When did you hurt me? Never, really. But when you showed up here a couple of months ago, you seemed to take a rather perverse pleasure in baiting people then playing the victim when they reacted the way you surely knew that they would. You said absolutely vile things to Monkeyfish, denied it, refused to apologise, then went to Waddya and played to the numpties their who like to sniff about what a bunch of ruffians we are.
As for what you said to Paul -- you can apologise all you want, but the fact that you used it at all is a huge insight into your character, or lack thereof. I can't even bring myself to type that word. No way, no how could I ever use it. Maybe it's because I'm American that the word is so especially heinous to me, but I don't think so. I think that most people are aware of the special sort of hate that lives in it. The apology that you did offer was late, after quite an attempt at re-writing the event and couched in language that sought to minimise the offence. In short, it wasn't really much of an apology at all.
As far as I'm concerned, I'll be happy to ignore you on Cif. I've no desire to engage in feuds with you or anyone else. But, if you choose to join in the UT bashing on Waddya, I will respond.
I was watching the news from France this morning and there was a vociferous, bolshy striker outside one of the oil refineries who bore an uncanny resemblance to Mr Bracken.
Can this be true? Has Peter joined the legions of the 'deluded left' and thrown his lot in with the workers? Can CiF and the UT's no1 muscular liberal really have gone over to the red side?
I feel like the young boy outside the Chicago courthouse during the 'Black sox' scandal of 1919 pleading "Say it ain't so Joe" to 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson.
The World's axis has jolted slightly. Peter, please reassure us it is not the case and it was in fact Pierre Braquen your deluded döppelganger that I saw on TV.
look like sausage, taste (more or less) like sausage, texture of...a bit like tofu. sort of airy and insubstantial. not mousse, exactly, more....polystyrene-y.
A quick dash in for now and I'll be back later....
Moonwave
Fantastic posts last night. ;)
Jen
Was reading your comments from last night and so sad that you feel your exam went so badly. You may have to just wait and see but don't write it off completely just yet.
Wrt mental health issues and stigma, my partner suffered badly and was in hospital for a long time (as a voluntary patient). If I was to be truthful, I would say it took him the best part of 3 years to get back on a solid, even keel but I promise you, his mental health history has not affected his ability to get a job (as the last 7 months have proved) and neither should it. It may have been different if he'd been sectioned, but I don't think it is something that has to be disclosed. Please don't let that become a stick with which to beat yourself ("I'm unemployable").
I suffered very, very badly after my father died - it took me 6 years to really say I'd recovered enough to no longer feel desperate and I still have residual problems (irrational fear of accidents/things happening to loved ones/anger) but I do deal with them and know them for what they are. To this day, I'm not sure how I managed to hold down a job without the support of some damn good work colleagues who knew I was not 'mad', just a human being in a great deal of distress.
aye jen, hope things look up soon - the really positive thing from this is, as you say, lessons learned, and, however the last exam went, that you are signing up for another course. don't let the bastards / OU / ATOS / whoever get you down, etc etc. keep at it, and 'em. good vibes...
Oh, dear. It looks as if EnglishHalfwit gone for a Burton over the briney.
These seem to be his last recorded words, crackling with static and, possibly, stuttering flames as he left a spiral of smoke in the sky which was his habitat before splashing into the ocean of his final despair at not being quite up to the job of keeping WADDYA a place where decent women and children could feel safe from invasions by the enemy, which, in his mind, had become legions of GIYUS wannabes.
Giyus has been banned for breaching community standards yet comes back again and again to breach the standards. Do you think that community standards should be upheld or not?
It may seem annoying to you, but if you had been on the receiving end of 50+ of them, you would feel very differently, believe you me.
I think this thread will be closed down soon. Despite Jessica's pleas for self moderation, no personal disputes or baiting, it carries on. I don't to be responsible for it so I'm off.
I don't want this shit on my screen, in my home or in my life. Bye Bye.
RIP EnglishHalfwit.
You seem to have spluttered your last jolly little "Dagga, dagga, dagga."
No doubt you will forever report for duty, sah, in those cloudless skies over the Battle of WADDYA.
A small, private ceremony will be attended by...er...well, you know.
Meanwhile, in other news, I have just had the most stupendous shit.
It's weird eh AB? All that 'Bally tuppeny one's, dropping in the custard!!!' I thought, is he actually loosing his marbles? I'll get some cans, and crisps.
All this internecine squabbling distracts us from the real deal...
I think we all have multiple personalities, there's what we say we are, what we like to think we are, and then, what our actions and words tell others, the veracity is in the last, and that's where a lot of people spit the dummy. Thots?
BTW unexeptionals link to PSd Russian WWII/Modern photos is well worth a click : )
thauma - to be fair, if it hadn't been delayed, the rest of the armed forces would have been kitted out at primark and travelling to overseas theatres in a minibus borrowed from the local rotary, so this is definitely a case of 'practicality over principle'.
turm I think we all have multiple personalities, there's what we say we are, what we like to think we are, and then, what our actions and words tell others, the veracity is in the last, and that's where a lot of people spit the dummy. Thots? Aye, I fondly think of myself as a creative genius, hold myself out as a bumbler who occasionally stumbles on something, and no doubt prove the bumbling rather than the stumbling element with my actual output.
speaking of which, am off to try to persuade people to purchase software in a melange of languages (oh, that i spoke portuguese...this could be a long process...).
So they're postponing Trident? But from what i gather they're going ahead with the building of two new aircraft carriers.Trouble is they can only afford to kit one of them out with aircraft so one will remain have to remain mothballed.Until of course the one with aircraft sinks.But let's hope the aircraft on the one that sinks get to fly off before it it does go down .Otherwise we'll end up with just one mothballed aircraft carrier without aircraft.
Of course, we all have various parts and aspects to our characters and personalities and this is what makes us human. This is what should make us rejoice in our never-ending multiplicity and adaptability, our shimmering quicksilver fickleness set against our obdurate and steadfast immovability and loyalty.
The problem with many people is that all this simply confuses them and leaves them unable to cope. They have to be able to tick off the checklist and ensure that you fall into the right categories and fulfil their expectations.
The main problem with the WADDYA set is their complete and utter inability to see that it is their own shortcomings which are continuously being exposed and highlighted.
No doubt EnglishHalfwit will be back to fight another battle, though, once he has re-established his place in the great scheme of things by treading on a couple of slugs.
This is what should make us rejoice in our never-ending multiplicity and adaptability, our shimmering quicksilver fickleness set against our obdurate and steadfast immovability and loyalty.
Props AB, props.
Hi BW! I had a pal, a percussionist who wanted to set up a kids drumming group, couldn't understand why parents objected to the name 'Hardcore Drum Corps'...
AB Does this mean 'Nellie the nag' and me can turn around and make the trek home, without the fear of being straffed ?. Been living in fear of hearing: "Dagga, dagga, dagga."
Mind you we only got 1/2 mile outside of the village. Only travelled in darkness.
Am now hearing there will be no aircraft for either aircraft carrier.So what possible use is an aircraft carrier without aircraft.Unless of course we loan the fight decks out to Amercian planes.Or maybe offer a timeshare between the Americans and French.Perhaps the enemy can be fooled by stacking fake planes on the flight deck.Apparently during Britains darkest hour the Germans were fooled by fake factories and military bases built all over the country.So maybe we could even have a pretend war. Dagga dagga dagga !Fucking madness.
Jesus, what a fucking mess. The worst of both worlds. If you’re set on building carriers, then build the fighters to go on them. Otherwise, don’t fucking bother.
And I just don’t buy this argument that we’re building “future capability” into the system, by creating these platforms and then holding them in indefinite readiness until such time as the world changes and we’ll have our own lovely fighters to plonk down on them. Partly because the first carrier is only going to be configured for helos, and then stood down once the second is built and operational… and partly because the JSF isn’t slated to come on stream until 2020 at current best estimates. That’s 10 years at current best estimates without any form of UK carrier-borne airforce at all… and no amount of over-flying, accelerated service programmes and basing can make up for that.
Maybe the thousands who will end up homeless after the govts latest cunning plan can, you know, sleep on it and that!!
A sort of floating, erm, sink estate, for those who really are just too damn shabby to have around....
(Can't link I'm afraid, but there's something about slashing the budget for social housing by 50%, encouraging councils to charge rent up to 90% of the private sector rates, over at the BBC!)
It's a weird feeling being over here & reading about all the cuts in benefits. There's a bit of thinking, "Gosh, how horrible. We're not talking about that here" followed by remembering that we never had the benefits to begin with & you can't cut what isn't there.
Good idea. I’m thinking of setting up a business employing people to close stable doors after the horses have bolted. Maybe we could go into business together?
I don't envy you Montana, I fear that someday soon our best hope for not being totally like you guys (no offence, or even offense) will be Claire Rayner's ghost........
re your suggestion for a possible use for our aircraft carriers without aircraft i think the saying 'many a truth spoken in jest ' springs to mind.It's reported today that housebuilding in London is at a 20 year low whilst the Capital's population is steadily rising.Wouldn't be at all surprised if aircraft(less) carrier 'HMS Pinnafore'comes up the Thames at some stage ,loads up the homeless and takes them down to Tilbury Docks from where they'll be 'resettled'.
yeah, yeah that's the front, the excuse, the cover. He's been organising these strikes for weeks.
