I've been homeless once before...the kind of homeless where you have to flee your privately rented house because someone raped you there and threatened to come back and finish the job. This is the kind of homeless where you sleep on friends' floors, sofas and spare beds until the council deign to even offer you hostel accomodation three months later. Desperate attempts to find a job have failed because you have no fixed address.
You get a hostel place and are officially No Fixed Abode. You discover this kind of homeless means sharing a house with no working kitchen, one toilet and no shower with five women who have been released on parole from prison. You put up with the fish guts in the bath, the men visiting the mentally ill prostitute in the room below you, the crack smoking in the kitchen, the police raids and the abuse the housing agency gives you when the toilet packs up and you have to shit in a plastic bag for weeks. You sign in and out everyday otherwise you'll lose your place on the assessment list and won't even be considered for permanent housing. You can't even cry yourself to sleep at night because you're so traumatised, so frightened and so desperate you've gone numb. And then you're raped again...
You change hostel place and get a room above a pub. You're the only woman on a floor of six men. The shower door doesn't lock. People bang on your door all night. You find burned tinfoil everywhere. You pay £15 a week for it on top for the Housing Benefit of £232 a week the council pays.
Then you get offered a permanent flat which feels like every Christmas, birthday and blind date for the rest of your life has come up trumps. You move in and make it a home for 5 years. Everyday you leave the flat you give silent thanks for the luck that gave you a safe secure home. It's the one thing you can rely on and it forms the basis of your recovery from a massive nervous breakdown.
Then the Tories get into power and the change in the single room allowance for Housing Benefit means that aged 34 you will lose your flat and be homeless again. You'll have to sell that washing machine, that fridge, say goodbye to the little garden of pots you created, get rid of all your possessions and prepare yourself to go back to those hostels because people who own more homes than they can live in want to save £87 a week by uprooting me.
I was on course to get off benefits and get a job in the next 12 months. I've been volunteering. I've finally after 3 years got the mental health treatment I've been waiting for. I have to give it all up and go back to living hand to mouth with only a suitcase to accompany me because I have no chance of finding a cheaper house share (that takes DSS) and that doesn't require a deposit I cannot raise.
Why is this government destroying stable homes and uprooting lives that are coming together? Why are they taking people having minimal rent paid and pushing them toward hostels that cost almostt 3 times as much to fund? Why are they punsishing people like me and rewarding people like Vodafone?
Maybe you all think I don't deserve to live in London, to have a roof over my head, to have a chance to re-start my life and try and return to work. The government certainly doesn't. I'm not sure why. All i've done was use the welfare state I paid NI into from the age of 16 as the safety net it was designed for. I didn't break the law. I didn't cheat anyone or lie or steal or ruin anyone's life. I just wanted to be safe and secure despite being ill and desperate, but that doesn't stop the coalition willingly making me homeless again.
Just, heaved meself out of the scratcher. Got to the surgery for 8.30, note on the door, 'had to return for keys. Back soon' Hmm. I'll try again in 20 mins.
Have been away for a few days, but will just post this here from Hanman puff piece for a bit of shock and awe.
bonds 8 November 2010 8:39PM
In depth is a very good idea........
However what worries me the most is you choose to ignore some of the most important issues.
An in depth on important issues would be a start
Here's an example........
Mode 4 introduced by the EU
Can we have a really in depth analysis of this by the guardian please. Just one piece would be a start considering it is going to be one of the most dangerous aspects of our lives sometime soon.
I'll give you a heads up to get you started unless you already know and have chosen to ignore it..
Mode 4 is the posh word for social dumping
The threat of social dumping, where workers from nations with low labour costs are sent to another country to undercut local working norms, is set to hugely increase under new plans for the future of EU trade.
Mode 4 is a provision within the General Agreement on Trade in Services (Gats) trading framework (see below) covering cross-border services trade in which workers are moved across borders.
Its inclusion in the international trade agenda allows transnational corporations to profit from cross-border wage differentials, national insurance exemptions, tax juggling and other benefits of "flexible labour."
Ultimately Mode 4 undermines workers' abilities to maintain wages and conditions, loading the balance of power between labour and capital in favour of transnationals.
It also reduces EU member states' democratic rights to control their own migration policies, in effect handing that power to transnationals.
The EU is offering Mode 4 access in all the trade agreements it is negotiating and has already implemented it internally via the Bolkestein Directive of 2006.
In Gats's "Doha Round" negotiations, begun in 2001, the EU's revised offer, tabled in June 2005, included Mode 4 offers across service sectors.
Mode 4 is a particularly secret part of the trade agenda, kept from those who will be negatively affected.
These EU offers are without quotas or economic means tests.
Defenders of Mode 4 argue that it is not immigration but temporary labour movement.
But this does not lessen the detrimental effects on EU workers of an influx of temporary workers who will be prohibited from becoming unionised.
As labour standards are lost in the few places they have been achieved, such as in some EU countries, it will become more difficult for workers elsewhere ever to achieve them.
Once signed up to, Mode 4 openings, like all trade commitments, become effectively permanent due to the prohibitive cost of withdrawal.
Current EU "investor protection" proposals increase this penalty, allowing not just other states but trans-
national corporations to challenge a country's failure to fulfil its trade commitments. Successful challenges will lead to prohibitive financial compensation claims for the loss of all potential profits, called "expropriation."
So when workers feel the effects of the Mode 4 commitments that have been made on their behalf, it will be too late to reverse them.
India, on behalf of its transnationals such as steel giant Tata, is demanding transnational Mode 4 access to the EU and an EU/India Free Trade agreement is currently being fast tracked.
A recent report on the ongoing EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations said the "full ambition of the FTA can not be achieved without Mode 4 - which currently faces a range of barriers like wage-parity conditions."
From the other side, the EU is demanding very significant investment concessions, including banking liberalisation. The indications are that the movement of '"intracorporate transferees" will be used broadly, and with high expectations of megaprofits.
But bringing Indian workers into the EU displaces local workers and undermines established working conditions. A race to the bottom is inevitable across many sectors, as transnationals can bring in workers in whatever areas they are established, plus offer cheap, onshore outsourcing.
The Indian government is arguing that the minimum wage stipulations of EU member states undermine its cheap labour "comparative advantage."
Yet even if minimum wage levels are maintained, wage competition for just the minimum wage represents intense downward pressure on labour standards for skilled EU workers.
For a set of reasons - historic, linguistic and related to the liberalised British economy - workers here are likely to be the most affected by EU commitments.
Notably in terms of secrecy, a recent British delegation to India, led by Tory Prime Minister David Cameron, failed to even mention that an EU/India Free Trade Agreement is being rapidly negotiated, even though it was specifically focused on trade.
Mode 4 is considered "sensitive" and thus kept from attention because this dimension of trade - commodifying and moving labour to increase transnational profits at workers' expense - cuts much deeper than trade
We've had a taste of that in France, where companies making a certain number of redundancies must go through a procedure that includes offering future redundant workers jobs elsewhere in the group where possible.
So we've had the delightful spectacle of relocating companies who offer their skilled French workers new jobs in Morocco or Vietnam at £100 a month.
Words fail me!That someone in such a vulnerable state will face the double whammy of not only losing her home but also facing an ATOS medical for her benefits defies belief.
Without boring you all with the 'how', I spent 2 weeks in a place near Victoria Stn. called "The Queen Mary and Church Army Hostel for Women" in 1985. I thought that was a little slice of hell. Gherkingirl's post makes it sound like a fortnight at Sandals.
But all of this stuff -- the cuts in benefits, the Mode 4 stuff that Bonds wrote about -- the whole point of it really is to drive us all back to serfdom, isn't it?
@PeterJ:
I'd want to see coverage of that in a source slightly less biased than The Weekly Standard before I got all het up about it. They're not exactly agendaless reporters.
Thanks LaRit for putting up the GherkinGirl piece.
Of course, many people still advocate attempting to engage with the political process which brings this situation about.
