06 January 2011

06/01/11


Economic growth may one day turn out to be a curse rather than a good, and under no conditions can it either lead into freedom or constitute a proof for its existence.
-Hannah Arendt

156 comments:

  1. A couple of things about/from yesterday's thread:

    First, about this:

    What I don't understand is why so many otherwise semi-reasonable posters here play Cif's rigged game. They don't go to waddya to prick a few pompous bubbles, they go to be one of the crowd and to be liked. What the fuck is that all about? Can anybody explain? Perhaps it's because there is no real difference between them and the waddya crowd in spite of the righteous posturing people here like to indulge in?

    I realise this is a difficult concept for some people but, we are individuals. The people who do what you refer to as “righteous posturing” tend not to be the same people who post on Waddya. Without meaning to speak for them, I think that the people who post both here and on Waddya go there not to “be one of the crowd and be liked” but rather because there are some perfectly nice Waddya regulars that they enjoy “chatting” with. That doesn’t mean that they don’t also feel that there are some regulars over there who are idiots or hypocrites or any number of things.

    Some people here like Waddya a whole lot more than I do and some people here are far too bothered by it, in my opinion. It’s an incredibly petty and immature attitude to think that anyone who chooses to post on Waddya should be ostracised here. That's just so junior high.

    Second:

    The Braxter's comment didn't bother me, but I do find it amusing/interesting that I've only ever noticed women being criticised for "talking" about their children here and it's always been men doing the criticising. I wonder why that is?

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  2. Waddya's fine if you just want to shoot the shit. Personally, I find it difficult to retain angry as a default mode. Although my CiF posting days are behind me, the articles themselves are good thought and/or conversation starters, if only for how shite some of them are. I particularly liked the chap from Compass yesterday who compared Miliband to Aristotle.

    I just don't see the point anymore of contributing reams of BTL content to them for free with a damn good chance of having your 1,000-word spiel deleted on a whim by some 4 year old in an ironic t-shirt on a gap year from kindergarten.

    I read in passing yesterday some city analyst or economist saying that the days of increasing year-on-year sales for retail outlets might now be coming to an end. Not so much the end of history, as the end of perpetual growth.

    I'm not even sure that's true, as with China, India, Russia etc all beginning just to hit their stride as consumers, the export markets and global expansion of the luxury-goods obsessed middle classes look set to kick on again. If you have crap to sell to them, that alone can fuel another 30 years of domestic growth.

    But it's an interesting point. If we do reach a plateau in consumer spending and economic output, how do politicians define progress, other than the trotting out of increasing wealth. Even New Labour's claims to greater social justice were based on tax receipts of the financial markets' hot streak at the casino and were voted back in by the all important sliver of swing voters who felt richer.

    It's a particularly problematic sell. Okay, you're not richer than last year, but the guy down the road has 24 care for his disabled wife, the rivers are cleaner and we haven't invaded anyone recently. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who promises to make me richer next year?

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  3. Oh dear. Australia 213-7, with a full day to play and 151 runs away from making England bat again. Get in.

    And good to see the terrific support for Glenn McGrath's Foundation as well, from fans and pundits on both sides.

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  4. My other semi-thought for the day, before I lose it to encroaching senility, is: is it true that financial services are best left largely untouched, as they're easy to re-locate elsewhere?

    There certainly seems to an unspoken consensus amongst the political parties that this is the case. Even as Aristotle Miliband calls for another populist windfall tax on bonuses, he doesn't dare to mention a tighter regulatory framework or splitting up investment and high street banking.

    The high street banks would be easy enough to keep in the domestic tax net, even if they decided to relocate head office to Liechtenstein. What business you do here, you pay tax on. But even they have their investment arms incorporated as separate entities, making them easy to up sticks and go elsewhere.

    At the moment, if a London-based investment bank funds development in another country, the profits it makes (I'd assume) are taxed in the UK. The coalition has just brought down corporation tax - they're not in the mood to upset big finance. Labour is unwilling to raise the top rate of tax to fund future spending for a more socially democratic society and so are waiting for UK financial services to return to full health to provide the funds they want.

    Whichever way you turn, it seems that there is near unanimous agreement amongst politicians that financial services companies - much as their directors love Henley, Eton and Knightsbridge - would not be shy about fucking off to the continent at the first sign of a UK government saying boo to them.

    But is any of it actually true? Did Obama push through his US banking levy and bonus tax? And did anyone worth a spit really leave the country?

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  5. @RapidEddie:

    I think part of the argument hinges on what’s laughingly called “competitiveness” i.e. the London Stock Exchange is “competitive” because the regulatory regime and the relatively light tax burden allows it to be so, when faced with the might of, say, Wall Street, or the DAX, or the Bourse, or wherever.

    If a heavily restrictive regulatory regime were in place, so the argument goes, and a punitive tax burden were imposed, then it’s less about Miles Fotherington-Smythe upping sticks and leaving Surrey for Frankfurt or the Catskills (because in senior banking circles there’s this constant global merry-go-round anyway), and more about the volume of business going through the City (and the subsequent revenue for HMRC) that’s the problem. Whichever way you look at it, the City contributes an enormous amount to the Exchequer each year, and it’d be a brave politician indeed who’d jeopardise any of that for the sake of, err, principles.

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  6. Montana

    Agree entirely about people having the say-so and wherewithal to post wherever they choose on the entire "public lavatory wall" of the internet.

    Braxton Hiccups was quite happy to post a little "I believe that children are our future" confection on Dribbly about that morning's kiss from his daughter being the best thing that had ever happened to anyone in the history of the universe. Ever. (Soon to be released as "Now That's What I call Living - 478").

    There are unconfirmed reports that he then sold his daughter an investment vehicle linked to a dodgy, toppling Ponzi scheme.