Peter's a deep undercover communist agitator fronting as a muscular liberal whilst plotting the downfall of capitalism. GIYUS sent me the link, here it's here:
Peter B is back.He posted on CIF yesterday.Although he could have been posting from centreparcs i suppose.Personally i'd miss him if he stopped posting here.
Just heard the Bewick Swans have arrived from Siberia - they often come on a cold wind!
Paul - I might be amused/bemused by Braken and I would certainly have bought him a jar or two had we met at BW's, nonetheless I would still never underestimate him. If, as I would expect, he was on one side of the barricades and I on the other I have no doubt he would aim between my eyes.
I bet his behaviour in a uniform and with a riot shield and baton would be highly predictable and it wouldn't be please stand back I am coming through.
He's taken the queens shilling and he gives every sign of believing the utter drivel on economics that he peddles.
Swifty on the other hand might just decide to aim to part my hair or even above my head. He might not of course.
For an insight into decent civilised economics I prefer to read and follow PrincessCC - a class commentator in every sense of the word. She recognises and includes human values in her assessments, he just mouths and follows the crass market mobsters.
I know who I would prefer as a neighbour.
I don't have it in for Braken I'm just sure that he really thinks that most of us are beneath his contempt. That or he really is ill. If it were a choice between a carrot for his daughters pony and a littel food for me and mine or you and yours - we'd all go hungry for we are made of the wrong kind of dna in his book.
His alleged belief system would surely have lead him to stoke the fires of Belsen. But he might have done it with humour.
I could be wrong of course I only have his choice of persona on here to go by.
Jen try not to get too downhearted. Spring is just around the corner!
"..Look on the bright side of the defence expenditure ! Seems they are over a barrel with the contract as agreed by Labour..."
tascia - I take the view that the senior civil service Mandarins have a moral duty to ensure that such a allegedly inescapable contracts are never signed by any govt.
We shouldn't be surprised that when the latest Perm Secretary at defence retires that he will be given a job with contractor.
If our arms were produced by a nationalised industry you wouldn't have such nonsense about binding irreversible contracts you would have more degrees of freedom to cut your cloth according to your purse.
Contract law rarely favours the people so much as the rich and powerful. Load of cobblers.
I heard those non-aircraft carriers are going to cost £5Bn - and that by the time they and the new planes the MOD have ordered are ready, they'll already be past their sell-by date.... ffs how many houses can you build for that?
It would be funny if it wasn't so bloody ludicrous.
Re; PB He posted some nonsense on the Khaled Diab thread today, something about the reason the Palestinians were under occupation was because they were all terrorists who wanted to destroy Israel.
Had to laff at that one - talk about wilful ignorance.
Defence of the Realm? - anybody worked out that the Chinese wouldn't have to defeat our aircraft carriers.
They could simply buy them as they came down the slipway with all the dollars they have. We are a free market economy and everything is for sale to the highest bidder.
Braken could easily earn a shilling by advising them on how to escape their side of the contract with HM Govt.
Anybody wonder why the Caymen Islands don't have any aircraft carriers??
Answers on a postcard to the UT Uni Major Braken if you please.
”…They could simply buy them as they came down the slipway with all the dollars they have…”
They might yet… given they don’t actually have any aircraft carriers in the People’s Liberation Army Navy, and apparently no programme for building any, buying one of our cast-offs might not be a bad deal.
Pity Sandhurst don't give our Officer class compulsory lessons in economics.
Officers ought surely to have a moral duty to explain to the grunts, from the UK's rundown parts, that they are fighting and dying to preserve the Cayman Islands as a UK tax haven. One which exists so the rich won't have to contribute to their grunt wages and to their rehabilitation if they are wounded and to their pensions should they live through their service.
It is sometimes said that it was the Army education corp that lead to the Labour post war Govt and the ousting of Churchill - Whatever happened to them and the spirit of honest political education. What's the betting it got it budget cut in the post war period?
Thanks. It's taken about 6 - 7 weeks from application to concrete job offer, including 4 days of intense training. I'm very pleased indeed that it's worked out so well ;0)
The FT forecasts 500,000 public sector job losses (they are bang on there as today's leak confirms that).
Additionally, at least 468,000 private sector jobs will go due to public spending cuts and reduced household expenditure, so we are looking at nearly 1m taxpayers losing their jobs straight off.
This is in line with the FT report from a couple of months ago which I linked on the Ha Joon Chang thread on CiF which stated that 2.3m private sector jobs in total could go as a result of cuts in Govt spending.
In 2007-2008, the public sector purchased £80bn worth of services from private companies. This is in addition to the £140bn of goods that the public sector buys from the private sector.
It is estimated that 1.2m private sector jobs depend directly on Govt spending with another 1.1 million jobs indirectly dependent.
Table 5 of the Govts own statistics show that 38p in the taxpayers pound goes towards the private sector in the form pf procurment and the buying of goods.
It is the economics of the madhouse.
Lastly, the FT interactive guide shows how the cuts will affect the country by region. Scotland, the North of England and Wales will be on average 10% worse off.
The South East of England 5-10% better off.....
If this does not get people out on the streets then I am afraid the UK gets what it deserves.
Thank's for that Swifty - as I often say I learn something new at UT everyday.
Saw young Nap got around to reading Upton Sinclair's Jungle - good on him an important read in view.
Back to the tedium of researching and drafting an IB appeal.
Jen by the time I'm finished there will be lots of helpful knowledge and materials that you will be able to tap into via Leni - if you ever need someone to join you at an atos interview/interrogation and your friends and family can't be there let me know and as a last resort I'll make myself available to be your note taking witness/friend if it would help you.
I am a tramp - but my beloved sometime does a decent job at trimming me head and scrubbing me up so I look almost presentable if I have to be.
I don't like Wayne Rooney much, other than as a footie player. Alex Ferguson is one of the best managers there have been, but fucking hell what a manipulative fuck he is.
Mark Anthony would have been proud of the speech he gave today. So hurt, so sad.
For anyone who wants to know how you can tell bullshit from honesty... at some point the bullshitters get too confident and tell a blatant lie:
"I felt I would leave him out and give him a complete break so he could be fit for England."
Ferguson has never cared about England.
Rooney done and dusted by possibly the best the bulshitter in the business.
It's a bit like watching people on waddya re-write the truth and have their fawning little puppies lap it all up.
My god, those figures are terrifying..... the knock on effect of that many job losses is almost impossible to countenance..... it is the economics of madness...
If people aren't prepared to get out on the streets here, I am definitely leaving this country for good.
"I felt I would leave him out and give him a complete break so he could be fit for England. The daft granny banging wee pug that he is." That's what I saw in the subtitles ; )
Sorry It doesn't read well - as most of my rushed (Lunch Break) posts tend to be short. The two lines are in the wrong order. I should have said:
..Seems they are over a barrel with the contract as agreed by Labour. [I also find this hard to believe]. OK, so on the bright side of the defence expenditure:..... .
And as for SHREK - Don't get me started AGAIN !! FFS I saw he's asking for £200,000 a week now. What fucking person deserves to earn that much money ?. It's absolutely obscene.
Careful - I just got back from the Dentist and have had TWO injections....
Deleted my last post but just wanted you to know that i applaud the work you're doing helping people with their Claims/Appeals for Disability Benefits.I suspect you may well soon see a sharp rise in demand for your services.I think Leni is also offering people similar help/support.
"Outlining the outcome of the review in a statement to the Commons this afternoon, Cameron sought to allay fears by insisting that, despite the cuts, Britain would still have the fourth largest military budget in the world and would meet the Nato target of spending 2% of GDP on defence"
Makes perfect sense don't it. 14th(ish) for GDP 4th largest world budget for defence spending FFS when will UK folk get some basic arithmetical skills and enquiring minds.
Makes me blood boil young people dying in ignorance in uniform. I do not believe they are properly informed or understand the place of the likes of the Caymen Island and even the fucking Isle of Man in the scheme of things.
Oh fucking brill - I see on a closer examination of one of the Wiki tables (CIA) that the Cayman Islands has a much greater GDP per head than the UK (but still no tax despite its dependency on the UK) and it flies the good old Union flag on it's own.
Are we Brits bonkers are we are fucking plain nuts?
Duke I like the FT too but I think you only get so much free content then it's £1.95 a week if you want full access. The Rich like their news unsullied with propaganda so I've always rated it as an information source.
"....Britain has the highest level of military spending of any G7 country, as a proportion of GDP, after the US. It also had the highest proportion of spending of any EU member state with the exception of Greece - where chronic excessive military spending is key source of the economic and budgetary crisis.
The UK ‘defence’ budget is officially said to be £37bn, but this is an underestimate as it excludes many other outlays, including military research, increased health and other spending on returning military personnel and the fact that military operations, such as Afghanistan are often funded from ‘contingency reserves’. In calculating the cost of the Iraq war, for example, Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes talk about the US Defense Department ‘keeping two sets of books’, so that the public does not see the true cost of the war.But even that secrecy and obfuscation is outdone by the British authorities, ‘The British system is particularly opaque: funds from the special reserve are “drawn down” by the Ministry of Defence when required, without specific approval by Parliament. As a result, British citizens have little clarity about how much is actually being spent’.