For The Guardian and CiF, the terrible plight of fuckwits like Harker[?] having to stump up for his kids' violin and Mandarin lessons obviously trumps the plight of any ordinary person living in the real world.
There is probably no real need to have our noses rubbed into the fact that the state and the media are not our friends any more.
We are being completely and utterly cast adrift to fend for ourselves.
Spike - Thanks for the comment about the earlier post and the fact that our bikes are now going to have to take us, not quite so much to the next village for mythical employment opportunities, but to entirely new continents.
When I mentioned this slightly precipitous downside to the otherwise unalloyed glories and benefits of globalisation on The Independent, someone said that this could not possibly be the outcome of such a wizard wheeze.
Admittedly, the comment seemed to be suddenly deleted, perhaps by its author.
Perhaps he found himself herded onto a cattle truck.
Anyway, little time to post, so good luck, thanks and best wishes.
Perhaps not so much educate, agitate and organise as plot, plan and take action now.
LaRit - that post brought tears to my eyes. What has really, really pissed me off is that John Bird is all over the media - I just heard him on the radio in the car home - talking absolute shite about how WorkFair or whatever IDS is calling it will help people because too many are happy living in poverty, or some such arrant nonsense.
When will these fucking numpties get it into their heads that there are no jobs!! All WorkFair is going to do is to get people on the dole to do the shitty community jobs that the local authorities won't be able to do any more because they have had to sack half their workforce to meet their reduced budgets.
And after spending half an hour shouting at the radio, to come back and read that post has just put the fucking tin lid on it for me. This cannot be permitted. These bastards cannot and must not be allowed to do what they are doing to the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.
I'm going to try and get to the Coalition of Resistance Against the Cuts meeting at the end of the month - there is a linky here to their website, but there is a lot of local grass-roots organising going on right now. There is a meeting local to me and I am pretty sure there will be a meeting local to everyone.
Aye, although the spam folder can make things not as they were, earache pales into insignificance...
The brew phoned me back, she didn't like the fact I don't want a P45 til a better job comes along, gave me an interview slot for Monday. The local office then phone up asking why I can't come in before then? That's the slot she gave me. Well can you come in tomorrow at 1.40? Ok.. Can we see the cracks in the system yet? And this is still a trickle, what of the flood to come?
Yes, I know about the Standard's, ahem, standards. Even reading with that in mind, though, I found it an interesting piece that tied in with some other stuff I found quite a while back. I'll try to dig that out; it was a thread I was following after the Larry Summers imbroglio.
When will these fucking numpties get it into their heads that there are no jobs!!
Apparently, MoveAnyMountain often says that there are an infinite amount of jobs. (I don;t read his/her/its comments as a rule).
I assume this is based on the idea that anyone could get a short-term contract - a couple of minutes' worth - for wiping the nose of an elderly passer-by for loose change.
Once the spirit of entrepreneurialism had taken hold, you could then move up the ladder and become a freelance phlegm collector or collect toenail clippings to be bagged and sold for fuel.
The jobs in this magical world are the same as those in the real one - utter hokum and bullshit.
In all seriousness, it might be worth recording your phonecalls with them - although technically you are supposed to let them know that you are doing it.
I suppose you could play a recorded message with a posh suthurn bird's voice at the beginning of your conversations saying
Turminder Xuss records all telephone conversations for training purposes.
On a completely different note, for all you who stared at me in disbelief at the London meet-up when I said Lemmy was in a beer ad singing an unplugged version of the Ace of Spades, here is the linky...
Johnny Rotten and his butter, Iggy Pop and his fucking irritating insurance, and now this!
I'll admit that the self-employed forager for viscous expectorations idea is not mine.
It was on a programme (which I now forget) as a spoof of someone who had succeeded in life - perhaps Norman Tebbitt[?] - despite coming from humble beginnings, his father being...
As for Churchill's bogeys, I have a limited supply available to serious collectors at an equally serious price - what is it they say on The Apprentice? - ah, yes, price point.
What's the difference between a price and a price point? Is a price point dearer because it makes the person saying it look such a prat?
A bit like a "meal occasion" so beloved of advertisers.
There's not a great deal to be proud of when a youngster can write the following; (from the Indie)
"19 year old Soldier Cyrus Thatcher was killed on 2 June 2009. This is the letter he wrote to be delivered to his family if he died:
Hello its me, this is gonna be hard for you to read but I write this knowing every time you thinks shits got to much for you to handle (so don't cry on it MUM!!) you can read this and hopefully it will help you all get through.
For a start SHIT I got hit!! Now Iv got that out the way I can say the things Iv hopefully made clear, or if I havent this should clear it all up for me. My hole life you'v all been there for me through thick and thin bit like a wedding through good and bad. Without you I believe I wouldn't have made it as far as I have. I died doing what I was born to do I was happy and felt great about myself although the army was sadly the ending of me it was also the making of me so please don't feel any hate toward it. One thing I no I never made clear to you all was I make jokes about my life starting in the Army. That's wrong VERY wrong my life began a LONG time before that (Obviously) but you get what I mean. All the times Iv tried to neglect the family get angry when you try teach me right from wrong wot I mean to say is I only realised that you were trying to help when I joined the army and without YOUR help I would have never had the BALLS, the GRIT and the damn right determination to crack on and do it. If I could have a wish in life it would to be able to say Iv gone and done things many would never try to do. And going to Afghan has fulfilled my dream ie my goal. Yes I am young wich as a parent must brake you heart but you must all somehow find the strength that I found to do something no matter how big the challenge. As Im writing this letter I can see you all crying and mornin my death but if I could have one wish in an "after life" it would be to stop your crying and continueing your dreams (as I did) because if I were watching only that would brake my heart. So dry your tears and put on a brave face for the rest of your friends and family who need you.
I want each and everyone of you to forfill a dream and at the end of it look at what you have done (completed) and feel the accomplishment and achievement I did only then will you understand how I felt when I passed away.
[To his brothers:] You are both amazing men and will continue to be throughout your lives you both deserve to be happy and fofill all of your dreams.
Dad – my idol, my friend, my best friend, my teacher, my coach, everything I ever succeeded in my life I owe to you and maybe a little bit of me! You are a great man and the perfect role model and the past two years of being in the army I noticed that and me and you have been on the best level we have ever been. I thank you for nothing because I no all you have given to me is not there to be thanked for its there because you did it cause you love me and that is my most proudest thing I could ever say.
Mum, where do I start with you!! For a start your perfect, your smell, your hugs, the way your life was dedicated to us boys and especially the way you cared each and every step us boys took. I love you, you were the reason I made it as far as I did you were the reason I was loved more than any child I no and that made me feel special.
Your all such great individuals and I hope somehow this letter will help you get through this shit time!! Just remember do NOT mourn my death as hard as this will seem, celebrate a great life that has had its ups and downs. I love you all more than you would ever no and in your own individual ways helped me get through it all. I wish you all the best with your dreams.
Remember chin up head down. With love Cyrus xxxx"
".....although the army was sadly the ending of me it was also the making of me....."
I think our young deserve rather more out of life than that.
Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London who has his eye on another term in 2012, supports plans to force people who are unemployed to carry out community work, or risk losing their benefits.
"It doesn't do poor and unemployed people any favours to leave them out of work, if you get people into the habit of getting out of bed, doing something, having a sense of worth and if that involves getting people who are currently unemployed helping out with the elderly or clearing up an area or things like that, I think it's worth doing."
So Ken thinks picking up litter will give the long term unemployed a sense of worth.
The ultimate accolade from Bella to Jessica on waddya
Jessica is really good at looking at everything
I've often wondered what particular skills were necesssary to get an editorial job on the Guardian (apart from being Rusbridger's daughter). Now we know - it's being good at looking at stuff. Something for you perhaps, turminder, to tide you over the winter.