    RapidEddie

    I also agree completely with you.

    I just don't see the point anymore of contributing reams of BTL content to them for free with a damn good chance of having your 1,000-word spiel deleted on a whim by some 4 year old in an ironic t-shirt on a gap year from kindergarten.

    Quite apart from your entire output being shielded from public view once you get banned.

    Not sure about the west being able to live high on the hog for another 30 years on the basis of exporting luxury goods to China and India etc.

    Couldn't those countries just make the stuff themselves - but better and cheaper?

    Read a book ages ago about someone who decided to go exploring in the early part of the last century and bought some expensive hurricane lamps, stamped proudly and prominently "Made in Great Britain."

    He soon met Wilfred Thesiger, who promptly threw the lamps down the mountain and said: "Don't buy that rubbish. They never work and always let you down. Get these and always look for the "Made in Hong Kong" stamp."

    As for the poor little refugee bankers, it is simply brinkmanship with governments.

    The governments always lose.

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  7. Paul
    My point has to be seen in the context of the Hakim article. Yes the situation has indeed changed but the problem that capital presently has with making people unemployed is that any savings made (we are talking public service employees here) are reduced by the necessity to pay benefits.

    Married women (who, on the whole, tend to earn less than their husbands) can be consigned to the scrapheap without such costs.

    So Hakim's contention that 'feminism has done its job' and that 'women earn less because they choose to' can lead to a 'women can't have it all' agenda.

    The would be to massage the unemployment figures married women not at work can easily be removed from the stats.

    Remember that, at the end of WW2 women who had kept the farms and factories running when their men were at war were sent back into the home.

    Granted this would be much harder to do today but as with other gains, in times of austerity the gains made by women are under threat.

    We were, after all, discussing a particularly nasty article about women. This is not to deny that there is unemployment in other groups, although I imagine it would be more difficult to 'disappear' unemployed men from any background as 'not seeking work'.

    It could be argued that a RAL is one that does not form part of the unemployment figures when not working. t is cheaper to make a married woman unemployed if you revert to the notion that they are 'kept' by their husbands.

    This certainly true after ww2 when there was deemed to be full (male) employment.

    In the last 30 years the working class has lost many of the gains it made, particularly with regard to TU rights. I see no reason why the gains made by women should be immune do you? After all 'traditional family values' are much loved by the Tories and as I said its the cheapest way to reduce the workforce, something they seem very keen to do at the moment.

    Of course w/c women may well be forced into working as cleaners and carers for the wealthy, because, as you say w/c women have often been part of the workforce.

    Although in areas like the S Wales valleys and South Yorks, where most of the jobs are in heavy industry, employment opportunities were more limited. In cities of course more domestic and cleaning jobs have always been available.

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  8. http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/bulletin/mediapm/article/1047901/

    Idiots.

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  9. Get Fit for Free eh Swifty ? Fit for what ?

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  10. From Shiloh/SwiftyBoy's above link:

    The Guardian and Observer supplement includes a 36-page guide to mediation [sic], a 24-page guide to sleep, and an online sleep assessment test. It also includes a week’s free trial to British Military Fitness and a workout audio download.

    Chris Lawson, marketing director at GNM, said: "Our aim with 'Start Happy' is to offer our readers a really positive alternative to the glut of diet promotions that are customary in January. We're kicking 2011 off with a far more positive and rounded approach to health and well-being.

    "Our month-long campaign will offer optimistic, realistic adjustments that people can make to their lifestyle to improve how they feel on a day-to-day basis."

    Aw, bless!

    Will it feature Nick Daz and Peter Braxter as cartoon characters living out the lovely lifestyles of media, er, mediators and military-men-mockups?

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  11. Bitterweed

    Fit for nothing?

    Not fit for purpose?

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  12. "I just don't see the point anymore of contributing reams of BTL content to them for free with a damn good chance of having your 1,000-word spiel deleted on a whim by some 4 year old in an ironic t-shirt on a gap year from kindergarten."

    Made me laugh...

    Just had an invite to "Occupy Monaco" - organised by the student protesters and the various aligned movements etc, the idea is quite simple - Monaco is tiny, 2.2km sq, has virtually no army/police because they pay no tax for it. So on 1st august, they're inviting people from all over Europe to go down and occupy the place. Could be entertaining.

    On posting here and waddya - I dont think people post here (UT) for reasons different to waddya, its all the same: people post because it is (or can be) interesting, informative, funny, a good row, etc, so no different to this place on that front.

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  13. ”…We're kicking 2011 off with a far more positive and rounded approach to health and well-being…”

    Of course you are.

    Most. Guardian. Diet/”Lifestyle”. Handbook. Ever.

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  14. @Jay:

    I jacked it in because, as I slag the Graun off so relentlessly, it ultimately felt a tad hypocritical going over there and shitting in their sandpit. And the near-ubiquity at the time of that fathead MartynInEurope played a contributory factor.

    PS Not answering your emails is considered rude in some circles, young ‘un. Sort yourself out.

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  15. I'm not at work Swift - time off for birthday!

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  16. Morning all!

    Happy Birthday Jay!!

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  17. Happy Birthday Jay!

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  18. @Jay:

    Well, to be fair I’ve heard worse excuses… happy birthday mate… end of the month pint for belated celebration?

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  19. Yeah, HB Jay. Is today the actual date?

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  20. hi sheff - a parachute in after perhaps a year's respite :) hope you are well - I was in Rotherham/Sheffield area a few days before Xmas and thought of you

    so what's happening on the 'we changed the world' front?

    can't see Hank or Schef about - have they fucked off?

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  21. Aarrgh! Happy Birthday, Jay!!!

    How did I not know it's your birthday? Surely it was mentioned last year? I try to write these things down when I learn of them.

