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Ah... so you'll be taking the third option (denial) then Dud?

I'll see if I can answer your personal and totally unfounded attack tomorrow.  In the meantime, try taking your head out of the ground and reading my posts properly.

Matt

And the very worst that will happen to this government is that they'll get kicked out, only to be replaced by another that will behave in exactly the same way.

Your vote is there purely to change the faces of the dumbass politicos every couple of years.  You're paying more tax than ever before, pensioners are poorer than at any time in the last thirty years and crime- whatever the reason- is increasing- no matter how you massage the figures.

Now then- hands up *anybody* who really thinks that things will get better for us, the general public, under a different government?

What about marching- does anybody think that marching will help (and bear in mind I might have to laugh at anybody who mentions the Poll Tax)?

Ok- that's enough political agitation for one day.  Accept the fact that unless you're already in a position of wealth and/or power, our glorious leaders couldn't give a toss about you, or the rest of the world, one way or the other.

Matt (the cheery soul)

And yet we still bombed an innocent civillian population already weakened by 12(?) years of pointless and cruel economic sanctions into submission.

I'm glad the people that you spoke to felt empowered, but they certainly didn't change anything.

I seem to recall being almost relieved at the prospect of a war- mainly because my own living is one of the first to be compromised at any downturn in the economy.  That doesn't mean that I *wanted* a war- simply that I was aware of the fact that there was going to be one, no matter how many people said 'no' and that financially, I might be better off because of it.

Clearly, the doomsayers and media *were* to be believed.

Matt (who doesn't necessarily advocate the kicking away of the ladder either- but will hold it in place only so long as it doesn't hurt him to do so.)

Oh and I agree- we should all have Champagne- but who's going to pick the grapes?

Actually, Andy- all that said- we probably have quite a bit more in common than you might think.

There will be no revolution- it's unworkable.  Every time you slip on your jeans or your trainers- or use just about anything in your daily life- you're helping to keep the poorest people in the world poorer than ever.  These people would laugh at us if they heard us whining about how terrible agency work is.

Do you really think that your vote will ever make the slightest bit of difference?  It doesn't matter who's in power, the world will turn the same as it always does and at the end of the day it's all about money and power- who has it and who doesn't.

I used to think that if enough people rose up, a difference could be made- now I realise that it really doesn't work that way any more and just try to make enough money to buy my trainers, pay my mortgage and live my life- thankful that I was born here and not in some third world country.

A bit callous?  You bet.  The only alternative is to live like a tramp- that's the only way anybody can legitimately say that their way of life harms nobody (did Arthur Wyatt say that once- or did I dream that?  Genius either way).

No, I don't like the system, but I don't see any way of changing it either.  You exploit or you're exploited.  As far as I can see, there's no real middle ground (unless you count denial).  I'd like to think that if I employed people, I'd treat them a lot more fairly than I'd ever been treated- but chances are I'd treat them worse than ever- milk them for everything I could- *anything* to avoid being at the bottom of the pile again.

Discuss if you like, but it's taken me a lifetime to reach this point and a few "ahhh... but what about...?" arguments are highly unlikely to get me to change my point of view.

Matt (who might have been a raving communist had he been born a century earlier.  But he wasn't).

Cheeky git- we agreed on those points a long time ago!

Third time at Uni?  Same subject or something different every time?

Of course, most of your rants are a rant too far- but that's a rant in itself for another day...

Matt ;)

Is the General back off to Uni, by the way?  Haven't you been once already?

My very first job was in a comic shop.  Unbelievably enough, it sucked worse than any temping job I've ever done (of the office variety, anyway).

Grudgingly, I must admit that our red friend is absolutely correct.  Agencies were a fantastic idea at first and got me out of a few holes- but you soon ended up with the situation that existed at British Gas a few years ago.

They got everybody to take voluntary redundancy- gave them nice big payouts and wotnot- then took them all back on (well- not *all*, obviously) for a lot less money and under the conditions outlined by GC in his last post- which to me is taking the p*ss somewhat.

Surely if a job needs doing, the posistion isn't redundant?

Matt

Can't think for yourself?  Don't be fooled, Jared- very few people ever actually do...

There's that damn picture of Oddboy again...

There's something wrong with you, Paul...

Hahahaha!

I really wanted to say that- but I knew I'd get an ear bending for my trouble...

As for teachers- we've got two of them across the road- the idle buggers appear to do even less work than me.

There's a teacher (who shall remain nameless) at my old school who's been dictating the same crap for the last fifteen years that I know of- literally word for word.  He never sets homework and just fills the lessons with back to back dictation.  Can't keep up?  Too bad- copy it off your older brother.

Now *that* guy is on to a sure thing.

Why would we want to do that?

What about those dinosaur sweets you used to get?  They tasted like orange opal fruits (and were probably made from the same stuff), but were slightly more rectangular (or oblong as we used to say in those days). They came in packs of three and the main wrapper unfolded to show you a picture of a dinosaur and all the relevent information.  Brilliant.

Sorry- ought to have specified that northern towns on TV are portrayed this way.

Don't want to upset any of you unwashed northerners...

;)