She's not good at looking at and understanding "stuff", I can tell you that much. I got very close to beating her with the two short planks she's thicker than on one thread a while back..........
Don't say a lot that is great about our values either....(as Montana railed above at the start of the day) our educational system is less concerned with educating most of our young and more and more in moulding them for a life of uncritical servitude.
I'm glad that I wasn't the young man's teacher or commanding officer.
(I found his spelling adequate and his desire to find the right words for his folks very touching. I guess that he will have succeeded in his aim of making it a tiny bit easier for his family)
We really can kiss goodbye to justice in this benighted bloody country. Just read Gherkingirls post - fuck, fuck, fucking appalling.....added to which just listening to R4. HMG propose to change the way damages are awarded in industrial/work accidents.
No legal aid and court costs/lawyers fees to come out of whatever damages are awarded, rather than being stumped up by the business/company responsible for the accident. Kenneth Clarke telling us its all too expensive these days and they're looking at the way it works in the US.
They won't be happy until every last iota of the smallest possible gain made by working folk over the last 100 years has been jackbooted into the mud. We really are going to be stepping over the bodies in the streets. I'm finding it increasingly hard to hang on to the shreds of my comittment to non violent resistance.
Oh, and they opened a 5 star hotel in Gaza yesterday....never mind peace processes, freedom, health care, jobs, food and housing, lets have a Movenpick in Ramallah
right, sheff, 'cos ice-cream is exactly what they need.
the world's gone a bit weird, hasn't it?
i know, i know, watching season 1 of fringe over the last week has perhaps made me a bit tin-foil-hat about a potential 'pattern', but...i realise there has always been a lot of shit around, but things do seem to be getting worse and it does seem to be happening everywhere at once.
am just reading the Krinsky thread (v interesting piece) and saw this BTL "These Tory proposals are based on the ideas of Americans Lawrence Mead and Charles Murray,who influenced Giuliani" Murray? Charles 'the underclass are genetically inferior' Murray? Charles 'an yeah, by that i mean black people' Murray? Charles 'fucker' Murray?
I mean, I hated this 'idea' when it was first mooted. I hated it more when the workfare parallel occurred to me. Now I've connected the dots back to Satan, well, I'm even less impressed.
How come the two of them can't even run a decent thread?
Rule 1 of maintaining a vaguely interesting, coherent thread:
Don't allow a certain clique (or claque) of fuckin idiots a privileged position whereby their basic ignorance; woeful, tedious prose style; all-too predictable 'witticisms', general incomprehension and self-serving prejudices get to dictate the tone and behaviour of the place...I mean FFS...look at those who are generally accepted as representing the intelligentsia (duh...in Europe).
This is the problem...they fell at the first hurdle..created a fuckin nightmare...luckily for the morons...the boss's daughter runs the place..so they're probably safe for now...until she gets another job (don't hold your breath) or marries a rich fella..had a couple of kids maybe...no doubt once the au pair's settled she'll be back part-time...and they'll move her into fashion or looking after the spoons...somewhere she can't do any damage...and then they can sort the place out..get rid of the dead wood...dagga dagga
What a fuckin artless, clueless shit-stirrer you are...by my reckoning this must be the 5th time in a month you've tried to tell other people how to post and...been called on it...then fallen flat on your face when trying to disclaim your blatant 'self-appointed head-girl' presumption (I was 2 of them..FFS..the irony..you telling me how to post stuff)
Your credibility's gone sweetheart...so that's erm..
you the guy from Scunthorpe Martyn in LaLa land Kermit Napoleon Fuckwit and Dr. They're all out to get me cos I'm so smart
one by one...you all slip away into that little cliquey rest-home where you sit around telling each other what victims you are...and how right..and decent..and big-hearted and clever
wasting your time sweetheart...the evidence is all still there in turgid black and white prose.
got a recipe for humble pie (lactose, glucose, common sense and gluten intolerant version)
According to gherkingirl's posting history she has lived in a hostel, studied at Sussex University, worked as a prostitute for 7 years, is a professional make-up artist, has agoraphobia, was molested by a Polish ATOS assessor, was raped by someone with a rich powerful politically connected relative etc.
All or none of this may be true. She is certainly to be pitied, but not necessarily believed.
You may be right - who knows. But it was a stonking, well written post and did describe very graphically the kind of thing a lot of people will be up against.
I don't know if gherkingirl's post was genuine, but I've known women in that situation and things do happen the way she describes.
Much shame on the originator of that post, if faked, but much more shame on the rest of us for turning our heads away from the reality that battered wives and girlfriends go through, when they have no money and nowhere to turn to.
But he also tends to take the Guard in small doses and uses his well developed critical abilities to steer clear of too much shite at one sitting. I think its called learning from the experience of esteemed comrades......
£25. so I wasn't far off with my first guess. every little helps.
anyway - on gherkingirl, have read her a couple of times, mainly on threads dealing with rape, and i have to say that she seems very very consistent, and credible, to me. fucked up things happen to people and I could see how the stuff cited by anon (possibly in a different order) could well stack up. so i'm with her, absent conclusive evidence to the contrary.
heyhabib, you don't need to ask me to look, and you don't need to patronise me. I've seen it all already. I just don't weep crocodile tears at every sob-story I read on the internet and then rush onto Cif to prove my empathetic credentials to other caring people. It just doesn't make me feel any better.
..but I feel it's in my best interest that the site is destroyed...it's such a conundrum
notice how heverdale's started to get deleted btw...tends to happen when the spam are revealed as fuckin hypocritical simpletons...it'll be in the community guidelines somewhere...sec. 5a paragraph 7 of the 'Platinum' Account holders special edition partII probably
Given the benefits situation in the UK (not to mention government complicity with torture, deaths of deportees at the hands of private contractors, Diego Garcia, etc.), perhaps we should be asking the Chinese to raise the question of human rights with Cameron.
Redminers post was a call to arms - don't think the groan'd be up for that even if our masters were filling the football stadiums with us and dropping us out of helicopters
Hevers didn't say anything that warranted deletion imho - just pointed out (politely) that kizbot had seemed to be arguing that s/he should go away and stop expressing herm opinions.
Yeah, I just politely pointed out a few things... that quibbling wasn't going to work, she was arbitrarily choosing how she defined style and what is good or bad style to suit, that actually she was the one wanting to escalate not me, by inviting me to go back in the posting history to illustrate how it had carried on without me - which would have required quite a few reposts - that she claims to be not attacking style but did not actually comment on the substance of my debate at the time on the science stuff etc.
...she was arbitrarily choosing how she defined style and what is good or bad style to suit...
This has come up before. Why do certain people on WADDYA think that whether a post should be allowed to stay or be cleansed from the record (or the merit or validity of that post) should be determined by their view of its style?
It has moved from the idea of being protected from anyone saying anything you don't like to wanting the way in which something is said to be limited to an authorial voice of which you approve.
Why don't CiF and WADDYA just run everything which is posted past Kiz and Marvin and EnglishHelmet first?
Why don't they invent a new sticker, like a royal warrant:
This comment has been approved by our most esteemed contributors and is therefore declared fit for public consumption.
My son is joining the army. Simply because he sees no other way of continuing to provide for his future and family.
TBH, it really scares me, but we just have to hope for the best. He knows I don't want it to happen, but I'm told I mustn't say anything, so all I can do is be as supportive as possible, and remind him never to stop seeing others as human beings too; and hope he gets through it without too much damage. He's an adult now, with little ones, and he has to make his own decisions, and I have to respect that.
This is only because there are no jobs, or no job future. He couldn't find anything here and moved to another part of the country (from making contacts through the internet). There he eventually found a temporary job on minimum wage, but he worked hard and managed to make it a permanent one, and he was progressing well. Then came the recession...
In a way he's been one of the lucky ones, or his employers have been, as they've just about managed to hang on so far; but it's taken away his future prospects there, and the hours are much more uncertain.