    Didn't mean to slight you by not recognising the day.

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  22. oh - hi montana - here's a bit of Terry Hall for you

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  23. Thanks all, and no problem Montana - I wouldn't remember a single birthday myself.

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  24. Happy birthday, Jay!

    I like the idea of occupying Monaco, but its national defence is actually handled by France under a treaty, so protesters may find it does have some (borrowed) army and police after all.

    Still, it'd be an opportunity to say hello to Philip Green's deductible wife, among others.

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  25. Happy Birthday Jay, hope you're having a suitably lovely day off.

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  26. Monaco is an awfully long way to go to make a point, I want to be on the UT bus that goes to London.
    Do they have room in the overhead lockers for pitchforks?

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  27. @habib

    No lighting torches until you alight, though.

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  28. Afternoon all...

    ...and hello Parallax, thought you'd given up on us. Pity I didn't know you were around before Christmas - we could have gone for a drink or three in some of the excellent pubs round here. The UT meet ups are becoming something of an institution.

    Have sloped off work early - no point in staying as there is some massive IT systems merge going on which means everything has slowed to the point of immobility so its impossible to get anything done. Knowing my employer this will remain the state of things for the foreseeable....

    Did spend a while perusing Gillray cartoons, which remain remarkably apt. There are a couple here which suit our present condition admirably

    A new way to pay the national debt

    Monstrous craws at a new coalition feast

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  29. Habib

    Get yourself over to Sheffield on the train (its only 40 mins) and you can come down with MsC, Meerkatje and me.

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  30. Shit! I'd just written 2 or 300 words. When you accidentally hit "tab" then "end" and then I'm not sure what (but it's happened to me more than once when I'm typing quickly), the page refreshes, you lose the whole bloody lot and hitting "back" does no good at all.

    That enrages me more than the spambot.

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  31. We can take bets from others on who'll get arrested first.
    :-)

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  32. Happy birthday, you young whippersnapper!

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  33. Oh and Parallax, I should have added that Hank and Scherf only put in periodic appearances these days - usually to tell us what a waste of space we all are. Shame really as when they're on form they're premier league polemicists.

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  34. Good oh! Habib - at this rate we'll have to rent a mini bus, got to get chekhov on his first demo...

    Sorry forgot - Happy b'day Jay!

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  35. MsC

    38 Degrees are having a meet at the Forum (Devonshire St) between 6-8 on Monday 10th Jan if you fancy coming along. It'll be planning for 2011 and I'd like to raise coordinating campaigns which will be essential if we're to have any effect.

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  36. Afternoon all

    Happy Birthday, Jay! x

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  37. cheers sheff - next time I'm in the S66 postcode I'll definitely put a call in (via? here's best I suppose) for a catch up.

    Came back to Sydney for christmas (just) after a few cancelled flight days - work and stuff takes me backwards and forwards between hemispheres - so a return trip is probably on the cards.

    Oh right - periodic Hank and Scherf - does this mean UT is now a polemic vacuum? ha

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  38. "Oh right - periodic Hank and Scherf - does this mean UT is now a polemic vacuum? ha"

    Depends on your viewpoint, I guess. It is rather silly to idolise people, though.

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  39. Were you in Maltby or there abouts Parallax?

    Re polemics - there are others to provide the argument - we're not short of them. Not to mention our resident troll, bitethehand who's just re-appeared after the hols and enjoys stalking BB.

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  40. Hello all - had a phone call from a friend night before last telling me that she'd won a pair of tickets to the opening night of Cirque du Soleil at Albert's jellymould, and did I want to go - we turned up last night to discover that they were VIP tickets, with blue carpet entry, champagne & sushi reception, and ringside seats - talk about how the other 1% live! Struck me as we were waiting to go in how bloody rude the paperazzi are - realise celeb/pap relationship is symbiotic, but if anyone shouted at me like that I'd be inclined to tell them to fuck off. Anyway - the show was amazing, and it really was that cliché, the once-in -a-lifetime experience - £185 for a theatre ticket v unlikely to be repeated! (Not to mention meeting Katherine Jenkins in the loo!)

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  41. Sheff - shhh! Mention his name and you evoke his spirit! :p

    Shaz - sounds lurvely! Paperazzi are shit-hounds though. My sis and I always thought that if we ever won the lottery (not likely seeing as I don't play, but hey...) we would hire people to sit with cameras in trees outside the paperazzi's houses and follow them and their families everywhere for a week just to see how they bloody liked it. :o)

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  42. evening all

    last holiday done and dusted....epiphany....??

    shaz

    along with my ignorance of religious festies who is Katherine Jenkins?

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  43. Apparently a Welsh opera singer. I'm not great with the whole sleb thing, but friend is more clued-up. I spent quite a lot of time saying 'Who? Where?' and she'd pat me metaphorically on the head and say things like 'Craig Revel Horwood, from Strictly Come Dancing' & I'd nod and try to look intelligent (tricky, esp after quite a lot of free champagne!)

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  44. shaz
    thought she might have been a politico considering they are the only ones able to afford a couple a hundred squid for a night out...but then i hadn't factored in the slebs.......

    strange the fascination with slebs....never "got it" myself......

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  45. Gandolfo - no, nor me. I couldn't care less what washing-up liquid they use or what's in their rubbish - the whole Heat magazine thing just baffles me.

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  46. Seconded on the bafflement engendered by the likes of Heat, Hello, OK and their ilk. I really couldn't give a toss what dress an alleged famous person was wearing to a posh party that I would never be invited to in a million years. Nor how many thousands of pounds they spent on their sofa.

    People are quite strange sometimes...

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  47. Shaz - Katherine Jenkins is, I believe, the bimbo who sings the Welsh National Anthem at the international rugby matches.