Yet even at the official lower estimate the military is vast over-spending, equivalent to 2.5% of GDP. No-one suggests that a country such as Germany is less secure than Britain and its military spending is approximately half that level at 1.3% of GDP.
In context, a reduction in the military budget to Germany’s level would save half of the UK total and produce a saving of £18bn- equivalent to the VAT hike and all the welfare benefit cuts of the March 2010 Budget which will hit next year....".
For years cohorts of left wing Guardian men have been denigrating left of centre feminists like Julie Bindel, Bidisha, Barbara Ellen, Libby Brooks and other less well known ones who post below the line and now having failed to see off their original foe with slights and insults, they wonder why some women have turned to the right for political solutions.
Interesting remark, K, thanks. Definitely food for thought.
I'd like to park this from Waddya, as I have no confidence that it'll be allowed to remain...
HermioneGranger 19 October 2010 6:01PM
I'd like to talk about public spending cuts.
I've just been informed that our local team charged with combating anti-social behaviour is to be disbanded due to lack of funding, although tbh, they weren't a lot of use anyway. Now we've been informed they are to be replaced by a third sector 'provider'. At first, I was sceptical but now, having met the service providers I'm very optimistic about the future.
Yesterday, three lovely young girls arrived; all from very good, well-connected families; we all had a nice cup of coffee and a long pleasant chat and they outlined their plans for the future of the youth club. First: no trouble makers; no outspoken 'louts'; pre-decided topics of conversation; and above all we're all to maintain a front of dignified civility at all times.
Mary, who's always been a bit of a 'radical' pointed out that since the anti-social element were to be excluded, and since frank debate and discussion had been banned, we wouldn't actually be doing anything about the rioting, looting, thieving or wanton violence and would instead be running a little cliquey talking shop. Mary's always been a bit of a troublemaker tbh and I was personally very glad to see her banned for life. Since then every thing's been peachy...especially since we stopped the kids playing their own music. One of the three new 'volunteers' (as it happens they all seemed to be paid quite a lot...far more than the last lot...but they are soooo lovely) brought her Coldplay CD and showed the kids some photos from her gap-year in India (god..she's so funky and spiritual).
Maybe a way could be found (as part of the Big Society Initiative) to find roles (well paid of course) for the offspring of nice, well-connected families to re-civilise the nation. You should see this place now: new curtains; coasters on the tables; a coffee machine...everything. Obviously we miss the kids but since the Security Patrols and razor wire arrived we never have to see them any more. But we have some really interesting chats.
Two of the new girls are really caring and socially aware. They told us all about the 'underclass' and what they get up to...a real eye-opener for me...all the more so since it turns out I've been living among the 'underclass' all my fuckin life...and sometimes we all get up and have a bop to 'Coldplay'...you can't really dance to it exactly..but it's really 'deep' and soulful...apparently.
14th(ish) for GDP 4th largest world budget for defence spending FFS when will UK folk get some basic arithmetical skills and enquiring minds.
And by that same logic, you bonehead, Luxembourg would be spending more than the US on defence. If you're gonna reason, deano, absent the dick from your forehead.
And, as for this shovel of shit:
His alleged belief system would surely have lead him to stoke the fires of Belsen. But he might have done it with humour.
...go fuck that flea ridden dog of yours. And I'm referring to the chien, should there be any confusion.
I can understand if you're pissed off with something not being correct, but you know, you got on your high horse about me midly remarking on Julian Glover's bedroom habits in a jocular style and then you come out with that at Deano?
La Rit, be fair, Deano has been having a pop at Bracken for a fair while now.
Honestly, the only way you could defend Deano is if you consider him to be one of the most warm-hearted, generous and compassionate of people on this site, while regarding Bracken as the ignored piss stain on Tony Blair's pants.
I don't consider Peter to be 'the piss stain on TB's pants' far from it. Certainly wouldn't use that kind of terminology to describe him.
I saw what he'd written, jumped in and the above post was the result. I also apologised immediately for getting it wrong, the post is there for all to see.
Ah well...I'll park this since HermioneGranger's been hit with a whatever you call that spell that kills you..
Responding to Hermioneg's...
"much, much better effort dear. see you can do it if you really try. pour yourself a large bananarita & pat yourself on the back"
--------------------------------------------
actually hermioneh, I was much more pleased with last night's efforts...and not a little pissed off that my response to Caroline's majestic 'slam dunk' was zapped...you can't get into a slanging match...chuck a "Misogynist!"-out of nowhere...apropos of nothing-then wipe the reply....I'd quite happily have a pop at any male 'assisstants'...if there were any. (did you identify which policy it transgressed btw?..cos I'm fucked if I've got a Scooby)
I'll give CIF its due, at least they normally wipe the lot...massaging the thread to give a certain 'interpretation' is the kind of underhand shit the likes of Sunny Hundal pulls...bad sign that h...when they've not only abandoned integrity but even the pretence of integrity, you know the storm clouds are gathering. and...
"My parents have never bought a copy of the Guardian in their lives."
is nothing..except possibly confirmation..I mean..what does that tell ya?...so they sent the chauffeur down the newsagent to pick it up with a 20 Pall Mall or whatever the 'chauffered' smoke.
Nope h...it's same ol'..same..ol'...nothing changes...not even the the CIF mantra (in full)
"Comment is free...facts are sacred...and if you can't compete...Delete!"
------------------------------------------------
RIP English Hermit...one by one, they slink away...It's like that Agatha Christie story "Ten Little..oops..nearly did a 'Martyn'
hermionegranger, take a bow. Better than last night, I thought. Made I larf. :o)
(Although I am one of the few round here that likes hermionegingold - she always takes it with grace and decorum :p )
Anyway, I think the spell was avarda kadarva, if I remember my Potter correctly. But it could be that now Hermione Granger is only eating a lettuce leaf a week, in her new role as Mulberry model, she has probably faded to translucent by now anyway...
I am most touched by the kind remarks about my random jottings.
Jen
I still do uni exams – at a ‘real’ university – which isn’t a personal observation, as I did the OU for some years - and I’m still no good at doing exams – so, daft or what?
I sincerely sympathise. It’s the night before which is the worse – the agony of the ‘soul’ before the daybreak, when I think – I’m not going – you must go - I’m not going – go – no I can’t … and then, nearly always, I go, with my feet heading one way, and all of my mind going back the other way. I do prefer afternoon exams when I can go at my leisure – not be wandering around in the early hours, feeling even more dreadful. There was an exam, probably three years ago, when I nearly turned around and went home even though I was already there, but I was really poorly at the time. However, against the odds, in a haze, I just about scraped a pass – you never know (maybe afterwards, but not beforehand).
I’m no good at thinking against the clock, and then I panic and can’t remember even what I know – just as well we’re no longer expected to remember to write our names correctly on the front of the paper.
I’ve gone to exams with feelings of hopelessness and had a lucky break and come away knowing I’ve got away with it after all. I’ve gone to exams with hope and come away with that heaviness of certain failure. And many points inbetween. I’ve mostly not known what I was doing at all really.
Yes, there are times when you just know it’s a lost cause, but it’s still all experience that builds towards somewhere. Real education isn’t about what’s on paper – it’s what it’s added to you personally - after a long lie down in a darkened room, that is… and having exams just as winter-time is about to commence really isn’t the best thing psychologically, and then getting the Fail letter just before Christmas – thanks a lot. At least these days I get my results in the middle of summer.
There are many things I can only do now because I kept going in spite of all of the initial setbacks – take it again – replace – leave it alone until another time; and when my affairs are the state of disaster, having become generally better educated than the pieces of officialdom trying to perpetuate it, tends to end up to my advantage – plus a certain amount of streetwiseness.
Purry cats are very comforting. We’ve never sought them out - they’ve found us one way or another – someone’s found a stray – we take in stray - stray goes out and bring backs friend – strange cat starts hanging around in the garden – weather turns cold – suddenly cat is sitting by the fire… They have their problems too.
(We have had dogs in times past, but they require rather higher levels of energy, and we’re really not up to it these days.)
Many times when funds have been low, there’s been more cat food in the larder than human food, because they are more vulnerable - there’s no use pretending we’ve got much practical sense.
However, I am doing what the government want (although I see no need to inform them of it), and improving my skills – which come in very useful for better being able to use the tools which can better spread the expression of an improved comprehension about all of their gross falsehoods.
James - thanks for that - was getting my knickers in a knot :o) We've just had a new girl in my class at school - she's a 'Looked After Child' - (and whoever came up with that pile of shite should be drowned too - how is that less pejorative than 'in care'? Just stupid & pretentious) - she was desperate to get back into school after being out since Feb. It's not fucking rocket science that she needs educational and emotional support, respect, and care...
Funny ... I'm not a fan of either of the 'megastars' involved in that tune ... nor the religious sentiment ... but it all works and it's superb. Probably Curtis Mayfield is better but I like this version.
You probably don’t know for what you ask… This is a good place if you've down-and-out, but otherwise mostly our community function is to give other households a happy glow of recognition that at least they're managing it rather better.
I’m afraid I’m not now able to linger here at later hours, due to at present spending my nights with an elderly person nearby, so I can only leave you folk to – enjoy fighting it out.
That Grainger quote - superbuous (just made that word up).
Channel Four news says welfare to be slashed and other departments cut up to 80%, including Justice and business. Social care to be 'decimated'. Incap to be only paid out now as means tested benefit meaning anyone with savings or partner with income will lose it. Social housing trashed.
