leadership which our system has produced in all three parties to the "strongman" type of leader you see in countries like America, Russia, China, Turkey or Syria. Rather than not voting, it would improve democracy if more people participate.
When you look at the treatment dished out to Anna Soubry or the death of Jo Cox you wonder why anyone with moderate views would want to become an MP. The hard left is almost as culpable as the far right, but there are nearly half as many terror plots foiled which come from the far right, as come from Islamist extremists. In fact 3 men have received custodial sentences for deaththreats against Soubry. So why stick your head above the parapet? I wouldn't, but I respect those who do.

 

Yes Mystic.

 

I can’t agree with you there, you don’t make PM without being a very talented politician (with Ted Heath the possible exception) . The PM is also a decent human being dedicated to public service -she is struggling with a problem that would have tested every politician over the last 100 years. I am perhaps privy to some feedback that others cannot see, and amongst apolitical folk in this country, she is still very well regarded.

 

The disgraced former Labour whip Fiona Onasanya did not go through the normal democratic selection process, but was parachuted into the constituency by Labour's Momentum-dominated NEC. She is now comparing herself to Jesus. It's not hard to conclude that merit and ability were not the primary reasons for her selection, and this is a microcosm of what has gone wrong with Labour at a time when the country desperately needs a viable opposition.