    As you point out, I've never understood why anyone would want to be famous - who the fuck wants someone shoving cameras and rude questions in your face all the time?

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  48. thauma

    i guess there are a significant majority of slebs that actually think they merit attention and want it, in fact many actually tell paparazzi where they'll be and who they'll be with etc...self publicity....well they have to "do" something despite doing not actually doing anything ....5 mins of fame doesn't pay for the minx covered sofa from DFS or the monthly botox fix.........

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  49. thauma - that would be why friend recognised her, having been to many Welsh internationals with Cardiff-dwelling partner...

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  50. HB Jay.

    Staying awake for 30-45 consecutive minutes is now ,for me, a lost art.

    Slebs - meaningless word really but does seem to be an income generator.

    I find todays pic deeply disturbing.

    KJ - we hear about her almost every day in Wales, for some reason the media here want a rash of slebs. I suppose it takes the mind of so many failures.

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  51. Just for comparison:

    Katherine Jenkins

    and

    Charlotte Church

    singing the same song.

    This may be a flasback from a few months ago!

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  52. the bimbo who sings the Welsh National Anthem at the international rugby matches.

    LOL @ Thauma!

    We used manage to sing it quite well without such help 'in the good old days'

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  53. Leni - I love today's pic! Looks like a happy elephant swimming to me. Don't tell me if I've missed something sinister.

    Gandolfo - don't understand the mindset at all. Don't like it when the neighbours recognise me, let alone random strangers.

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  54. Anne - ha! I'll bet you did.

    Seem to remember that LaRit is a bit of a non-fan of Ms Jenkins; where is she when you need her?

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  55. I think celebrities are lovely.

    I want to cuddle them really, really hard.

    And kiss them with sharp, bitey teeth.

    Happy Birthday, Jay.

    Drink your own body volume in alcohol, as recommended by The Guardian's "How to Have a Happy Hectic Lifestyle" pullout section.

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  56. We used manage to sing it quite well without such help 'in the good old days'

    Funny that - I distinctly remember being able to sing at internationals without celebrity help - when was it that we were deemed incapable?

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  57. Atomboy - have mentioned this before, but your avatars are always stunning.

    Question for doggy types: normally I feed the dog after I eat my own dinner, usually around 8 or so.

    However, today I have eaten early.

    Dog is driving me bonkers.

    Should I feed her now, or wait until the usual time?

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  58. thauma

    Thank you. I will ask Atomgirl to give me another pic to use.

    The last one I have is her wearing a lamp-shade on her head, so it could go either way on the good-bad spectrum.

    I would suggest your dog has received the required signal and, not being able to tell the time (presumably) is wondering why you are attempting to slowly murder it.

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  59. thauma
    feed her....they can't tell the time......at least mine doesn't....same routine innit.... after you.....she eats.......

    ab

    no doubt there'll be a lot of slebs in the sales we could have a whip round and get one fr you if ya like who'd fancy??

    jay
    HB no doubt you're down the pub! enjoy....

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  60. AB/Gandolfo - reckon you are both right - am going to feed her before my head gets done in! Thanks.

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  61. gandolfo

    Oh, do they come in different varieties and flavours?

    I'll let you choose to kick things off, thanks.

    The Jenkins woman looks a bit sickly after all the Winterval food, so just a small one to begin with, please.

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  62. Evening all.

    Hope you don't mind my popping up here. I just feel the need to vent some rage. If I let fly on Cif itself I'd probably be banned.

    Have been on the executives pay thread on Cif, and have come across one of the most vile users ever. The name is taxmeless. He (assuming a reference to a wife implies he is male) is beyond the pale when it come to right wing trash. He claims that because his discretionary income is only around £20-25k that he is "comfortable" and not "rich." His wife is then also paid over £100k, so you can double that for their family total.

    I am not overtly objecting to his pay packet (although I do have strong reservations) but his attitude is simply reprehensible. When families up and down the land struggle to make ends meet and this cretin claims to not be rich, he is as blind as he is stupid.

    If he made those comments to my face, I would be sorely tempted to shove my fingers in his eyes. It is people like him that make me lose my faith in the goodness of humanity.

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  63. Welcome to the nuthouse, Si. :o)

    There is a bloke who turns up under a variety of different nicks - presumably because he such a Loadsamoney asshole that he keeps getting himself banned - who claims that he and his wife earn £100k each, he would never employ a "chav", that his kids go to a state-funded grammar school and he is quite happy that our tax money pays for his offspring, that he will be retiring to the Caymans or some-such to avoid paying any more tax, that he actually evades tax as well by cheating on his returns and doing work cash in hand, etc. etc.

    Either he is a complete troll or a complete and utter wanker, and I can't work out which yet.

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  64. AB
    considering i don't move in that circle i had to google "lowlife slebs" so i could do you a kerry katona for january.......well that was top of the search.....if google says that it must be true...;)

    sipech
    hi.....i would just let rip......

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  65. Sipech - his discretionary income is only around £20-25k - *hollow laughter*.

    Presumably this means *after* he's paid all the bills - just spending money. More than most people make in a year.

    And his wife's paid over 100K? Must be a fucking huge mortgage if that's all they've got left.

    Twats.

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  66. It's very rare that comments get me physically agitated. The last thing I saw was him saying that he wouldn't bother to spellcheck because the people he was replying to weren't worth it.

    Makes me want to hit something very very hard!

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  67. gandolfo

    OK, thanks.

    Have her scrubbed down and sent over and I'll have a think about cooking methods and sauces.

    Is she the one who used to advertise drugs for Asbo or sumfink?

    Gotta go for a bit.

    Ask the delivery driver to just leave her in the drive if I'm not here. Thanks.