He's been as determined and hardworking as they say is necessary, and the banksters and fraudsters and worshippers of the Economy-god have kicked him, and many like him, back down. So our young people - lots of girls too now - are heading for the forces, as the only protected job left. Decent wage and family accomodation, and in-service training. I see the sense of his arguments, and I admire his determination to try to overcome every obstacle; but I don't want him, or any of our young people, harmed in some completely pointless skirmish to support U.S. power exercises.
Service to his country - humbug. What service has his country done for him? An education that was often little more than free child-care for the day (preparation for fodder for the Economy), because we didn't have the influences to get him into anywhere we wanted to get him, or the money for the extras (and as for senior schools, we haven't really got any good ones - all I could do was refuse that he go to the worst); and now opportunities removed as fast as they can preach about how everyone should follow up their opportunities.
All of this from those who, had they been born into a different part of society, haven't the brains to have made it - would now be being treated like scum for being on benefits. How dare they preach about it.
So now they say - let's not have the forces either - whatever it is, let's not have that job there any more - then let's really punish them for not being in employment. It's insanity run rampant. It is Wickedness - when none of it is necessary - plenty of billions for whoever of their string-pullers wants it.
My son's great-grandfather, after whom he is named, was caught up in WW1 and only just survived Le Somme. Many of them had no idea - young men often off for a lark more than anything else - a chance to break away from home - after all, it was all going to be over by C-mas - thousands killed on a day in gas and mud and bullets (58,000 on the first day of Le Somme), mostly because of stupid leaders not seeing them as real people at all - the lower classes - vermin - what's it matter?
So many advances since then in social care and the rights of workers - all being swept away as fast they can, just for more to be soaked up by the power-and-wealth crazy bosses of the politicians - thousands to be sacrificed at the whim of the few. The 'lower classes' - vermin - what's it matter?
could be coming, sheff. just showed redminer's comment to oisette ('cockyachts' took some explaining) and i can imagine the wider response if apparu goes ahead.
I cannot begin to imagine how you must be feeling.
Is he in any position to choose what branch of the army he goes into? There must be some that are safer than others. (although I know naff all about it really).
I was very relieved when neither of my two sons found it necessary to look to the military for a future.
I can well understand your lads thinking sadly many decent kids in working class parts have reached the same conclusion - that's what makes me feel angry.
You could never quite see the Blair sons in the military could you?
Best wishes for your lad. I hope he can keep out of harms way whilst getting some useful skills for his future - if only we could have had a Peace Corps with our kids giving useful service to less fortunate folk overseas.
The armed services and especially the army has always attracted young working class men looking for something other than the limited range of jobs on offer to them in civilian life.And from what i understand it's often those from the toughest backgrounds that make the best soldiers.
With regard to your son he could opt for a non combatant role although i think he'd still have to do basic training.You didn't mention what you son either does for a living or what his interests are.But maybe he could do a job in the army that he's keen on doing but which doesn't put him in the firing line.Worth thinking about.
Good luck moonwave. These are the lengths we are forced to. I hope your son is very safe through out his career.
I had a pal a few years ago, worked with him at an off license. Really great guy, was into his fitness, liked the ten mile run etc. Any way, he went for the Marines entry test, and aced it, couldn't do the 'skip across the tops of 5 telegraph poles section' The instructors sugessted he do climbing, to get his head for heights. However he was 27 and would only be able to to take the test once more before being too old.
He got hypnotherapy and went back fot the assault course. Passedit no problem, he told me he was still bricking it, but the hypnotherapy let him just 'go for it'. So he passed, he was then lined up with the other recruits about to be sworn in. He told me that he was aware that his hand went up in the air, without concious action. The Sgt comes over and he says, 'This isn't for me, I don't want to sign up for this.'
I think he dodged one there.
@moonwave
Hope you get a lottery win that means your son can do what he likes.
I feel that now the consensus has you down as a recognised arsehole.
Which consensus is that then? The one you rigged with recommends while hiding behind a group of girls. If it weren't for you, this place would be Ok. But you are determined to abuse this site to continue to launch your neanderthal campaign against the Guardian.
"Which consensus is that then? The one you rigged with recommends while hiding behind a group of girls." Nah, mate, even those who once felt sorry for you, now think you really are a cock.
So sorry your son feels joinng the military is his only option. What have we come to! I hope things go well for him and he stays safe.
I remember meeting American soldiers in the early days at Greenham Common. A lot of them, especially the black ones, had joined for similar reasons - the only way out of totally crap circumstances. That was back in the early 80s. Plus ca change.
And cheers for all the approvals of GherkinGirl's post... it was just a trawl through the thread when I was half asleep this morning and I thought it was just too bloody important to not park here and highlight... saw that it made top pick on CiF.... and quite bloody rightly so!
Have had some real problems posting and am really shattered..... hope to get back to UT later ;)
x
How many frothing shits would be posting their bile all over the internet if this reality was daily front page news in the media?
He's not got the hang of the multiple id's yet. For someone who admits that workplace bullying led to their breakdown this is either an elaborate skin thickening exercise or a very slow suicide..
Fancy telling the mods that you are responsible for fucking with their website and that you enjoy bullying disabled people. How silly.
BTW, After your group crawl over my website on Friday, some of you left your IP addresses and ISPs behind. At least eight of you.
So who's with Tiscali then?
If you want to be a real cyberattacker, you ought to get some proper training in first.
That John Bird is a twat who gets between 7 and 8 grand for his after-dinner speeches... missed his approval for Welfare to Work on the radio..... that littlerichardjohn is bang on the money too on that thread.
>>Fancy telling the mods that you are responsible >>for fucking with their website and that you enjoy >>bullying disabled people.
Unlike some peoples. You logged in, then posted, with the wrong ID here, I raise your admissions as mitigating circumstance. I refer you to the answer given by my right honourable friend;
"Nah, mate, even those who once felt sorry for you, now think you really are a cock."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing on You and Yours. Seriously. All the "it's the welfare state to blame for people being kept poor" shite.
Admittedly he did say that it was initially Thatcher's fault for destroying jobs and "parking" people on housing estates, but after that he sounded as right-wing as any of the numpties we see trolling over on CiF.
I always thought Bird was a decent bloke. I have changed my mind now.
CretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretin..... ad infinitum.....
Get the picture sweetheart? You are a nasty piece of work and you seem to forget that you are not immune to being traced.... I understand if you have a website, it's really quite easy...no?
More of Turkey than a Duck..... gobble,gobble,gobble.......
I have to say - and I have, in my normal cowardly way, tried to keep out of this fight, save to delete your spam posts - that you are beginning to sound really paranoid, EH.
First on CiF you thought that anyone who looked at you a bit funny had to be GIYUS. Then you thought that Monkeyfish was GIYUS. Now you think people are storming the EH citadels and spamming your site, wherever that might be.
I for one really couldn't be bothered. I tried extending the olive branch at one stage and was told in no uncertain terms where to get off. Fair enough, that's your right.
But any sympathy that you might have had is wearing sorely thin. The "quack quack quack" stuff was irritating but not such a problem. But your little hissy fits on here are just childish and stupid.
If anyone around here needs to grow up, it is certainly not habib.
PhilippaB said... is there a link o the redminer thread? am a bit lost in cif at the minute.... 09 November, 2010 18:31
Is redminer the same guy as NorthRed, by any chance? Because he always did some top posts, and had people clamoring for him to be ATL.
It all just seems like one great big whirlwind of fuck at the moment, doesn't it? I hesitate to check the news of a morn, Which is probably the intention.
Thatch only had a few years to plan, this lot had 13. Labour only used to get one term, or one term and a bit. And NuLab oiled the wheels anyway.
Apart from a short period when the Big Issue was first established, I thought Bird was 'OK'.... but he's an Establishment monkey-whore..... with a very comfortable existence - he is their 'proof' that there is a 'meritocracy'.... he knows his function, gets well paid and has no intention of saying anything which would interrupt the cash-flow to his bank account. I'm afraid I have similar reservations about Kid's Company found Camilla B......
