Where are YOU?

[Dounreay]

Yeah, good thread.

Anyway, I'm about as far north as you can go on the mainland, next to the water. You can see Orkney from my shack, which is nice.  

[Bolt-01]

Top thread folks. No been around for a few days, good reading.

I'm orignally from Hulme, Manchester; now in Great Barr, Birmingham.

Karne: glad you are still here.
Odders: sorry about the car.

Rotts

[esoteric ed]

I've created a monster!!!! damn, I never expected such a response to one of my posts here.

I certainly didn't wish to offend anyone either and sure hope I haven't.
At least this forum is civil and allows space for opinions, top people!

Ed

[esoteric ed]

... oh and Noisybast, I do drink around Penny Lane now and again, but usually in Pod or Metz further down Allerton Rd, not been for a few months now, it makes for a quieter session than town.

Ed ;-)http://image1ex.villagephotos.com/2048822.jpg">

[karne]

Is that a "sign-Ed" photo?

[esoteric ed]

Heh, "Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes".
(yawwwn)

;-)
Ed

[Bart Oliver]

Rotts, Greaat Barrr in Brum..

One of my many short lived jobs as a yoof before I wound up going to art college in Sutton Coldfield was at the One Stop near the Crown and Cushion on the way out to (is i t five ways, and Great Bar r etc.).
Tell me is Nostalgia & Comics still operating in tthe centre? It's been years since I went back..

[Bart Oliver]

In addittion,, mi sister took me out for a drihk at the sQuere peg last timme I was Back
i,ve Had a ffew tonite acctually, toufff day at workk ..

[Oddboy]

Ta, Rotts.
It was 2 summers ago now, though... I've got over it since then (it's only a car, after all!!)


'The only normal people are people you don't know yet'

I like that one, but I like this one better:-

'There are no normal people, they're just lots of people being strange in the same direction'

[Wils]

we have a society (or a part of society) that has been brought up on benefit, they know nothing else,

I agree totally. There seems to be a scarily large percentage of people who have never worked, never *want* to work and think the world owes them anything they can get their hands on for free. This is bad in itself, but when you consider that these people are also procreating, making generation after generation of work-dodging parasites, the whole thing seems even worse. Although it'll never happen, I think the only long-term solution that would work with these people would be forced sterilisation. Sadly, it seems they're here to stay.

Also, without these people around, Trisha wouldn't have any guests and be axed, plummetting ITV's statistics of double-negatives, missing teeth, skanky old women in mini-skirts with blotchy legs, bludrunnahs and 14 year old slappers. :)

[Generally Contrary]

Now you're just winding me up...? Right...? Please say you are.

[Slippery PD]

This is my point totally.  I have a large history of left wingism, but what really gets my goat up is people like some of those on the board who basically work their fingers to the bone to make ends meet and provide from their families (sorry boo Im thinking of you in part - single mum).

For example I was watching question time last night and they were talking about immigrants and the BNP.  So why do we always focus on people who leave their country to come here to work.  Why not focus on those people who are already in this country who do nothing to contribute to society, rather than some poor person who comes to this country either because they a re persecuted by their goverment or because they need money to send back to people at home.

I agree with AJ on this, lets try educating and encouraging people to get on with their lives, rather than sitting at home.

Yer Slippo
 

[Wils]

Now you're just winding me up...? Right...?

What about exactly? There being an underclass that's leaching off the rest of society? Or because I suggested that they're spayed at birth?

[Generally Contrary]

I demolish eugenicists arguments for breakfast.  But they are so flimsy that it is hard to know where to start.  Tell me what you want to achieve and I'll show you why it will not work and/or why that would be a negative move for society to take.

With regard to dole-bludgers - I've been on the dole and it's no picnic, let me tell you.  But as long as we have a minimum wage that makes it so hard for people to get by, and a model of business that revolves around getting as much out of workers for as little as possible, it will be easy to turn people who are working hard simply to keep going against those who live pathetic, miserable lives.  Look up the pyramid for the real problem.

No one should be abandoned by society, particularly if their only sin is laziness or fecklessness (to use Daily Mail terms).  They shouldn't have a life of luxury, but you can't get that on 40 quid a week.  As for dole cheating - more money is gained through unclaimed benefits, with people convinced that it is wrong to do so and/or the benefits people are entitled to, and need, are unadvertised.  In my many periods of unemployment (I'm a temporary worker - so these periods are necessary, as I have no more job-security than a casual labourer from days we thought we put behind us) I have yet to receive a penny of housing benefit.  It is just too difficult to get when I am unemployed for one week here, two weeks there.  Yet over a year there are many weeks where I have to find the rent from savings I have managed to put aside from near-minumum wages.

Perhaps you think that I don't deserve benefits, that people shouldn't get money given to them.  But if temporary work is an essential part of the economy, then so is temporary unemployment.  And if temporary work doesn't pay enough to cover those gaps, then the state must pick up the gap.  After all, the savings made by business in employing me - low wages, no sick pay, instant dismissal, no unions - are taken out in profits and/or passed onto consumers.  So those profiting from my earning-insecurity should surely pay for the measly survival-level handouts the state provides.

And they should be more than that.  When I lose my job - it is not through my fault.  But I should not drop out of society until I find a new benefactor to doff my cap to and sell my time.  This is a democracy, a modern technological democracy of 60 million people.  To be a part f this you need access to the media, to culture, to transport, else you can only be a passive participant.

There needs to be a revolution... of how we pay and value the people at the bottom, and of their power relationship with the more fortunate, and the more wealthy.  There will always be bin-men and cleaners and menial office jibronies, and it is our current attitude to these people that helps create a culture where getting blasted out of your head on white lightning everyday and dying at 35 don't seem so bad compared to toiling away with no employment rights, paying someone elses mortgage in rent, with no hope of retiring (pension, what pension).  Add in the political isolation and alienation...  

[Slippery PD]

Actually Ive just read m reply and it dont make sense...  

Never mind...  Ill get this riht one day!!!

Yer Slippo