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  68. do me best AB

    but don't feed her too much...i reckon the thauma canine regime/routine sounds just right for fattening up........

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  69. I'll just leave you, temporarily, with:

    Atomgirl - the Goldfish Bowl/Lampshade Years.

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  70. Dog fed. Out. Crashed out on sofa now.

    All is well with the world.

    Send us no slebs.

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  71. thauma

    everyone's gotta do their bit for big suckciety...i reckon one will be arriving on your doorstep soon........think of them as free dog food...

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  72. Evening all.

    Slebs, eh? Pass the sick bucket
    Taxmeshameless? Need a bigger sick bucket to drown the t*at in vomitus.

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  73. Hmmm...

    "I'm not really a druggie oh ok then I am" Katona vs "My 10 mth third-marriage is on the rocks already" Jordan.

    Difficult to know where to start, really...

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  74. Free dog food is a good idea though, gandolfo

    And Thaum, have you been torturing that pooch?! Poor starving wee creature that she is. :o)

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  75. Evening MsChin

    (and anyone else I might have missed).

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  76. BB - I know, it's dreadful. You've seen her: starved away to practically nothing at all.

    Slebs probably don't have enough meat on them to get her back on the right track to proper nourishment.

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  77. BB

    You could've warned me about Waddya .. I'm all embarrassed & lost for words now.

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  78. MsChin

    For a lurker to come out of lurking to say it is quite something, I thought. And it is no more than you deserve. xx

    :o)

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  79. Give over BB, I'm no different from lots of other people here or anywhere else. Just human.

    And from Yorkshire, so consider yourself clipped round ear 'ole!

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  80. Jay
    Hope your pissed by now mate

    MsChin / others
    Celebrity ? Funny how I reckoned back in the early nineties that the celebration of the medicocre (my definition of celebrity) would get more and more of a foothold - it suits so many socio-political agendas, from the pseudo left to the free market right...

    Catch you in Hyde Park if not before....

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  81. @AB

    You said you wanted a small sleb so you may find a whole Katona a bit much. How about one of these?

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  82. Also interesting, and not a million miles apart from that point s my observation (born in evidential fact) that the Guardian & Observer published easily as many column inches as any of the red-tops, about Big Brother, in its first six years... (i.e. in its heyday as a brand).

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  83. I consider my ear'ole duly clipped, MsChin :o)

    Wotcha BW and Spike.

    I wish you hadn't posted that link though, Spike. I've not long had me dinner...

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  84. I was on her the other day wondering why Helena Bonham Carter is in just about every drama on the BBC lately...and wondering why..especially given her tendency to overplay, over-analyse and over the fuckin rainbow every role in sight...

    here's why..

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/jan/05/camerons-bonham-carter-photographed-together

    ..someone's a bit anxious about keeping their licence fee

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  85. gandolfo
    Roger that. Can't wait for the next series of Thick of It. Get that in Italy ? Should be chock full of duplicitous posh-tory-pretend-lite fucktards like him...

    BB
    According to that popular online rumour-mill wikipedia, in early 2010 the court had a backlog of over 120,000 cases and a multi-year waiting list. At the current rate of proceedings, it would take 46 years for the backlog to clear. I reckon that boy Raab's bullshitting his own people !

    ReplyDelete
  86. OMG, sorry been away 4 a bit, think my GF is gonna dump me, so bit on the plate.. Any hoo do any ov youz think Imogen Black is on BBC3 th now?

    ReplyDelete
  87. Waddaya know...seems some people are catching onto the insidious notion that not all CIF's deletions are the result of guideline infringements

    "there's a lot of it about lately"

    lately: adv 'in the recent past'

    recent: adj...'any moment in the last..ooh..let's see..5 years or so'

    ReplyDelete
  88. .
    gandolfo said...
    bitey

    you have really created a fantasy world in which you imagine others live, no doubt cos your own life is so shit you project onto others.....you really should put the same amount of time and energy into bettering your own life which is so seemingly void of anything that you feel constrained to fantasise about others......while you consider this i suggest you shut the fuck up.....
    05 January, 2011 21:03


    gandolfo - evidence?

    I'm careful not to post personal information that might harm others but I can assure you gandolfo I have a varied, exciting and rewarding life that most people would give their right arm for. I've mentioned before that last year I walked the Pennine Way with five friends, one of whom is registered blind and some of whom I've walked with in seven countries several times a year since 1986. I've several friends in a different group that I went to junior and secondary school with and who live in three continents. And I've a group of close friends who live in the UK and who when I'm here I see once or twice a month. I'm a founding partner in a successful business that's taken me to and from China twice a year since 2004 and has allowed me to visit many amazing places in that country, like Chengzhi which I visited this August. I have a "family" in one of the Himalayan countries where after the father helped me climb a near 7000 metre peak, I've helped to fund the education of their children for the past eleven years.

    So I'd be really interested in any suggestions you might have in how I might improve the void in my life.

    ReplyDelete
  89. @Thauma: is your dog called "Pavlov"?!!!!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  90. MF
    Ah - I see interest is finally taking off in the
    CiF No Shit, Columbo ? Awards

    Taken a while to catch on !

    How goes it ?

    ReplyDelete
  91. bitters
    in italy are you mad.... but there's always you tube.......

    "There are only three ways to guarantee protection against identifiable terrorists. Kill them on the battlefield, deport them, or incarcerate them. The first won't counter a homegrown threat. The second is hamstrung by expanding human rights law. UK courts, not Strasbourg, recently imposed fresh fetters, barring deportation where it disrupts family relations. It is one thing to ban returning criminals to a torturing state, another
    to allow family ties to trump public protection."

    jesus friggin wept....good to see they've put the right man on the human rights com..........