It's 'buffer-zone' politics, where all ideas of really confronting the appalling inequality we have here and challenging the 'feudal' system is emasculated and sectioned off and where 'charity-providers' fill in the gaps which keep everyone's attention focussed in the wrong direction.
Here we go. Playing the racist card. If you'd checked your youTube account, you will see a full description of why you are a complete and utter plonker. Hint. It has something to do with posting abusive comments against my videos.
As you can see it has fuck all to with race. It is people like you who CAUSE RACIAL DISHARMONY by fabrication and deceit.
Couldn't possibly say if Rednorth = Redminer ......mods narks are around......but I'll be voting the Redminer/PrincessCC ticket for poster of the year .........again this year.
If habib thinks your music is shit, there is a very strong chance I might like it, EH...
LaRit - CamillaB is a slightly different kettle of fish. While it is true to say that she can't have had a very easy life to begin with when she first came over here, most people coming from Iran at the time were those who had some standing and certainly some dosh back home - no backs of lorries and undersides of trains for them. So she was probably pretty upper-middle class to begin with, if my instinct is right.
I still have a lot of respect for her, though, because she could have chosen to do something completely different with her life.
I will be back later - just discovered they are repeating Twin Peaks on the horror channel. I only ever saw this in France and therefore probably missed 90% of the humour in it.
IIRC, Camilla B was born into a very privileged family.
deano
I too shall be voting for the Yorkshire contingent this year.
And if any one has a loaded gun, I have a good use for it - it says in our local free paper that Cleggie has had dog excrement posted through his letterbox since the Forgemasters affair, so I propose we use a scatter gun to distribute the shit even further round his hallway.
Re; Camila B - Not many of us make it into Debrett's for instance: http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/l/26480/Cami+la%20BATMANGHELIDJH.aspx
Agreed, but theres no point salivating BB. Apparently you cant even afford lamb these days (if even silks are broke these are indeed troubled times!) Perhaps Mrs Monkeyfish can pass you her recipe for Spam curry. That's nice and pink.
Well, I think it's shit. No, shit can be composted. I think it's awful, worthless, irritating muzak. I followed a link to an embarrassing school boy love poem set to the dulcet tones of a jingle written in assembler code.
Make your own minds up, why not post honest, constructive reviews. Here's mine;
Oh god, my ears, my beautiful, unsullied ears! I told you I'd been to the doctor, you utter bastard; first for making this whining 6th form drivel, and a thousand times over for posting it on the internet. I pity the few benighted souls who have stumbled across your droppings as they browsed, and pray that they are able to put the tedious experience behind them. In would wish illness, curses and ill fortune upon you, but if this is what you produce, well, you must suffer enough, and constantly. It's understandable that you try to share the grief out as much as you do, in future I shall attempt to ignore you, and put out of my mind the half heard whispers, the cautious postings of the neophytes, "sweet lord, what the fuck is that? When did MAM fuck Charleysays?"
I've always had my suspicions... not because Kid's Co. isn't a good thing and not because I don't think she doesn't care, but because, Charities set up for the benefit of those in most desperate need are always the one's who have a conscience coupled with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo ......
Hi All--Just back from Vancouver. Spent some days with youngest brother after his prostate surgery. He seems to be coping well.
BB King put on a tremendous show. We really enjoyed it very much, and the venue was quite small ( 1000 or so ) which produced a close and friendly atmosphere. He played a mixture from old to newer stuff which went down really well with an audience that was mainly 'mature'. All in all, one of my most memorable concerts.
Those posts by Redminer and GherkinGirl were certainly worth a read. Well constructed and stark.
Thauma, Habib--Checked out that 'music' you're on about. Not for me I'm afraid, and I don't speak duck so will just keep scrolling on by.
"Oh god, my ears, my beautiful, unsullied ears! I told you I'd been to the doctor, you utter bastard; first for making this whining 6th form drivel, and a thousand times over for posting it on the internet. I pity the few benighted souls who have stumbled across your droppings as they browsed, and pray that they are able to put the tedious experience behind them. In would wish illness, curses and ill fortune upon you, but if this is what you produce, well, you must suffer enough, and constantly. It's understandable that you try to share the grief out as much as you do, in future I shall attempt to ignore you, and put out of my mind the half heard whispers, the cautious postings of the neophytes, "sweet lord, what the fuck is that? When did MAM fuck Charleysays?"
If that was written in the few minutes since the music came up your a genius. Even if it wasn't its a magnificent review. All I could come up with was "its shit".
I'm no silk!! And I am a crime/immigration/family barrister (with a bit of free housing on the side). All in all, the three most underpaid areas of law, comparatively. And I do have to think twice about buying lamb, surprisingly. Usually only for special occasions. And if I have had a few cheques in.
Fucking hate spam though. Bleugh.
MsChin - thanks for the info. I figured as much. People have the image of refugees as poverty-stricken "La Jungle" inhabitants. While it is true to say that a lot of them are people who have sold up every last possession to be able to get transport over here, many are from quite wealthy backgrounds - which doesn't prevent them being genuinely persecuted at home, either, but it is a bit of a myth that they are all at death's door from starvation when they arrive here.
My housemate is out, I'm catching up on stuff she won't watch stored on our digibox, first "Lost Land of the Tiger" (they found them in Bhutan, YAAAAAAAYY!!!
Now First Life: God (aka David Attenborough) explaining early life.
I'm as happy and excited as a kid at Christmas, anyone want some of the overflow?
@ luke Ex tempore mon brave. Channelling Mr Brooker perchance?
I know I shouldn't Paul, but willful misunderstanding goads a response. I had the shit kicked out of me every day from the ages of 7-16, it teaches you some stuff. Ducky's minor league. Peace. utwh4me. p : )
Thauma--Would love to hear Bitter's band. I enjoy his taste in the music he proffers here ( with a few late night exceptions ) so if it's anything at all like that I'm sure it would be enjoyable.
I've largely kept out of this thing with EH until tonight but from what i've seen all of us including monkeyfish have been pretty restrained given the provocation.
I take it therefore that EH is now part of the clique on waddya that thinks we're all marked with the sign of the beast whilst they all have the sun shining out of their arses.
Boudican
I'd pay big money if i had it to go to a BB King concert.I know it's a cliche but they don't make 'em like him anymore.
I love it when my other half is off to one of his meetings in the week cos I get to trawl through all the "retro-detecto" on TV choice (as he calls it) instead of compromising on things that we would both want to watch. I am pretty sure he spends the whole day watching the SyFy channel when I am out of the house!
It's a bit sad really. 15 years of marriage and the only thing we ever really argue about is what we are going to watch on the telly!!
I think I have a couple of minutes of BW's band on my phone. All I need to do is work out how to upload it to the puter and we're in business. I will try and stick it on youtube tomorrow when I can sort it out.
Boudican/Paul - Cherry (BW's main woman, band-wise) is an amazing talent. She has the biggest voice I've ever heard, and amazing vocal control. Of course it doesn't need to be said that the band is fucking fantastic also.
Have been boring everyone I've run across since the gig with how good they were.
And the available recordings on line don't do the experience justice. Something you have to see live. Got goosebumps.
I was getting rather despondent about posting, yet somehow found myself having another go at it. It shut me out again, so I expected to see only a gap when I looked back - but it got through! - or someone let it through. It's really difficult to join in a conversation when the comment doesn't appear until a few hours later (or another day) - and can make it look rather weird.
Heyhabib, Turminder, Paul, Deano, Sheff, Thaum
That's very kind. Definitely not to do with glory - just someone trying his honest best to provide for his family - one an infant who I haven't met as yet.
Of course, it doesn't mean anything terrible has to happen - it's that extra worry. You know how it is - a parent sees all of the dangers - while the 'child' is sure they're going to be just fine - and at present he still has the bravado of the young adult - nothing's going to happen to him.