But....drum roll - defence to be saved! Yeah only 8% cut so we can still go off invading people that have done us no harm and enjoy being America's beatch.
Oh and The Guardian? They didn't have any of that news last time I looked but they did have a nice little toy where you could pretend to be osbourne and make your own cuts. FFS!
Does anyone else think - even if you are a right wing moron who doesn't care about anyone but yourself and your own immediate family - it is dangerous to slash welfare to the bone and social care at the same time as cutting massively at the home office and 'decimating' justice. Lots of front line staff to go too as the leaked memo, held by slackjawed fucker Alexander shows. So not as many police, or parole officers or prison officers or courts and lots of very, very poor and pissed off people?
Coming to a city near you...Detroit. I is off to by me a gun.
P.s. Deano sterling work on incap there. I didn't know you and leni were doing that. Excellent stuff. (Apparently appeals are now backlogged to the tune of 27,000 for ESA and that is NEW cases - which will take months to clear and that is before Gruppenfuhrer Smith starts to 'migrate' everyone else onto it. I expect that most people will end up sitting on the appeal rate of ESA for years as they wait for their case.)
Just read a most interesting article about the foreclosure scandal in the US: http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=21493
Sorry can't do proper links - but it says that the banks are basically unrepetant in their illegal moves to throw millions out of their homes. Seems to be getting weirder over there every day though as now Blackrock is part of a consortium suing bank of America and get this - Blackrock is owned - 34% at least - by BoA! So when some Marxists talk about capitalism being canabalastic I guess this is what they mean?
I am wondering if the people in US wrongly evicted will get their homes - or equivalent - back ?
BoA could well be made to compensate them - could bankrupt them. Good to see some of the mighty fall - if only !
Capitalism has concentrated the wealth into so few hands that each individual or corporation can only accrue more by eating their peers - they have already chewed up and spat out the rest of us.
Morning Montana, and any other early risers in this hemisphere...
ReplyDelete@Martyn:
ReplyDeleteWhen did you hurt me? Never, really. But when you showed up here a couple of months ago, you seemed to take a rather perverse pleasure in baiting people then playing the victim when they reacted the way you surely knew that they would. You said absolutely vile things to Monkeyfish, denied it, refused to apologise, then went to Waddya and played to the numpties their who like to sniff about what a bunch of ruffians we are.
As for what you said to Paul -- you can apologise all you want, but the fact that you used it at all is a huge insight into your character, or lack thereof. I can't even bring myself to type that word. No way, no how could I ever use it. Maybe it's because I'm American that the word is so especially heinous to me, but I don't think so. I think that most people are aware of the special sort of hate that lives in it. The apology that you did offer was late, after quite an attempt at re-writing the event and couched in language that sought to minimise the offence. In short, it wasn't really much of an apology at all.
As far as I'm concerned, I'll be happy to ignore you on Cif. I've no desire to engage in feuds with you or anyone else. But, if you choose to join in the UT bashing on Waddya, I will respond.
I was watching the news from France this morning and there was a vociferous, bolshy striker outside one of the oil refineries who bore an uncanny resemblance to Mr Bracken.
ReplyDeleteCan this be true? Has Peter joined the legions of the 'deluded left' and thrown his lot in with the workers? Can CiF and the UT's no1 muscular liberal really have gone over to the red side?
I feel like the young boy outside the Chicago courthouse during the 'Black sox' scandal of 1919 pleading "Say it ain't so Joe" to 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson.
The World's axis has jolted slightly. Peter, please reassure us it is not the case and it was in fact Pierre Braquen your deluded döppelganger that I saw on TV.
Here's something I hadn't heard about before; a rather lovely miners' monument in St Helens.
ReplyDelete@13thDuke:
ReplyDeleteCan’t have been our very own M Le Commandant, though – the bolshy one’s French was nowhere near as good as the acme’s, surely…?
morning all.
ReplyDeletenot sure about boudin blanc.
look like sausage, taste (more or less) like sausage, texture of...a bit like tofu. sort of airy and insubstantial. not mousse, exactly, more....polystyrene-y.
troubling...
nice sauerkraut, though.
Hello Monkey Nut People ;0)
ReplyDeleteA quick dash in for now and I'll be back later....
Moonwave
Fantastic posts last night. ;)
Jen
Was reading your comments from last night and so sad that you feel your exam went so badly. You may have to just wait and see but don't write it off completely just yet.
Wrt mental health issues and stigma, my partner suffered badly and was in hospital for a long time (as a voluntary patient). If I was to be truthful, I would say it took him the best part of 3 years to get back on a solid, even keel but I promise you, his mental health history has not affected his ability to get a job (as the last 7 months have proved) and neither should it. It may have been different if he'd been sectioned, but I don't think it is something that has to be disclosed. Please don't let that become a stick with which to beat yourself ("I'm unemployable").
I suffered very, very badly after my father died - it took me 6 years to really say I'd recovered enough to no longer feel desperate and I still have residual problems (irrational fear of accidents/things happening to loved ones/anger) but I do deal with them and know them for what they are. To this day, I'm not sure how I managed to hold down a job without the support of some damn good work colleagues who knew I was not 'mad', just a human being in a great deal of distress.
Please be kind to yourself Jen.
BTW:
ReplyDeletePRINCESSCHIPCHOPS' comment has been selected as no.1 rec on the fornt page of CIF.
fornt??
ReplyDeleteBollox..... front (grrrrrr...)
Morning all.
ReplyDeleteHow are things in France today?
We had a Finnish visitor earlier ... hmmmm.
Morning Thauma!
ReplyDeleteaye jen, hope things look up soon - the really positive thing from this is, as you say, lessons learned, and, however the last exam went, that you are signing up for another course. don't let the bastards / OU / ATOS / whoever get you down, etc etc. keep at it, and 'em. good vibes...
ReplyDeleteHiya LaRit!
ReplyDeleteTrident at least postponed. Yay.
Oh, dear. It looks as if EnglishHalfwit gone for a Burton over the briney.
ReplyDeleteThese seem to be his last recorded words, crackling with static and, possibly, stuttering flames as he left a spiral of smoke in the sky which was his habitat before splashing into the ocean of his final despair at not being quite up to the job of keeping WADDYA a place where decent women and children could feel safe from invasions by the enemy, which, in his mind, had become legions of GIYUS wannabes.
Giyus has been banned for breaching community standards yet comes back again and again to breach the standards. Do you think that community standards should be upheld or not?
It may seem annoying to you, but if you had been on the receiving end of 50+ of them, you would feel very differently, believe you me.
I think this thread will be closed down soon. Despite Jessica's pleas for self moderation, no personal disputes or baiting, it carries on. I don't to be responsible for it so I'm off.
I don't want this shit on my screen, in my home or in my life. Bye Bye.
RIP EnglishHalfwit.
You seem to have spluttered your last jolly little "Dagga, dagga, dagga."
No doubt you will forever report for duty, sah, in those cloudless skies over the Battle of WADDYA.
A small, private ceremony will be attended by...er...well, you know.
Meanwhile, in other news, I have just had the most stupendous shit.
It's weird eh AB? All that 'Bally tuppeny one's, dropping in the custard!!!' I thought, is he actually loosing his marbles? I'll get some cans, and crisps.
ReplyDeleteAll this internecine squabbling distracts us from the real deal...
I think we all have multiple personalities, there's what we say we are, what we like to think we are, and then, what our actions and words tell others, the veracity is in the last, and that's where a lot of people spit the dummy. Thots?
BTW unexeptionals link to PSd Russian WWII/Modern photos is well worth a click : )
& I smoked all my stupendous shit ; (
thauma - to be fair, if it hadn't been delayed, the rest of the armed forces would have been kitted out at primark and travelling to overseas theatres in a minibus borrowed from the local rotary, so this is definitely a case of 'practicality over principle'.
ReplyDeletewill take it, though.
turm
ReplyDeleteI think we all have multiple personalities, there's what we say we are, what we like to think we are, and then, what our actions and words tell others, the veracity is in the last, and that's where a lot of people spit the dummy. Thots?
Aye, I fondly think of myself as a creative genius, hold myself out as a bumbler who occasionally stumbles on something, and no doubt prove the bumbling rather than the stumbling element with my actual output.
speaking of which, am off to try to persuade people to purchase software in a melange of languages (oh, that i spoke portuguese...this could be a long process...).
laters, lovelies.
Morning all
ReplyDeleteSo they're postponing Trident? But from what i gather they're going ahead with the building of two new aircraft carriers.Trouble is they can only afford to kit one of them out with aircraft so one will remain have to remain mothballed.Until of course the one with aircraft sinks.But let's hope the aircraft on the one that sinks get to fly off before it it does go down .Otherwise we'll end up with just one mothballed aircraft carrier without aircraft.
AB, Turminder
ReplyDeleteStupendous.
Isn't an aricraft carier without any planes a ship ? ...
ReplyDeleteOop, just realised, wrong ID. BW calling here... from behnind the lines ;-)
ReplyDeleteturminderxuss
ReplyDeleteOf course, we all have various parts and aspects to our characters and personalities and this is what makes us human. This is what should make us rejoice in our never-ending multiplicity and adaptability, our shimmering quicksilver fickleness set against our obdurate and steadfast immovability and loyalty.