    ReplyDelete
  92. Hey chekhov. Her dog has no nose you know...

    ReplyDelete
  93. I've mentioned before Bitey that if you did thePenine way you must have passed within a mile of my meat space avatar. If onnly you'd introduced yersel, I could have knocked your teeth oot...

    ReplyDelete
  94. bitey
    well despite the fact that you say that you have a fulfilling life i really wonder why your so seemingly get pleasure out of stalking people on blogs and keeping a database of comments...bizarre behaviour even for the least fulfilled lives.......

    so my suggestions are, for now...

    a year long walk in the foothills and mountains of the himalayas......

    and laying off your cyber-stalking.......

    ReplyDelete
  95. Turm - sorry to hear about the probs, mate ... let's hope you're wrong (if that's how you want it).

    Bitey - aww, bless; got friends IRL now, have you? Is it very expensive?

    Chekhov - close! "Pavlova".

    ReplyDelete
  96. Aye gandolfo - I'd love to see an Italian version of Thick of It. Preferably with Paul Whitehouse as Berlusconi...

    Turminder
    Blimey mate - have you been shacking up with Imogen ???

    ReplyDelete
  97. Soz, that was uncalled for. Hope things are improving....

    ReplyDelete
  98. turm

    hello!!! good to see you've survived hogmanay....well done!!

    ReplyDelete
  99. Lol BW, If the missus does dump me, looks like IB likes the ganj as much as me... Apart frm the potential dumping, I'm grand Happy New Year all UTr's P xx : )

    ReplyDelete
  100. .

    Sheffpixie:

    Re polemics - there are others to provide the argument - we're not short of them. Not to mention our resident troll, bitethehand who's just re-appeared after the hols and enjoys stalking BB.


    Accusing me of stalking MrsBootstraps is rather like accusing members of the Barmy Army of shouting at Mitchell Johnson. They both invite and deserve it.

    ReplyDelete
  101. I love the inclusion of "identifiable" terrorists....I guess so as not to blot his HR credentials also i suppose carpet bombing entire villages in afghanistan doesn't come into that for our Mr Dominic "call me mahatma" Raab

    ReplyDelete
  102. They both invite and deserve it?

    Minimise & deny - classic perpetrator behaviour.

    ReplyDelete
  103. Reporting for duty to Cap'n Thauma!!! Just seen your email chuck ;0) (fanks, you have a reply in your inbox) the words "OI - LA RIT!!" jolted me into action!

    HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAY!!!!

    Get any noice pressies????

    OK, am just going to do a bit of scanning of today's thread......

    Belated HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL - I've been missing you :(

    ReplyDelete
  104. Gandolfo

    There are only three ways to guarantee protection against identifiable terrorists

    There's only four ways to get unravelled.

    One is to sleep and the other is travel ... one is a bandit up in the hills; one is to love your neighbour till - his wife gets home.

    ReplyDelete
  105. Hello everyone; here's the link to a fascinating article in today's "Indie".

    The TV follow up is on BBC 4 right now.

    Sorry I should have flagged it up earlier but no doubt you can view it on "catch up" or "I-Player"


    http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-uncomfortable-truth-about-mind-control-is-free-will-simply-a-myth-2177014.html

    ReplyDelete
  106. BW

    I'm feeling pretty good-in-myself...whatever the fuck that means..

    the work front seems to be drying up...but the FTSEs doing OK...and that's what's important apparently

    unfortunately I invested my 'pile' in Fucked-up-interweb-stalkers-R-Us a couple of years back, only their CEO, Mr Hand, didn't live up to his initial promise...useless cunt failed to take advantage of the expanding Asian market. Spends most of his time looking after Gary Glitter's PR these days...so insiders tell me.

    ReplyDelete
  107. BW - the Raab geezer, like most tory eejits, has no idea what he is talking about and is just repeating soundbites he read on a leaflet somewhere.

    I keep asking these "let's do away with the Human Rights Act" people which of the rights protected they would wish to do away with, the reason why they should go, and what they would be replaced with. And, if they are suggesting derogating entirely from the ECHR, how they think that might play out with the Council of Europe membership.

    I never seem to get a response, funnily enough...

    ReplyDelete
  108. gandolfo

    There are only three ways to guarantee protection against identifiable terrorists.

    For some reason, I read that as "inflatable terrorists" which seemed to tie in with "expanding human rights law" and the fact that when we are dealing with terrrrsts, things go bang.

    It would be hard to imagine the combined minds of America and Broekn Britain coming up with anything better than terrorism to deflect public attention away from their own acts of abuse against their people.

    Except, maybe, a wicker basket full of kittens.

    Spike

    I admit that my knowledge of slebs is not extensive, so I will just have to ask this one straight out.

    The picture was not the Cheeky Girls, was it?

    ReplyDelete
  109. Nice one, MF. Soz to hear about work, though.

    AB - Cheeky girls at 60, maybe. :o)

    ReplyDelete
  110. .

    thaumaturge said...

    Bitey - aww, bless; got friends IRL now, have you? Is it very expensive?


    Of course but we share and share alike. Sometimes I pay the air fare to visit them; other times they do likewise to visit me. I travel on the public bus and train, stay in cheap hostels and hotels; own homes in England and China so they're free so to speak and best of all I quite like my own company so I've been very happy to backpack for as long as a year on my own in four continents, with my only regret having to come home. But then on the opposite side of the globe I met my present business partner.

    ReplyDelete
  111. LaRit! Glad to see you back, and just replied.

    Can I just mention that song I posted a wee while back is one of my very favourites and I think I'm going to have to play it again.

    Catacombs, nursery bones, winter women throwing stones ... carrying babies to the river!

    The monk. bought. lunch.