At present he's signed up for the minimum time, and hopes to get himself as much training and extra experience as he can manage while he's there - that he can't afford himself (every time it's costs) - so that he can move forward afterwards.
I admit that I really hope the Afghanistan thing winds down - not just for selfish reasons, or meaning a lack of concern for its citizens - only that I can't see that it's doing anything of much use, and too many of our young people are loosing their lives and futures for - what?. The government we're supporting there are just as corrupt as whatever.
BB
Also do I know naff all about it.
Because of the recession, whereas before they were looking for people, now they've got them queuing up and can be very choosy. So he's going into the infantry - which doesn't sound like the best option, but it seems it's now the quickest way in, and it means he can start early next year. At least he'll have the mid-winter holidays with his young family first. His wife has got used to the idea - she has the same worries as myself, but they need more security of income and soforth (and I'm afraid I can't help much - much as I wish I could).
I'm proud of him for keep on doing his best - he's sure not a quitter - however much it all keeps getting stacked against him. And it's really not fair for the youngsters now - when I left school we could walk into most anything.
It's a government who knowingly create despondency and desperation of which I despise.
Now for some more good news
Atos Origin with the Shaw Trust and Pinnacle People have joined forces to bid for DWP employment services contracts - with the aim of providing the compulsory and work-related interviews for getting the disabled back into work - into all of those wonderful jobs just waiting for them.
A strong new team has come together to help deliver the government’s Work Programme.
Atos Origin, Pinnacle People and Shaw Trust are working in partnership to win positions on all 11 lots of the Framework for the Provision of Employment Related Support Services.
That means that Atos are after more juicy contracts - no problem finding money for those of course - to bully further the sick, disabled and confused. Making sure these people fail their medicals isn't enough for them - they want to be carry on kicking them - for the right price.
That really isn't decent.
I'm proud to say that in times past I had posts deleted on the same threads as Rednorth.
FFS, everyone, just ignore the duck. Like a child throwing a tantrum, he'll carry on doing it as long as you react. Just consign him to the cyber naughty step and let him play up on his own until he gets bored.
It is to do with the harassment and bullying that comes from this blogsite. heyhabib believes I am a racist because some ugly twisted bitch decided to trawl through my back posts and quoted me out of context. In your collective frenzy, you all fell for it. What silly feeble minded idiots you really are
Oh for fucks sake, get over yourself, you might not be a racist.... but you want "England for the English" ....right? does that include all those Brits who are....(in no particular order).......... Caribbean/Somali/Nigerian/Ghanaian/Pakistani/Irish/Japanese/Korean/Angolan/Portugese/French/German/Australian/Chinese/Ethiopian/Eritrean/Serbian/Czech/Polish/Bengali/German/French/Swiss/Finnish/Swedish/Dutch/Danish/Welsh/Saudi/Uzbeki/Kurdish/Iraqi/Iranian/Lebnanese/Palestinian/Israeli/Jordanian/....... need I go on?
Is this what you don't like?
We to are permitted live on petty little Island with a brutal, ruling class who have ensured their primogeniture through the ages.... Imperial history, which stole the souls, language, lives, land and belongings of those closest to it (the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh) and then set about doing the same to the rest of the world......
You? Not a 'racist'? You don't even understand the basic fucking meaning of the word....
I'm off to bed before that Clegg article causes me to have a fit of the apoplexy / vapours or whatever it is that the posh ladies (as listed in Debrett's) get.
from the clegg thread, which i think it's fair to say is going swimmingly for the coalition. ******* labourpartysuicide 9 November 2010 10:09PM Fuck Off and die you disgusting excuse for a human being. ********* I suspect the mods may have called it quits for tonight...
This has come up before. Why do certain people on WADDYA think that whether a post should be allowed to stay or be cleansed from the record (or the merit or validity of that post) should be determined by their view of its style?
Yep, if they don't actually like what you are saying, but can't actually find anything wrong with it, then naturally they will resort to attacking the style instead, commonly by interpreting the style as infering dodgy character traits or intent.
It's commonplace and cheap and the sort of thing that happens all the time on footie boards the world over, not to mention on the more fiery economics and political threads on here.
And one can deal with it by being robust, but it's trickier with more moderation, and if you don't want to cause unfortunate knock-on effects to a community.
Another difficulty, is that if you are a relative newcomer, then you are likely to get targeted by such types, as Kiz has done about half-a dozen times to me now. And a few others in that clique, having a pop.
And of course, in having to defend yourself so often it can seem to mods as though you are the troublemaker.
But there are solutions to that, and I usually find a way get enough of what needs to be said to survive. And the deleted posts, though brief and polite, contained enough to show that she may as well bail because it was all downhill from there.
Of course, the fundamental reason for all this is partly down to the fact it's a corner for the expats to banter on the net. Hence they are the ones who often moan when debate threatens to break out and last for... ooh, maybe a day or two!! My first time on Waddya I joined in a debate with a few others who weren't regulars at the time. And soon saw the jibes surfacing. Debate, lets newcomers join in more easily than banter, which tends to involve injokes, familiarity, and can easily be taken the wrong way if you don't know each other. They might not even be expats!!! So obviously, debate must be suppressed!!
If the paper created a separate board for banter and expats, a lot of it would melt away. Though it would still be a clique, unless you seeded debates and stuff, or protected and welcomed the new.
and when Jess went to sleep, all the Mods went to sleep, the right wing trolls crept under their bridges, the paranoids and the conspiracy theorists, the misogynists and EDL supporters all went to sleep too.
Rick Perry, Republican slime-ball (or is it slime-ball Republican?) Governor of Texas has just said on The Daily Show:
ReplyDelete"We have an accountable school system that believes in skilled workers as a product."
Skilled workers as a product!!!
I despair.
'a product'?
ReplyDeleteall gone a bit huxley there, ricky...
harker seems to have excelled himself today, btw.
ReplyDeleteThis sobering post from GherkinGirl
ReplyDeleteI've been homeless once before...the kind of homeless where you have to flee your privately rented house because someone raped you there and threatened to come back and finish the job. This is the kind of homeless where you sleep on friends' floors, sofas and spare beds until the council deign to even offer you hostel accomodation three months later. Desperate attempts to find a job have failed because you have no fixed address.
You get a hostel place and are officially No Fixed Abode. You discover this kind of homeless means sharing a house with no working kitchen, one toilet and no shower with five women who have been released on parole from prison. You put up with the fish guts in the bath, the men visiting the mentally ill prostitute in the room below you, the crack smoking in the kitchen, the police raids and the abuse the housing agency gives you when the toilet packs up and you have to shit in a plastic bag for weeks. You sign in and out everyday otherwise you'll lose your place on the assessment list and won't even be considered for permanent housing. You can't even cry yourself to sleep at night because you're so traumatised, so frightened and so desperate you've gone numb. And then you're raped again...
You change hostel place and get a room above a pub. You're the only woman on a floor of six men. The shower door doesn't lock. People bang on your door all night. You find burned tinfoil everywhere. You pay £15 a week for it on top for the Housing Benefit of £232 a week the council pays.
Then you get offered a permanent flat which feels like every Christmas, birthday and blind date for the rest of your life has come up trumps. You move in and make it a home for 5 years. Everyday you leave the flat you give silent thanks for the luck that gave you a safe secure home. It's the one thing you can rely on and it forms the basis of your recovery from a massive nervous breakdown.
Then the Tories get into power and the change in the single room allowance for Housing Benefit means that aged 34 you will lose your flat and be homeless again. You'll have to sell that washing machine, that fridge, say goodbye to the little garden of pots you created, get rid of all your possessions and prepare yourself to go back to those hostels because people who own more homes than they can live in want to save £87 a week by uprooting me.
I was on course to get off benefits and get a job in the next 12 months. I've been volunteering. I've finally after 3 years got the mental health treatment I've been waiting for. I have to give it all up and go back to living hand to mouth with only a suitcase to accompany me because I have no chance of finding a cheaper house share (that takes DSS) and that doesn't require a deposit I cannot raise.