The problem with many people is that all this simply confuses them and leaves them unable to cope. They have to be able to tick off the checklist and ensure that you fall into the right categories and fulfil their expectations.
The main problem with the WADDYA set is their complete and utter inability to see that it is their own shortcomings which are continuously being exposed and highlighted.
No doubt EnglishHalfwit will be back to fight another battle, though, once he has re-established his place in the great scheme of things by treading on a couple of slugs.
OK - off to HQ
ReplyDeleteMeet as arranged to decide who goes in as GIYUS later.
Also finalise details of codename "Big Push."
This is what should make us rejoice in our never-ending multiplicity and adaptability, our shimmering quicksilver fickleness set against our obdurate and steadfast immovability and loyalty.
ReplyDeleteProps AB, props.
Hi BW! I had a pal, a percussionist who wanted to set up a kids drumming group, couldn't understand why parents objected to the name 'Hardcore Drum Corps'...
AB
ReplyDeleteDoes this mean 'Nellie the nag' and me can turn around and make the trek home, without the fear of being straffed ?. Been living in fear of hearing: "Dagga, dagga, dagga."
Mind you we only got 1/2 mile outside of the village. Only travelled in darkness.
Now am waiting for the Giyus mushroom cloud !
Am now hearing there will be no aircraft for either aircraft carrier.So what possible use is an aircraft carrier without aircraft.Unless of course we loan the fight decks out to Amercian planes.Or maybe offer a timeshare between the Americans and French.Perhaps the enemy can be fooled by stacking fake planes on the flight deck.Apparently during Britains darkest hour the Germans were fooled by fake factories and military bases built all over the country.So maybe we could even have a pretend war. Dagga dagga dagga !Fucking madness.
ReplyDeleteNuce one turm.
ReplyDeleteMy drummer wanted to rename our band:
"Clap You C@nts"
Look on the bright side of the defence expenditure ! Seems they are over a barrel with the contract as agreed by Labour.
ReplyDelete1. At least we ensure jobs are safeguarded in the shipping industry. Men and women will remain in employment, and benefit from this contract.
2. We will have a mothballed ship that could in the future be floated out to sea and used as target practice by the non-existent air force.
Win win !!
Jesus, what a fucking mess. The worst of both worlds. If you’re set on building carriers, then build the fighters to go on them. Otherwise, don’t fucking bother.
ReplyDeleteAnd I just don’t buy this argument that we’re building “future capability” into the system, by creating these platforms and then holding them in indefinite readiness until such time as the world changes and we’ll have our own lovely fighters to plonk down on them. Partly because the first carrier is only going to be configured for helos, and then stood down once the second is built and operational… and partly because the JSF isn’t slated to come on stream until 2020 at current best estimates. That’s 10 years at current best estimates without any form of UK carrier-borne airforce at all… and no amount of over-flying, accelerated service programmes and basing can make up for that.
Maybe the thousands who will end up homeless after the govts latest cunning plan can, you know, sleep on it and that!!
ReplyDeleteA sort of floating, erm, sink estate, for those who really are just too damn shabby to have around....
(Can't link I'm afraid, but there's something about slashing the budget for social housing by 50%, encouraging councils to charge rent up to 90% of the private sector rates, over at the BBC!)
I'm setting up a new business, selling replacement wheels for handcarts, who's with me?
ReplyDeleteFloating Prison Hulks for the poor, moored off Southampton ... the only way forward !!!
ReplyDeleteCount me in, Dot.
ReplyDeleteIt's a weird feeling being over here & reading about all the cuts in benefits. There's a bit of thinking, "Gosh, how horrible. We're not talking about that here" followed by remembering that we never had the benefits to begin with & you can't cut what isn't there.
@Dott:
ReplyDeleteGood idea. I’m thinking of setting up a business employing people to close stable doors after the horses have bolted. Maybe we could go into business together?
I don't envy you Montana, I fear that someday soon our best hope for not being totally like you guys (no offence, or even offense) will be Claire Rayner's ghost........
ReplyDeleteJames, bit about the social cuts buried in another article in today's Graun.
ReplyDeleteIt is now expected that social housing grant will be cut in half or more – a move that would severely reduce social housing investment and probably lead to a big rise in rents.
Dott 0/ and swifty,
ReplyDeleteI was thinking more of a range of handbaskets!
'We're all headed to hell in one anyways, so why not make the journey in comfort and style....'
Thaum,
Cheers for that!
Also, in today's edition of 'wow, who'da thunk it':
ReplyDeleteEd Milivanilli doesn't actually attend the protests he said he'd 'definitely' be at!!
Well, there's a shocker.....
So no sign of Peter Bracken?
ReplyDeleteIt must have been him I saw at the barricades.
Nah 13th, he's at centreparcs ini?
ReplyDeleteJames
ReplyDeletere your suggestion for a possible use for our aircraft carriers without aircraft i think the saying 'many a truth spoken in jest ' springs to mind.It's reported today that housebuilding in London is at a 20 year low whilst the Capital's population is steadily rising.Wouldn't be at all surprised if aircraft(less) carrier 'HMS Pinnafore'comes up the Thames at some stage ,loads up the homeless and takes them down to Tilbury Docks from where they'll be 'resettled'.
turminder,
ReplyDeleteyeah, yeah that's the front, the excuse, the cover. He's been organising these strikes for weeks.
Peter's a deep undercover communist agitator fronting as a muscular liberal whilst plotting the downfall of capitalism. GIYUS sent me the link, here it's here:
www.brackenscommunistagitationagency.com
Paul
ReplyDeleteAye, I was, at best, only half-joking.
It certainly wouldn't surprise me either!!
Duke/Turminder
ReplyDeletePeter B is back.He posted on CIF yesterday.Although he could have been posting from centreparcs i suppose.Personally i'd miss him if he stopped posting here.
He's probably weeping over the lack of petrol for the bike.
ReplyDeleteLOL Thaum.
ReplyDeleteDuke
ReplyDeleteYou never know our Major might have single handedly bought Centreparcs to a halt.Every little helps as they say.Vive La Revolution!
Brought it to a halt even!
ReplyDeleteJust heard the Bewick Swans have arrived from Siberia - they often come on a cold wind!
ReplyDeletePaul - I might be amused/bemused by Braken and I would certainly have bought him a jar or two had we met at BW's, nonetheless I would still never underestimate him. If, as I would expect, he was on one side of the barricades and I on the other I have no doubt he would aim between my eyes.
I bet his behaviour in a uniform and with a riot shield and baton would be highly predictable and it wouldn't be please stand back I am coming through.
He's taken the queens shilling and he gives every sign of believing the utter drivel on economics that he peddles.
Swifty on the other hand might just decide to aim to part my hair or even above my head. He might not of course.
For an insight into decent civilised economics I prefer to read and follow PrincessCC - a class commentator in every sense of the word. She recognises and includes human values in her assessments, he just mouths and follows the crass market mobsters.
I know who I would prefer as a neighbour.
I don't have it in for Braken I'm just sure that he really thinks that most of us are beneath his contempt. That or he really is ill. If it were a choice between a carrot for his daughters pony and a littel food for me and mine or you and yours - we'd all go hungry for we are made of the wrong kind of dna in his book.
His alleged belief system would surely have lead him to stoke the fires of Belsen. But he might have done it with humour.
I could be wrong of course I only have his choice of persona on here to go by.
Jen try not to get too downhearted. Spring is just around the corner!
"..Look on the bright side of the defence expenditure ! Seems they are over a barrel with the contract as agreed by Labour..."
ReplyDeletetascia - I take the view that the senior civil service Mandarins have a moral duty to ensure that such a allegedly inescapable contracts are never signed by any govt.
We shouldn't be surprised that when the latest Perm Secretary at defence retires that he will be given a job with contractor.
If our arms were produced by a nationalised industry you wouldn't have such nonsense about binding irreversible contracts you would have more degrees of freedom to cut your cloth according to your purse.
Contract law rarely favours the people so much as the rich and powerful. Load of cobblers.
I pass on the logo of the London sperm bank with no further comment.
ReplyDeleteI heard those non-aircraft carriers are going to cost £5Bn - and that by the time they and the new planes the MOD have ordered are ready, they'll already be past their sell-by date.... ffs how many houses can you build for that?
ReplyDeleteIt would be funny if it wasn't so bloody ludicrous.
Hm. Think I'll wait until I'm not in the office to look at that.
ReplyDeleteRe; PB He posted some nonsense on the Khaled Diab thread today, something about the reason the Palestinians were under occupation was because they were all terrorists who wanted to destroy Israel.
ReplyDeleteHad to laff at that one - talk about wilful ignorance.
Haha Duke
ReplyDeleteReminds me of this place.....
Defence of the Realm? - anybody worked out that the Chinese wouldn't have to defeat our aircraft carriers.
ReplyDeleteThey could simply buy them as they came down the slipway with all the dollars they have. We are a free market economy and everything is for sale to the highest bidder.
Braken could easily earn a shilling by advising them on how to escape their side of the contract with HM Govt.
Anybody wonder why the Caymen Islands don't have any aircraft carriers??
Answers on a postcard to the UT Uni Major Braken if you please.
advising them (the contrctors)
ReplyDeleteWhen you start the new job LaRit like everbody else I was pleased to read your good news.