    MF - hope you are joking ... it's hard to tell sometimes ... but wish you the best. x

    ReplyDelete
  112. MF
    Mr Hand indeed... he never knows what the other one's doing. SSeriously, good luck with the work. Missus just got back from work, so going to sign off... tara.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Of course but we share and share alike. Sometimes I pay the air fare to visit them; other times they do likewise to visit me. I travel on the public bus and train, stay in cheap hostels and hotels; own homes in England and China so they're free so to speak and best of all I quite like my own company so I've been very happy to backpack for as long as a year on my own in four continents, with my only regret having to come home. But then on the opposite side of the globe I met my present business partner

    Bitey, you poor baby ... you don't have the faintest idea what 'friendship' means.

    Here's one for the people who like to go down slow. (Not you, Bitey.)

    ReplyDelete
  114. "the work front seems to be drying up...but the FTSEs doing OK...and that's what's important apparently."

    Ah, yes, the FTSEs doing all right, so that's ok then!

    All right for whom? (those who play "footsie" with each other no doubt).

    How long before we get the old "trickle down" bullshit again?

    "Trickle down" my arse; sometimes indistinguishable from being pissed on.

    I pinched that last sentence from someone on CIF. I wish I could remember who it was; they deserve a medal!

    ReplyDelete
  115. As long as Mr Mojo's Risin', there ain't too much wrong with the world. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  116. @AB

    Since the one on the left is a motorcycling Blairite guilty of financial skulduggery who, like Martin Bell (but unsuccessfully), stood in Tatton against Neil Hamilton, I strongly suspect her of moonlighting as Mrs. Bracken.

    ReplyDelete
  117. .

    BeautifulBurnout said...
    Seconded on the bafflement engendered by the likes of Heat, Hello, OK and their ilk. I really couldn't give a toss what dress an alleged famous person was wearing to a posh party that I would never be invited to in a million years. Nor how many thousands of pounds they spent on their sofa.


    That's because you're so obsessed with yourself.

    ReplyDelete
  118. Oh for god's sake. Think this is fake Bitey again - giss summat from the archives to counter that.

    ReplyDelete
  119. Helooo BB! ;0) x Good to see you too!

    Thauma - I pissed myself laughing when you said earlier about getting freaked out if the neighbours recognise you.... if I've been out on the razz and making a general twat of myself, nice though most of my neighbours are, I tend to skulk around and avoid them for a wee while in the hope I didn't meet them on the stairs and uttering some drunken inanities!

    ReplyDelete
  120. As for that Jenkin's woman... she's an affront to music and to singing.... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... I mean, she turned up on Doctor bloody Who t'other day ffs.....

    ReplyDelete
  121. .

    thaumaturge said...

    Bitey, you poor baby ... you don't have the faintest idea what 'friendship' means.


    So give me a definition t'urge, if you can manage more than twenty words at a time.

    ReplyDelete
  122. "Hey chekhov. Her dog has no nose you know..."

    You didn't really expect me to fall for that one did you "Bitters"?

    ReplyDelete
  123. Hello "La Rit" good to see you back. Where have you been?

    A good "La Rit" rant is worth a dose of prozac!

    ReplyDelete
  124. Yeah Thaum, it's the fake Bitey.

    He can still fuck off though. Not even close to funny.

    LaRit - my colleague from Swansea worships that Jenkins woman, for some reason. Nothing exceptional about her at all imo. I know this bird in Sarf London wot sings better than she does! xx

    ReplyDelete
  125. Hey Chekhov!

    Any news on the capitalist scum job? Tell them you want danger money as well, as it could put your life at risk from the proletariat if you are recognised in the street afterwards. :o)

    ReplyDelete
  126. Bugger. Lost previous *cough* carefully-crafted and fantastically intelligent comment.

    Going to bed instead.

    ReplyDelete
  127. .

    thaumaturge said...
    Oh for god's sake. Think this is fake Bitey again - giss summat from the archives to counter that.


    How about this?

    Comment on: The top shelf is no place for lads' mags

    Bitethehand 01 May 09, 1:16pm

    thaumaturge
    Care to provide some concrete examples?

    In my post at 10:53am which has been deleted and an earlier one in response to AllyF's challenge:

    "It's telling that in order to have a pop at him earlier, BTH was reduced to digging up a quote from someone else that Jay had then quoted"

    .......which has disappeared without trace, I gave a number of concrete examples of his abuse, but understandably, despite Ally's invitation, the mods considered to be off topic or something.


    Only in bold so you can savour it.

    Hope you can understand the gist because I'm not sure that I can.

    But then that's one of the defects of databases - they rarely record sufficient of the context.

    I'm sure others could do better than me, but they don't have the application.

    ReplyDelete
  128. Chekhov:

    Hey yourself - prepare for your La Rit special RANT tonic - just posted this on the Laurie Penny thread, which is positively teaming with Tory Scumbags and flamers....

    Gizarec:

    Yet another predictable Tory troll and Flamer out on the thread eh?

    Hilarious.... you come across all pompous and with the faux 'manners'.... and then, you just can't help revealing yourself with this....

    "You people do not deserve a peace-keeping Monarchy"

    Really, the class war being fought from Tory Party/Policy Exchange/Scum Newsdesk lackeys is in sore need of some better training in the art of blogging, 'cos you're all crap....

    "How can you expect respect when to protest means to riot?"

    Protesting is not a popularity contest you twit.

    "Gloating over a poke in the ribs is not scholarship"

    And in the context of ripping the heart out of education for the masses in this country to keep the likes of Camilla and Charles in Castles, Racehorses, Butlers and Furs from here until the 25thC - it's a small price to pay - they got off lightly next time, they may not be so lucky

    ReplyDelete
  129. BB - tell your colleague she's being short-changed by a faker! (and thanks for the compliment!)