Why is this government destroying stable homes and uprooting lives that are coming together? Why are they taking people having minimal rent paid and pushing them toward hostels that cost almostt 3 times as much to fund? Why are they punsishing people like me and rewarding people like Vodafone?
Maybe you all think I don't deserve to live in London, to have a roof over my head, to have a chance to re-start my life and try and return to work. The government certainly doesn't. I'm not sure why. All i've done was use the welfare state I paid NI into from the age of 16 as the safety net it was designed for. I didn't break the law. I didn't cheat anyone or lie or steal or ruin anyone's life. I just wanted to be safe and secure despite being ill and desperate, but that doesn't stop the coalition willingly making me homeless again.
Just, heaved meself out of the scratcher. Got to the surgery for 8.30, note on the door, 'had to return for keys. Back soon' Hmm. I'll try again in 20 mins.
ReplyDeleteOk, so 2 weeks of pouring olive oil into my ear, what larks Pip, what larks!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteSome men would pay good money for that, Turminder. It's slippery pillows for you!
ReplyDeleteFor Dott
ReplyDeleteHello visitor from Indonesia 0/
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHaving trouble posting folks.... put up a post from the Homeless thread and it appeared, then disappeared.... is it in the Spam folder????
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI may have posted this before, but I was just reminded of it by David Thompson - an interesting piece on divisive identity politics in US academia.
ReplyDelete@LaRit
ReplyDeleteThat's the spam folder symptoms, all right.
Deleted mangled version above....should have read......
ReplyDelete"RapidEddie
9 November 2010 10:09AM
BeautifulBurnout said:
Ben - I said elsewhere that RedMiner should replace Jackie Ashley ATL. He is brilliant. The Graun should be commissioning him and no mistake.
"I'd like to see Toynbee replaced by an aspidistra. It would brighten the office up"".
I really liked that one Eddie - Class.
Morning Peepsicles
ReplyDeleteHave been away for a few days, but will just post this here from Hanman puff piece for a bit of shock and awe.
bonds
8 November 2010 8:39PM
In depth is a very good idea........
However what worries me the most is you choose to ignore some of the most important issues.
An in depth on important issues would be a start
Here's an example........
Mode 4 introduced by the EU
Can we have a really in depth analysis of this by the guardian please. Just one piece would be a start considering it is going to be one of the most dangerous aspects of our lives sometime soon.
I'll give you a heads up to get you started unless you already know and have chosen to ignore it..
Mode 4 is the posh word for social dumping
The threat of social dumping, where workers from nations with low labour costs are sent to another country to undercut local working norms, is set to hugely increase under new plans for the future of EU trade.
Mode 4 is a provision within the General Agreement on Trade in Services (Gats) trading framework (see below) covering cross-border services trade in which workers are moved across borders.
Its inclusion in the international trade agenda allows transnational corporations to profit from cross-border wage differentials, national insurance exemptions, tax juggling and other benefits of "flexible labour."
Ultimately Mode 4 undermines workers' abilities to maintain wages and conditions, loading the balance of power between labour and capital in favour of transnationals.
It also reduces EU member states' democratic rights to control their own migration policies, in effect handing that power to transnationals.
The EU is offering Mode 4 access in all the trade agreements it is negotiating and has already implemented it internally via the Bolkestein Directive of 2006.
In Gats's "Doha Round" negotiations, begun in 2001, the EU's revised offer, tabled in June 2005, included Mode 4 offers across service sectors.
Mode 4 is a particularly secret part of the trade agenda, kept from those who will be negatively affected.
These EU offers are without quotas or economic means tests.
Defenders of Mode 4 argue that it is not immigration but temporary labour movement.
But this does not lessen the detrimental effects on EU workers of an influx of temporary workers who will be prohibited from becoming unionised.
As labour standards are lost in the few places they have been achieved, such as in some EU countries, it will become more difficult for workers elsewhere ever to achieve them.
Once signed up to, Mode 4 openings, like all trade commitments, become effectively permanent due to the prohibitive cost of withdrawal.
Current EU "investor protection" proposals increase this penalty, allowing not just other states but trans-
national corporations to challenge a country's failure to fulfil its trade commitments. Successful challenges will lead to prohibitive financial compensation claims for the loss of all potential profits, called "expropriation."
Cont/.
..cont
ReplyDeleteSo when workers feel the effects of the Mode 4 commitments that have been made on their behalf, it will be too late to reverse them.
India, on behalf of its transnationals such as steel giant Tata, is demanding transnational Mode 4 access to the EU and an EU/India Free Trade agreement is currently being fast tracked.
A recent report on the ongoing EU-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations said the "full ambition of the FTA can not be achieved without Mode 4 - which currently faces a range of barriers like wage-parity conditions."
From the other side, the EU is demanding very significant investment concessions, including banking liberalisation. The indications are that the movement of '"intracorporate transferees" will be used broadly, and with high expectations of megaprofits.
But bringing Indian workers into the EU displaces local workers and undermines established working conditions. A race to the bottom is inevitable across many sectors, as transnationals can bring in workers in whatever areas they are established, plus offer cheap, onshore outsourcing.
The Indian government is arguing that the minimum wage stipulations of EU member states undermine its cheap labour "comparative advantage."
Yet even if minimum wage levels are maintained, wage competition for just the minimum wage represents intense downward pressure on labour standards for skilled EU workers.
For a set of reasons - historic, linguistic and related to the liberalised British economy - workers here are likely to be the most affected by EU commitments.
Notably in terms of secrecy, a recent British delegation to India, led by Tory Prime Minister David Cameron, failed to even mention that an EU/India Free Trade Agreement is being rapidly negotiated, even though it was specifically focused on trade.
Mode 4 is considered "sensitive" and thus kept from attention because this dimension of trade - commodifying and moving labour to increase transnational profits at workers' expense - cuts much deeper than trade
Atomboy
ReplyDeleteWe've had a taste of that in France, where companies making a certain number of redundancies must go through a procedure that includes offering future redundant workers jobs elsewhere in the group where possible.
So we've had the delightful spectacle of relocating companies who offer their skilled French workers new jobs in Morocco or Vietnam at £100 a month.
I'll have a look, LaRit.
ReplyDeletePublished your 8.30 post, La Rit. Wow. Just wow.
ReplyDelete@LaRit
ReplyDeleteThat is heartbreaking.
I thought it might be that one, LaRit.
ReplyDeleteLaRit
ReplyDeleteWords fail me!That someone in such a vulnerable state will face the double whammy of not only losing her home but also facing an ATOS medical for her benefits defies belief.
Whoa La Rit, that's awful.
ReplyDelete(Have deleted my frivolous biscuit posts because they seem insensitive coming after that)
Let me be frivolous, then.
ReplyDeleteWhen life gives you lemons...
Hold IDS down, squirt the juice in his eyes until he goes blind and then tell him he's perfectly capable of cleaning toilets.
gherkingirl is a hell of a poster.
ReplyDeletemy christ, that's just a horrible story.
What organisations can help her?
ReplyDeleteAnd how do we bung them some dosh?
ReplyDeleteOhh FFS, just been subjected to arbitrary and overzealous moderation (well my comment was a reply to a deleted one) on CiF, again!
ReplyDeleteThat's why I like this place: we let the idiocy stand! (and actually fight it, obviously)
Without boring you all with the 'how', I spent 2 weeks in a place near Victoria Stn. called "The Queen Mary and Church Army Hostel for Women" in 1985. I thought that was a little slice of hell. Gherkingirl's post makes it sound like a fortnight at Sandals.
ReplyDeleteBut all of this stuff -- the cuts in benefits, the Mode 4 stuff that Bonds wrote about -- the whole point of it really is to drive us all back to serfdom, isn't it?