ReplyDelete@deano:
ReplyDelete”…They could simply buy them as they came down the slipway with all the dollars they have…”
They might yet… given they don’t actually have any aircraft carriers in the People’s Liberation Army Navy, and apparently no programme for building any, buying one of our cast-offs might not be a bad deal.
Pity Sandhurst don't give our Officer class compulsory lessons in economics.
ReplyDeleteOfficers ought surely to have a moral duty to explain to the grunts, from the UK's rundown parts, that they are fighting and dying to preserve the Cayman Islands as a UK tax haven. One which exists so the rich won't have to contribute to their grunt wages and to their rehabilitation if they are wounded and to their pensions should they live through their service.
It is sometimes said that it was the Army education corp that lead to the Labour post war Govt and the ousting of Churchill - Whatever happened to them and the spirit of honest political education. What's the betting it got it budget cut in the post war period?
Thank god the French have some spunk.
Ark Royal is going. Going to be the Mao Zehdong?
ReplyDeleteHey Deano!
ReplyDeleteThanks. It's taken about 6 - 7 weeks from application to concrete job offer, including 4 days of intense training. I'm very pleased indeed that it's worked out so well ;0)
@deano:
ReplyDeleteI don’t think he’s listening, he’d surely have risen to all this provocation by now?
I've just been browsing the FT. You need a log in and password (it's free) and I've come across this interactive guides to the spending review.
ReplyDeleteThe FT forecasts 500,000 public sector job losses (they are bang on there as today's leak confirms that).
Additionally, at least 468,000 private sector jobs will go due to public spending cuts and reduced household expenditure, so we are looking at nearly 1m taxpayers losing their jobs straight off.
This is in line with the FT report from a couple of months ago which I linked on the Ha Joon Chang thread on CiF which stated that 2.3m private sector jobs in total could go as a result of cuts in Govt spending.
In 2007-2008, the public sector purchased £80bn worth of services from private companies. This is in addition to the £140bn of goods that the public sector buys from the private sector.
It is estimated that 1.2m private sector jobs depend directly on Govt spending with another 1.1 million jobs indirectly dependent.
Table 5 of the Govts own statistics show that 38p in the taxpayers pound goes towards the private sector in the form pf procurment and the buying of goods.
It is the economics of the madhouse.
Lastly, the FT interactive guide shows how the cuts will affect the country by region. Scotland, the North of England and Wales will be on average 10% worse off.
The South East of England 5-10% better off.....
If this does not get people out on the streets then I am afraid the UK gets what it deserves.
Thank's for that Swifty - as I often say I learn something new at UT everyday.
ReplyDeleteSaw young Nap got around to reading Upton Sinclair's Jungle - good on him an important read in view.
Back to the tedium of researching and drafting an IB appeal.
Jen by the time I'm finished there will be lots of helpful knowledge and materials that you will be able to tap into via Leni - if you ever need someone to join you at an atos interview/interrogation and your friends and family can't be there let me know and as a last resort I'll make myself available to be your note taking witness/friend if it would help you.
I am a tramp - but my beloved sometime does a decent job at trimming me head and scrubbing me up so I look almost presentable if I have to be.
Turminder bai, fascinating aida was brilliant. Cheers, mate.
ReplyDeletePeterJ I had a feeling you'd be the one to know about the memory from childhood! We seem to have dodged school at the same time.
Gordon Brown fined £250 for putting economy in Wheely Bin.
ReplyDelete- BBC News 24
I don't like Wayne Rooney much, other than as a footie player. Alex Ferguson is one of the best managers there have been, but fucking hell what a manipulative fuck he is.
ReplyDeleteMark Anthony would have been proud of the speech he gave today. So hurt, so sad.
For anyone who wants to know how you can tell bullshit from honesty... at some point the bullshitters get too confident and tell a blatant lie:
"I felt I would leave him out and give him a complete break so he could be fit for England."
Ferguson has never cared about England.
Rooney done and dusted by possibly the best the bulshitter in the business.
It's a bit like watching people on waddya re-write the truth and have their fawning little puppies lap it all up.
Duke
ReplyDeleteMy god, those figures are terrifying..... the knock on effect of that many job losses is almost impossible to countenance..... it is the economics of madness...
If people aren't prepared to get out on the streets here, I am definitely leaving this country for good.
It made I larf Habib, glad u liked it.
ReplyDelete"I felt I would leave him out and give him a complete break so he could be fit for England. The daft granny banging wee pug that he is." That's what I saw in the subtitles ; )
U all checked the Monbiot 'Crisis is opportunity'? I'd make that obligatory reading in every house, school and workplace if i but could...
ReplyDelete@turm:
ReplyDeleteI’ll have to have a look at that, once I’ve finished guffawing at Dave Hill’s latest on the murky contest to become Tower Hamlet’s executive mayor…
"For anyone who wants to know how you can tell bullshit from honesty... at some point the bullshitters get too confident and tell a blatant lie"
ReplyDeleteCareful Habib, anything else like that, and you might find he'll refuse to do your interviews from now on!
Yep, good article by Monbiot.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha Habib, was thinking similar myself!!
ReplyDeleteYour call, although I suspect it will only last a matter of seconds!!
The Monbiot article was good, but, to be fair, I've seen the same thing said on here for months (and better....)!!
ReplyDeleteSarae Paan Chot haramda Habib...
ReplyDeleteAm counting habib....
ReplyDeleteI know James... How's Rio? It's getting cold in the Borders, frost this morn...
ReplyDeleteAwa hame. catch u all later. p x
It's Sao Paulo, Turm, but it's actually pretty cold today.
ReplyDeleteWell, I say cold, it's 18 degrees...
;0)
Laters!!
Haan, haan Turminder Bai!
ReplyDeleteBollocks, James! I made a spelling mistake! Oh well. Always best if your going to take the piss, not to fuck up you post...
@ Deano.
ReplyDeleteSorry It doesn't read well - as most of my rushed (Lunch Break) posts tend to be short.
The two lines are in the wrong order. I should have said:
..Seems they are over a barrel with the contract as agreed by Labour. [I also find this hard to believe]. OK, so on the bright side of the defence expenditure:..... .
And as for SHREK - Don't get me started AGAIN !! FFS I saw he's asking for £200,000 a week now. What fucking person deserves to earn that much money ?. It's absolutely obscene.
Careful - I just got back from the Dentist and have had TWO injections....
pretty sure any spelling mistakes will get lost in the resulting flurry of righteous indignation and whatnot...
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteOh no, Tascia is threating us with an MIE!
ReplyDeleteNo sincere apologies from me today.. I know I'm a twat !
ReplyDeleteGreat demo in Paris, 330,000! No weakening of the mobilisation. 3.5 m throughout France.
ReplyDeleteI imagine the "official" count will be 14 and a dog. I haven't seen Sarko's - sorry - the police's figures yet.
We are all twats.
ReplyDeletenew tagline?
ReplyDeleteIch bin ein Twatliner
ReplyDeleteDeano
ReplyDeleteDeleted my last post but just wanted you to know that i applaud the work you're doing helping people with their Claims/Appeals for Disability Benefits.I suspect you may well soon see a sharp rise in demand for your services.I think Leni is also offering people similar help/support.
UK 14th in world GDP per head
ReplyDelete"Outlining the outcome of the review in a statement to the Commons this afternoon, Cameron sought to allay fears by insisting that, despite the cuts, Britain would still have the fourth largest military budget in the world and would meet the Nato target of spending 2% of GDP on defence"
Makes perfect sense don't it. 14th(ish) for GDP 4th largest world budget for defence spending FFS when will UK folk get some basic arithmetical skills and enquiring minds.
Makes me blood boil young people dying in ignorance in uniform. I do not believe they are properly informed or understand the place of the likes of the Caymen Island and even the fucking Isle of Man in the scheme of things.
Twatliner? Isn't that the Femidom? Pub for me : )
ReplyDelete18 degrees James! There weren't many days in July we had that : )
Could anyone do me a quick favour, please, and just see if these things actually work for printing and such stuff?
ReplyDeleteSome pdf files here
I am useless at graphics and found this thing to make pdfs but have no access to a printer at the moment.
Just to see if it works in principle.
Many thanks.
Atomboy - 'fraid my toner expired over a year ago and I haven't got around to getting any more yet.
ReplyDeleteAtoms
ReplyDeleteSeem to be OK, although I don't have an actual printer either.
(Pictures might look a bit dodgy full-size, perhaps?)
Good work though!
Paul/Turm
Hehe - have to admit my first thought was femidom.
And, yeah, Turm, 18 degrees isn't too bad I s'pose, but we're already into Spring, and my mankini's never going to get an outing at this rate......
Oh fucking brill - I see on a closer examination of one of the Wiki tables (CIA) that the Cayman Islands has a much greater GDP per head than the UK (but still no tax despite its dependency on the UK) and it flies the good old Union flag on it's own.
ReplyDeleteAre we Brits bonkers are we are fucking plain nuts?
Duke I like the FT too but I think you only get so much free content then it's £1.95 a week if you want full access. The Rich like their news unsullied with propaganda so I've always rated it as an information source.
Also, whoever HermioneGranger is....
ReplyDeleteBrilliant!!
Tried opening files ... puter gone into superslowmode ... no sign of Acrobat!