    ReplyDelete
  130. A nice not to end on BB.

    K - I'm off to read some before I hit the hay - expect to see more of me from now on :)

    Night night all xxxxx

    ReplyDelete
  131. .

    monkeyfish said...

    unfortunately I invested my 'pile' in Fucked-up-interweb-stalkers-R-Us a couple of years back, only their CEO, Mr Hand, didn't live up to his initial promise...useless cunt failed to take advantage of the expanding Asian market. Spends most of his time looking after Gary Glitter's PR these days...so insiders tell me.
    06 January, 2011 21:46



    And there you are money'fish, concentrating on the irrelevant while in real life a child abuser is alive and well in Birmingham, England, laughing at you missing his real crime, while you puff out your meagre chest on the UT exposing 'genuine' virtual abusers.

    So in reality, priceless pseudo satire from someone whose better comments induce your 'groupies' here to dribble and fawn at the power of your intellect.

    ReplyDelete
  132. Beddy byes time for me too. NN all xx

    ReplyDelete
  133. .

    BeautifulBurnout said...


    I keep asking these "let's do away with the Human Rights Act" people which of the rights protected they would wish to do away with, the reason why they should go, and what they would be replaced with.

    I never seem to get a response, funnily enough...
    06 January, 2011 21:46



    Well here's one for you MrsBootstraps.

    When you contributed to my banning on CiF, did you ever consider how you were preparing the ground for those Tory and worse contributors who now seem to have captured so much of CiF?

    If you examine my contributions to CiF you'll find that of those who constantly defended human rights and freedom of speech, I'm well up front, and even without the foul mouthed abuse of the likes of Scorpio and 'fish.

    So now you reap the reward of your me, me, me attitude.

    ReplyDelete
  134. .

    BeautifulBurnout said...
    Yeah Thaum, it's the fake Bitey.

    He can still fuck off though. Not even close to funny.



    I'm so glad you're not my lawyer MrsBootstraps. You'd get me consigned to the pokey every time.

    Here you are in Feb 2009

    Comment on: Nick Griffin in Europe? Not likely

    Bitethehand 01 Feb 09, 12:50am

    "BeautifulBurnout

    To be fair, 20:20 hindsight is a marvellous thing.

    I was delighted when New Labour came to power in 97, as was the majority of the population. How the hell could any of us foresee that the "New Labour, New Danger" adverts with the demon eyes were an accurate prediction?"


    To which my response was:

    Good point BB but while Labour politicians have always been a bunch of duplicitous opportunists, trade union leaders are expected at the very least not to follow slavishly, the likes of Blair and Brown.

    You see MrsB you have this remarkable facility for someone who craves popularity more than any poster I've come across, of alienating those who support you.

    ReplyDelete
  135. So now you reap the reward of your me, me, me attitude.
    Did I miss something or is "Bitey" a Buddhist?

    What comes around goes around and all that stuff?

    ReplyDelete
  136. Hello Chekhov.

    Regarding your job i'd go for it if i were you mate.And screw the bastards for everything you can get out of them.

    @Bitey

    Just out of interest what would stop you gunning for BB the way you do?Surely if your life is as interesting as you say it is your issues with her shouldn't be that important.You've made your point now move on mate,seriously!

    ReplyDelete
  137. chekhov said...
    So now you reap the reward of your me, me, me attitude.

    Did I miss something or is "Bitey" a Buddhist?

    What comes around goes around and all that stuff?


    Not me chekov but you might like to explain.

    ReplyDelete
  138. Paul said...

    @Bitey

    Just out of interest what would stop you gunning for BB the way you do? Surely if your life is as interesting as you say it is your issues with her shouldn't be that important.You've made your point now move on mate,seriously!
    07 January, 2011 00:34


    Just to feed your interest, and I'm not your 'mate', if you'd recorded the action as astutely as I have, or even paid a modicum of attention to what was going on here, you'd have concluded that I only respond to admittedly rather poor attempts to denigrate my reputation as one of CiF's longest standing contributors.

    And I've said before, and you might like to contemplate this wisdom, - if you agree that our greatest fear is that our brain will give out before our body does, then it's most important, possibly the most important, that we keep our brain as exercised as we do our body.

    But how to do that?

    Some say crosswords or suduko, but for me it was CiF.

    But no more.

    So now I take on the likes of government departments who obstruct my business, or local authorities who feel it's ok for them to charge me full council tax when my house is unoccupied for half the year

    And the last wicket goes down

    ReplyDelete
  139. Bitey

    Where i come from the term 'mate' ain't necessarily a term of endearment so i wouldn't read too much into my use of it as far as you're concerned.

    I'm in no position to proportion blame in your ongoing feud with BB as the events that caused it occurred before my time and at the end of the day i'm really not that interested.However in the months i've been posting on the UT most people who do engage with you tend to be quite hostile and i don't understand the psychology of someone who chooses to either post or lurk here when they surely must be aware the only responses they're likely to get are variations of 'fuck off bitey'.Which is why i politely suggested you move on.However at the end of the day it's your call.No skin off my nose!

    ReplyDelete
  140. No skin off my nose!

    Mine neither.

    And as you say, you weren't around at the time.

    Sounds like the story of other people's lives.

    But not mine 'mate'.

    I've been everywhere.

    Well almost, but nowhere near as much as my mate Stuart, who really has been to most places.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Bitey

    Do i detect a bit of a sense of humour there? Well blow me down with a feather duster!

    ReplyDelete
  142. Truth really is stranger than fiction.

    ReplyDelete
  143. Here's a track for all the night people from KEM

    ReplyDelete
  144. yes Maltby/Thurcroft, Sheff - I've a long association with the area - once spent a term at Dinnington High.

    ReplyDelete