Messages

Ahh, the Monarchy.  The thing is, in any democratic republic worth its salt you woulnd't be swearing an oath to any person, but rather a country as a set of ideals.

This, 'oh, the Monarchy is better than a president' thing doesn't hold water.

If the Royal Family have no power, then we do not need to replace them - get rid of the anachronistic irrelevancies and be done.

If the Royal Family do have power, then surely we do need to replace them - pushing this country futher towards democracy, perhaps the highest ideal of government.  

If guy's with superpowers went round dishing out summary death sentences then that'd represent a pretty nasty world.  I mean, there is no reason why someone with the power to fly is more likely to find the real bad guys than a bunch of idiots on a Plymouth council estate are.  Or a bunch of trigger happy American cops.  Perhaps even less so - being superhuman would rob you of your sense of perspective.  Nice idea for a story though.

Yeah?  Yeah?  Yeah?  You think you've been ripped off?  Me and my brother came up with the 'Mini-Chedders' variant of 'Pretty Woman'.  Some advertising twot must have overhead our juvenile song and sold it for a gong.

To get a mutie-shag too.  Mind, I would imagine that the Cursed Earth would be full of vice towns.

I was looking into some of the people I found in my 'Norris McWhirter' searches and they tended to display an appalling degree of admiration for Pinochet, describing him as 'saving Chile', that the torture and murder was 'necessary' etc.

These people include Thatcher, Goldsmith and his cronies and a whole host of businessmen and top Tories.  They often cite the fact that Chile became a 'model of capitalism' and a good place to do business.  So, we must assume that if the British people had voted for a far(ish) left government we would have seen death camps and torture ships in the UK.  And would we still?

A lefty like me must be grateful that my ideas have not won popular support.  

From trawling the net.

As far as I can see, Ross McWhirter was heavily involved in right-wing intrigue, which included secret plots against Labour Governments and the catapulting of Thatcher to the position of Conservative leader.  Airey Neave was also part of this shadowy group of conspirators, as was Lord Rees-Mogg.  It seems that some of the meeting took place at the Special Forces Club, so the involvement of Generals would be hardly surprising.

Norris McWhirter is much more involved in his Freedom Association, now that Apartheid is dead.  
http://www.tfa.net/

Hughie Green - whoie knows?

Norris McWhirter was a real big fan of Apartheid.  Mind you, we still have MPs who went on record to register their admiration for the system so that's not a real biggie.

The big problem with privatisation is that it sold utilities (necessary utilities) to a small group of people - in comparison to before when everyone, nominally at least, had a share.  I've heard the argument that the money from the sale was ploughed back into other services, to which I say 'perhaps'.  But these benefits were enjoyed by all, not just the section of society that lost its share in the common ownership of national services.  Furthermore, every single privatisation was undervalued, so a group of upper-middle class Tory voters were able to buy other people's property at scandalously discounted prices, while enjoying the proceeds at the same time.

The second problem with privatisation of major services is that they are too large for effective competition to work, the big plus of private ownership.  It was the transfer of a state monopoly to a private monopoly.  It also fractured the integrated ownership of chains of supply.  If the mining, the transport and the power generation are all publicly owned, then there are far fewer stages at which profit needs to be made and money leached from the system.  If all these stages now need to turn a profit, who suffers?  Either the consumer or the worker.

Public ownership also allowed democratic, responsible support for unprofitable sections of the industry/service.  The 'cash cow' aspects of the public portfolio could be used to support the development of unprofitable sources of power, the payment of the living wage at unprofitable sectors of the supply chain and, outside of the immediate industry the generation of wealth at the disposal of the government.

There are many flaws, but not as many as with 'consumer power'.  I want to live in a democracy, where my arguments will stand and fall (mainly fall) on their merits, not a consumer society where my ability to influence things depends on whether I fall into the ABC1 social group or another profitable market sector.  Yet I have seen the decline in the local bus service, a neccessary service for the unprofitable poor, while the commuter lines have prices forced down by rampant competition (and drivers wages/conditions).  Yet before, it was possible for the public owned bus service to manage itself in more than just the interest of profit.

Of course, the clinching argument as to why these things should never have been sold is that fact that we cannot allow these services to fail, and as such we now fund them with our taxes.    

31.5 something - it was my roleplaying past, now behind me.  To Hit Armor Class 0 eh, never thought I'd use that again.  

I bought a crap-load (that's 13) of Metabarons.  I found them interesting.  Apparently, over in the colonies, that Bendis chap is worth a look.  Of course, if we stray from the big publishers there is a whole world of art.  

But, I must say,  Make Mine Vertigo  

Christmas and War make comfortable bedfellows - how about a jointly themed issue?

I've got it!

'Doctor Strange vs the Cannibal Nazis of Communist East Germany in his funky 1970's'

I can't see how they could possibly get through anything other than the first page of any submission – so make it a good one!

I don't see Epic as all that promising an avenue into the biz, but if I found myself with an idea that would suit them I'd give it a go.  But until that idea pops into my head I'll pursue other outlets.

It is one thing to say I find everything on the newsstand 'patriotic "CRAP"' and another to say that nothing that could be said would change your mind.  It is extremely unreasonable, and a very odd statement, as it precludes the possibility that a you could find a book in which you would find value.  Not that there IS such a book, but the possibility that you COULD.

I presume you find value in the comic form, as you are posting on this forum.  

+'I DON'T THINK I've ever heard such a load of high-minded, pompous, elitest, poorly judged and ill-thought-out claptrap in years.'+

And longmanshort has spoken to me, for Gawd's sake.

I still pick up a few American comics, but find that they have a Brit cretor involved more often than not.  Is this just prejudice?  Well yes, it is - I look at the names when browsing the racks.  But is it unfounded prejudice?