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on defence budget from
ReplyDeleteSocialist Economic Bulletin - Full Article here
Extract:
"....Britain has the highest level of military spending of any G7 country, as a proportion of GDP, after the US. It also had the highest proportion of spending of any EU member state with the exception of Greece - where chronic excessive military spending is key source of the economic and budgetary crisis.
The UK ‘defence’ budget is officially said to be £37bn, but this is an underestimate as it excludes many other outlays, including military research, increased health and other spending on returning military personnel and the fact that military operations, such as Afghanistan are often funded from ‘contingency reserves’. In calculating the cost of the Iraq war, for example, Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes talk about the US Defense Department ‘keeping two sets of books’, so that the public does not see the true cost of the war.But even that secrecy and obfuscation is outdone by the British authorities, ‘The British system is particularly opaque: funds from the special reserve are “drawn down” by the Ministry of Defence when required, without specific approval by Parliament. As a result, British citizens have little clarity about how much is actually being spent’.
Yet even at the official lower estimate the military is vast over-spending, equivalent to 2.5% of GDP. No-one suggests that a country such as Germany is less secure than Britain and its military spending is approximately half that level at 1.3% of GDP.
In context, a reduction in the military budget to Germany’s level would save half of the UK total and produce a saving of £18bn- equivalent to the VAT hike and all the welfare benefit cuts of the March 2010 Budget which will hit next year....".
In other news, Matty Boy's been taken in by what I presume is Bitey's new identity on the Tea Party Loony thread. Heh.
ReplyDeleteThanks Thauma and James.
ReplyDeleteI spit in the general direction of pdfs but they seem to be, er, formatted portable documents, which make them, in properly trained hands, printastic!
I think I might be a bit bored or something.
OK - off to bite the carpet for a while.
Here it is in all its beauty:
ReplyDelete@ Kafocin:
For years cohorts of left wing Guardian men have been denigrating left of centre feminists like Julie Bindel, Bidisha, Barbara Ellen, Libby Brooks and other less well known ones who post below the line and now having failed to see off their original foe with slights and insults, they wonder why some women have turned to the right for political solutions.
Interesting remark, K, thanks. Definitely food for thought.
All good here AB - good work !
ReplyDeletethauma, thought you worked in IT !? ;-)
Bitterweed
ReplyDeleteThanks very much.
If it works OK in principle, I can try to put a bit more thought and effort into it.
Thanks for your help everyone.
PS What's the betting Hermione Grainger disappears as of by magic?
I do, BW. I am too cheap to buy a new puter and it struggles. There is no Acrobat process to kill.
ReplyDeleteIt seems to have recovered now, though. Quite possibly Norton blocked it and slowed things down.
Spend all day troubleshooting shit on puters; am not about to do much at home!
:-P
I'd like to park this from Waddya, as I have no confidence that it'll be allowed to remain...
ReplyDeleteHermioneGranger
19 October 2010 6:01PM
I'd like to talk about public spending cuts.
I've just been informed that our local team charged with combating anti-social behaviour is to be disbanded due to lack of funding, although tbh, they weren't a lot of use anyway. Now we've been informed they are to be replaced by a third sector 'provider'. At first, I was sceptical but now, having met the service providers I'm very optimistic about the future.
Yesterday, three lovely young girls arrived; all from very good, well-connected families; we all had a nice cup of coffee and a long pleasant chat and they outlined their plans for the future of the youth club. First: no trouble makers; no outspoken 'louts'; pre-decided topics of conversation; and above all we're all to maintain a front of dignified civility at all times.
Mary, who's always been a bit of a 'radical' pointed out that since the anti-social element were to be excluded, and since frank debate and discussion had been banned, we wouldn't actually be doing anything about the rioting, looting, thieving or wanton violence and would instead be running a little cliquey talking shop. Mary's always been a bit of a troublemaker tbh and I was personally very glad to see her banned for life. Since then every thing's been peachy...especially since we stopped the kids playing their own music. One of the three new 'volunteers' (as it happens they all seemed to be paid quite a lot...far more than the last lot...but they are soooo lovely) brought her Coldplay CD and showed the kids some photos from her gap-year in India (god..she's so funky and spiritual).
Maybe a way could be found (as part of the Big Society Initiative) to find roles (well paid of course) for the offspring of nice, well-connected families to re-civilise the nation. You should see this place now: new curtains; coasters on the tables; a coffee machine...everything. Obviously we miss the kids but since the Security Patrols and razor wire arrived we never have to see them any more. But we have some really interesting chats.
Two of the new girls are really caring and socially aware. They told us all about the 'underclass' and what they get up to...a real eye-opener for me...all the more so since it turns out I've been living among the 'underclass' all my fuckin life...and sometimes we all get up and have a bop to 'Coldplay'...you can't really dance to it exactly..but it's really 'deep' and soulful...apparently.
Aye Shaz, definitely worth preserving!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Shaz
ReplyDeleteNice one, Shaz!
ReplyDeleteHilarious Shaz!
ReplyDeleteWhere'd everyone go??
ReplyDeleteFair enough...
ReplyDelete;0P
It was a storming post - thank you Hermione, if you're reading...
ReplyDeleteJames - didn't want to drop dinner in the laptop...
ReplyDelete14th(ish) for GDP 4th largest world budget for defence spending FFS when will UK folk get some basic arithmetical skills and enquiring minds.
ReplyDeleteAnd by that same logic, you bonehead, Luxembourg would be spending more than the US on defence. If you're gonna reason, deano, absent the dick from your forehead.
And, as for this shovel of shit:
His alleged belief system would surely have lead him to stoke the fires of Belsen. But he might have done it with humour.
...go fuck that flea ridden dog of yours. And I'm referring to the chien, should there be any confusion.
"didn't want to drop dinner in the laptop..."
ReplyDeleteThat, Shaz, is why I exist exclusively on sandwiches, which are the best thing since, er.., well since sliced bread!!
PeterB:
ReplyDeleteOne question. Why the torrent of abuse?
Rehab didn't work? Back on the White Lines?
Nothing to gain 'cept killing your brain?
Actually, that was 3 questions....
ReplyDeleteWhy are you so perpetually angry? (4 questions)
You're like the kid who rejects love because it was so deprived of affection it can't help itself but lash out.
You sir, are no better than the brutalised kids of crackhead teenagers.
And I'm being kind you fuckwit.
Evening all.
ReplyDeleteEvening MsChin
ReplyDeletePeterB
ReplyDeleteMust admit that last line from deano about Belsen was harsh and IMO seems totally out of character from him .Hope you had a good weekend.
deano
I,m probably the last person here in a position to preach but that was harsh.There's no evidence PB would sink that low.
PeterB
ReplyDeleteI can understand if you're pissed off with something not being correct, but you know, you got on your high horse about me midly remarking on Julian Glover's bedroom habits in a jocular style and then you come out with that at Deano?
It was savage.
mildly....
ReplyDeletespelling not a reference to the post.
ReplyDeletePissed off with something not being correct? WTF are you on about, la Rit?
ReplyDeleteAnd as for my taking you to task for making homophobic comments, so what? What's that got to do with with deano comparing me to Nazi scum?
Just back off.
OK Apols Peter.
ReplyDeleteBacked off. Didn't see that.
(and PS I didn't make 'homophobic' comments FYI, but I have admitted I was in the wrong in making comments that were ill thought out)
Oh for god's sake ... things could be worse.
ReplyDeleteLaRit's powers grow stronger....???
ReplyDeleteLa Rit, be fair, Deano has been having a pop at Bracken for a fair while now.
ReplyDeleteHonestly, the only way you could defend Deano is if you consider him to be one of the most warm-hearted, generous and compassionate of people on this site, while regarding Bracken as the ignored piss stain on Tony Blair's pants.
I ask you, is that fair?
habib... the ignored piss stain on Tony Blair's pants.
ReplyDeleteHate to be shallow, but do you mind? I'm drinking...
JamesD:
ReplyDeleteOh, my, God!.... right, am setting to work on Oikbourne, Cameroon and Danny Alexander (Clegg already looks like he has one foot in the grave)
Caution, MENTAL HEALTH WARNING.
ReplyDeleteDon't even think about reading this unless you are willing to take the risk of your head exploding!
http://english.pravda.ru/science/mysteries/27-09-2010/115095-atheism-0/
LaRit,
ReplyDeleteCan you have a pop at Tony Blair too, please?!
Habib
ReplyDeleteI don't consider Peter to be 'the piss stain on TB's pants' far from it. Certainly wouldn't use that kind of terminology to describe him.
I saw what he'd written, jumped in and the above post was the result. I also apologised immediately for getting it wrong, the post is there for all to see.
JamesD
ReplyDeleteI'll see what I can do ;)
Good for you, La Rit :-)
ReplyDeleteDon't forget Bush/Cheney/Wolfowicz/Rice/Rumsfeld, etc.!
ReplyDeleteLaRit is going to be busy.
ReplyDeleteChekhov,
ReplyDeleteIt's the same old same old Intelligent Design bollocks.
Note the lack of any supporting evidence - just more of the look, big number, therefore impossible schtick!!
LaRit
Cheers - I'm expecting big things....
Thauma
ReplyDeleteLaRit is going to be busy
I am crafting the voodoo dollies as we speak.... I may gone for sometime, but expect the world's most hated to start dropping like flies soon....
JamesD
My pleasure!
LaRit on the job.
ReplyDeleteLaRit
ReplyDeleteJust read that you got a new job.Nice one!Hope it works out for you:-)
@Tip hat to HermioneGranger.Great post !
Here's a track for all you Steely Dan Fans
Ah well...I'll park this since HermioneGranger's been hit with a whatever you call that spell that kills you..
ReplyDeleteResponding to Hermioneg's...
"much, much better effort dear. see you can do it if you really try. pour yourself a large bananarita & pat yourself on the back"
--------------------------------------------
actually hermioneh, I was much more pleased with last night's efforts...and not a little pissed off that my response to Caroline's majestic 'slam dunk' was zapped...you can't get into a slanging match...chuck a "Misogynist!"-out of nowhere...apropos of nothing-then wipe the reply....I'd quite happily have a pop at any male 'assisstants'...if there were any. (did you identify which policy it transgressed btw?..cos I'm fucked if I've got a Scooby)
I'll give CIF its due, at least they normally wipe the lot...massaging the thread to give a certain 'interpretation' is the kind of underhand shit the likes of Sunny Hundal pulls...bad sign that h...when they've not only abandoned integrity but even the pretence of integrity, you know the storm clouds are gathering.
and...
"My parents have never bought a copy of the Guardian in their lives."
is nothing..except possibly confirmation..I mean..what does that tell ya?...so they sent the chauffeur down the newsagent to pick it up with a 20 Pall Mall or whatever the 'chauffered' smoke.
Nope h...it's same ol'..same..ol'...nothing changes...not even the the CIF mantra (in full)
"Comment is free...facts are sacred...and if you can't compete...Delete!"
------------------------------------------------
RIP English Hermit...one by one, they slink away...It's like that Agatha Christie story "Ten Little..oops..nearly did a 'Martyn'
Coming next week:
ReplyDeleteAfter extensive consultation, research, and millions of pounds, it was found that running with scissors isn't a dead good idea......
??
Monkeyfish
ReplyDeleteThe first one's still there though, right!?
Good tune, Paul. Gotta have this one: Up on the hill.....
ReplyDeleteShaz. Common sense died some years ago.
Evening all
ReplyDeletehermionegranger, take a bow. Better than last night, I thought. Made I larf. :o)
(Although I am one of the few round here that likes hermionegingold - she always takes it with grace and decorum :p )
Anyway, I think the spell was avarda kadarva, if I remember my Potter correctly. But it could be that now Hermione Granger is only eating a lettuce leaf a week, in her new role as Mulberry model, she has probably faded to translucent by now anyway...
I am most touched by the kind remarks about my random jottings.
ReplyDeleteJen
I still do uni exams – at a ‘real’ university – which isn’t a personal observation, as I did the OU for some years - and I’m still no good at doing exams – so, daft or what?
I sincerely sympathise. It’s the night before which is the worse – the agony of the ‘soul’ before the daybreak, when I think – I’m not going – you must go - I’m not going – go – no I can’t … and then, nearly always, I go, with my feet heading one way, and all of my mind going back the other way. I do prefer afternoon exams when I can go at my leisure – not be wandering around in the early hours, feeling even more dreadful. There was an exam, probably three years ago, when I nearly turned around and went home even though I was already there, but I was really poorly at the time. However, against the odds, in a haze, I just about scraped a pass – you never know (maybe afterwards, but not beforehand).
I’m no good at thinking against the clock, and then I panic and can’t remember even what I know – just as well we’re no longer expected to remember to write our names correctly on the front of the paper.
I’ve gone to exams with feelings of hopelessness and had a lucky break and come away knowing I’ve got away with it after all. I’ve gone to exams with hope and come away with that heaviness of certain failure. And many points inbetween. I’ve mostly not known what I was doing at all really.
Yes, there are times when you just know it’s a lost cause, but it’s still all experience that builds towards somewhere. Real education isn’t about what’s on paper – it’s what it’s added to you personally - after a long lie down in a darkened room, that is… and having exams just as winter-time is about to commence really isn’t the best thing psychologically, and then getting the Fail letter just before Christmas – thanks a lot. At least these days I get my results in the middle of summer.
There are many things I can only do now because I kept going in spite of all of the initial setbacks – take it again – replace – leave it alone until another time; and when my affairs are the state of disaster, having become generally better educated than the pieces of officialdom trying to perpetuate it, tends to end up to my advantage – plus a certain amount of streetwiseness.
Purry cats are very comforting. We’ve never sought them out - they’ve found us one way or another – someone’s found a stray – we take in stray - stray goes out and bring backs friend – strange cat starts hanging around in the garden – weather turns cold – suddenly cat is sitting by the fire… They have their problems too.
(We have had dogs in times past, but they require rather higher levels of energy, and we’re really not up to it these days.)
Many times when funds have been low, there’s been more cat food in the larder than human food, because they are more vulnerable - there’s no use pretending we’ve got much practical sense.
However, I am doing what the government want (although I see no need to inform them of it), and improving my skills – which come in very useful for better being able to use the tools which can better spread the expression of an improved comprehension about all of their gross falsehoods.
James - thanks for that - was getting my knickers in a knot :o) We've just had a new girl in my class at school - she's a 'Looked After Child' - (and whoever came up with that pile of shite should be drowned too - how is that less pejorative than 'in care'? Just stupid & pretentious) - she was desperate to get back into school after being out since Feb. It's not fucking rocket science that she needs educational and emotional support, respect, and care...
ReplyDeleteBB - Avada Kedavra. I'm trying it out long-distance on NICE and SCIE. Just think how much money it'd save if I obliterated them.
ReplyDeleteNo luck yet. As far as I know...
LOL shaz :o)
ReplyDeleteMoonwave - keep on keepin' on, as they say. :o)
Moonwave
ReplyDeleteWill you adopt me please.....??
Moonwave - you quite often restore my faith in humanity.
ReplyDeletePeople get ready.
Funny ... I'm not a fan of either of the 'megastars' involved in that tune ... nor the religious sentiment ... but it all works and it's superb. Probably Curtis Mayfield is better but I like this version.
Interesting article in the Indy last week:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/theory-of-relatives-is-society-any-more-broken-than-it-always-was-2106958.html
@MF - Grainger - class act ! Thanks to shazz for preserving it
ReplyDelete@AtomBoy
Am using one of them in my front window, hope you don't mind ?
James Dixon
ReplyDeleteYou probably don’t know for what you ask… This is a good place if you've down-and-out, but otherwise mostly our community function is to give other households a happy glow of recognition that at least they're managing it rather better.
I’m afraid I’m not now able to linger here at later hours, due to at present spending my nights with an elderly person nearby, so I can only leave you folk to – enjoy fighting it out.
worth a shot though....
ReplyDelete;0)
Right, I'm off.
ReplyDeleteBefore I go, This by Stiglitz is worth a read, if anyone's interested.
Have a good one!!
@Shaz
ReplyDeleteSCIE is French for saw, as in hacksaw, bandsaw, chainsaw... But perhaps not the sharpest tool in the box.
That Grainger quote - superbuous (just made that word up).
ReplyDeleteChannel Four news says welfare to be slashed and other departments cut up to 80%, including Justice and business. Social care to be 'decimated'. Incap to be only paid out now as means tested benefit meaning anyone with savings or partner with income will lose it. Social housing trashed.
But....drum roll - defence to be saved! Yeah only 8% cut so we can still go off invading people that have done us no harm and enjoy being America's beatch.
Oh and The Guardian? They didn't have any of that news last time I looked but they did have a nice little toy where you could pretend to be osbourne and make your own cuts. FFS!
Does anyone else think - even if you are a right wing moron who doesn't care about anyone but yourself and your own immediate family - it is dangerous to slash welfare to the bone and social care at the same time as cutting massively at the home office and 'decimating' justice. Lots of front line staff to go too as the leaked memo, held by slackjawed fucker Alexander shows. So not as many police, or parole officers or prison officers or courts and lots of very, very poor and pissed off people?
Coming to a city near you...Detroit. I is off to by me a gun.
P.s. Deano sterling work on incap there. I didn't know you and leni were doing that. Excellent stuff. (Apparently appeals are now backlogged to the tune of 27,000 for ESA and that is NEW cases - which will take months to clear and that is before Gruppenfuhrer Smith starts to 'migrate' everyone else onto it. I expect that most people will end up sitting on the appeal rate of ESA for years as they wait for their case.)
Well that cleared the place out!
ReplyDeleteHey princess
ReplyDeleteLong time no see.Howya doin'?
Hey Paul - not bad ta. Hows you?
ReplyDeleteJust read a most interesting article about the foreclosure scandal in the US: http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=21493
Sorry can't do proper links - but it says that the banks are basically unrepetant in their illegal moves to throw millions out of their homes. Seems to be getting weirder over there every day though as now Blackrock is part of a consortium suing bank of America and get this - Blackrock is owned - 34% at least - by BoA! So when some Marxists talk about capitalism being canabalastic I guess this is what they mean?
Princess
ReplyDeleteI am wondering if the people in US wrongly evicted will get their homes - or equivalent - back ?
BoA could well be made to compensate them - could bankrupt them. Good to see some of the mighty fall - if only !
Capitalism has concentrated the wealth into so few hands that each individual or corporation can only accrue more by eating their peers - they have already chewed up and spat out the rest of us.