@PeterJ:
I'd want to see coverage of that in a source slightly less biased than The Weekly Standard before I got all het up about it. They're not exactly agendaless reporters.
Thanks LaRit for putting up the GherkinGirl piece.
ReplyDeleteOf course, many people still advocate attempting to engage with the political process which brings this situation about.
For The Guardian and CiF, the terrible plight of fuckwits like Harker[?] having to stump up for his kids' violin and Mandarin lessons obviously trumps the plight of any ordinary person living in the real world.
There is probably no real need to have our noses rubbed into the fact that the state and the media are not our friends any more.
We are being completely and utterly cast adrift to fend for ourselves.
Spike - Thanks for the comment about the earlier post and the fact that our bikes are now going to have to take us, not quite so much to the next village for mythical employment opportunities, but to entirely new continents.
When I mentioned this slightly precipitous downside to the otherwise unalloyed glories and benefits of globalisation on The Independent, someone said that this could not possibly be the outcome of such a wizard wheeze.
Admittedly, the comment seemed to be suddenly deleted, perhaps by its author.
Perhaps he found himself herded onto a cattle truck.
Anyway, little time to post, so good luck, thanks and best wishes.
Perhaps not so much educate, agitate and organise as plot, plan and take action now.
Afternoon guys
ReplyDeleteStill working so in disguise again.
LaRit - that post brought tears to my eyes. What has really, really pissed me off is that John Bird is all over the media - I just heard him on the radio in the car home - talking absolute shite about how WorkFair or whatever IDS is calling it will help people because too many are happy living in poverty, or some such arrant nonsense.
When will these fucking numpties get it into their heads that there are no jobs!! All WorkFair is going to do is to get people on the dole to do the shitty community jobs that the local authorities won't be able to do any more because they have had to sack half their workforce to meet their reduced budgets.
And after spending half an hour shouting at the radio, to come back and read that post has just put the fucking tin lid on it for me. This cannot be permitted. These bastards cannot and must not be allowed to do what they are doing to the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.
I'm going to try and get to the Coalition of Resistance Against the Cuts meeting at the end of the month - there is a linky here to their website, but there is a lot of local grass-roots organising going on right now. There is a meeting local to me and I am pretty sure there will be a meeting local to everyone.
http://www.coalitionofresistance.org.uk/
Aye, although the spam folder can make things not as they were, earache pales into insignificance...
ReplyDeleteThe brew phoned me back, she didn't like the fact I don't want a P45 til a better job comes along, gave me an interview slot for Monday. The local office then phone up asking why I can't come in before then? That's the slot she gave me. Well can you come in tomorrow at 1.40? Ok.. Can we see the cracks in the system yet? And this is still a trickle, what of the flood to come?
@Montana
ReplyDeleteYes, I know about the Standard's, ahem, standards. Even reading with that in mind, though, I found it an interesting piece that tied in with some other stuff I found quite a while back. I'll try to dig that out; it was a thread I was following after the Larry Summers imbroglio.
@BB
ReplyDeleteDamn! The Brighton meeting turns out to have been last night...
Still, I just got a junk mobile call offering to help me with debt "in this time of recession". Do they know something about me I don't?
turminderxuss
ReplyDeleteI may have got the wrong end of your post, but beware of trickery on the part of our benevolent and immaculate state and all its wonderful agencies.
Apparently, they like to pull a fast one by arranging conflicting and last-minute appointments, simply in order to ensure that you cannot get to them.
Then - tada! - they can say that you have shown yourself to be unwilling and they can stop benefits.
Also, I assume that everyone spotted in my absence the new IDS scam of making people work unpaid for a month or lose benefits for three months.
Slavery is finally coming home.
well, that was a short day at work.
ReplyDeletepower cuts really put the kaibosh on functioning as a business. particularly when that business is IT. and involves phoning people up.
I've just had a phone call from some financial advising company, funnily enough, Peter.
ReplyDeleteVultures.
BeautifulBurnout
ReplyDeleteWhen will these fucking numpties get it into their heads that there are no jobs!!
Apparently, MoveAnyMountain often says that there are an infinite amount of jobs. (I don;t read his/her/its comments as a rule).
I assume this is based on the idea that anyone could get a short-term contract - a couple of minutes' worth - for wiping the nose of an elderly passer-by for loose change.
Once the spirit of entrepreneurialism had taken hold, you could then move up the ladder and become a freelance phlegm collector or collect toenail clippings to be bagged and sold for fuel.
The jobs in this magical world are the same as those in the real one - utter hokum and bullshit.
In all seriousness, it might be worth recording your phonecalls with them - although technically you are supposed to let them know that you are doing it.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you could play a recorded message with a posh suthurn bird's voice at the beginning of your conversations saying
Turminder Xuss records all telephone conversations for training purposes.
Do you mind, AB?
ReplyDeleteI've just eaten me bloody lunch!
Blauuuurgh!
Wasn't there a Derek and Clive Live sketch that involved collecting Churchill's bogies?
On a completely different note, for all you who stared at me in disbelief at the London meet-up when I said Lemmy was in a beer ad singing an unplugged version of the Ace of Spades, here is the linky...
ReplyDeleteJohnny Rotten and his butter, Iggy Pop and his fucking irritating insurance, and now this!
The mind boggles...
@BB
ReplyDeleteI remember the D&C job that involved removing lobsters from Jayne Mansfield's arse.
I'd have happy for the Ig to do car insurance if only they'd used In the Death Car as the musical background.
BB
ReplyDeleteSorry about that.
I'll admit that the self-employed forager for viscous expectorations idea is not mine.
It was on a programme (which I now forget) as a spoof of someone who had succeeded in life - perhaps Norman Tebbitt[?] - despite coming from humble beginnings, his father being...
As for Churchill's bogeys, I have a limited supply available to serious collectors at an equally serious price - what is it they say on The Apprentice? - ah, yes, price point.
What's the difference between a price and a price point? Is a price point dearer because it makes the person saying it look such a prat?
A bit like a "meal occasion" so beloved of advertisers.
Start lining these fuckers up...
I don't know how Iggy has allowed himself to be made to look such an utter prat, tbh. Those adverts are utterly dire.
ReplyDeleteAt least the butter one is vaguely funny, and the beer one is just normal-ish.
Yay!
ReplyDeleteShow them the pigs!
Long time no hear.
Anyway, better get fuggin' on again.
There's not a great deal to be proud of when a youngster can write the following; (from the Indie)
ReplyDelete"19 year old Soldier Cyrus Thatcher was killed on 2 June 2009. This is the letter he wrote to be delivered to his family if he died:
Hello its me, this is gonna be hard for you to read but I write this knowing every time you thinks shits got to much for you to handle (so don't cry on it MUM!!) you can read this and hopefully it will help you all get through.
For a start SHIT I got hit!! Now Iv got that out the way I can say the things Iv hopefully made clear, or if I havent this should clear it all up for me. My hole life you'v all been there for me through thick and thin bit like a wedding through good and bad. Without you I believe I wouldn't have made it as far as I have. I died doing what I was born to do I was happy and felt great about myself although the army was sadly the ending of me it was also the making of me so please don't feel any hate toward it. One thing I no I never made clear to you all was I make jokes about my life starting in the Army. That's wrong VERY wrong my life began a LONG time before that (Obviously) but you get what I mean. All the times Iv tried to neglect the family get angry when you try teach me right from wrong wot I mean to say is I only realised that you were trying to help when I joined the army and without YOUR help I would have never had the BALLS, the GRIT and the damn right determination to crack on and do it. If I could have a wish in life it would to be able to say Iv gone and done things many would never try to do. And going to Afghan has fulfilled my dream ie my goal. Yes I am young wich as a parent must brake you heart but you must all somehow find the strength that I found to do something no matter how big the challenge. As Im writing this letter I can see you all crying and mornin my death but if I could have one wish in an "after life" it would be to stop your crying and continueing your dreams (as I did) because if I were watching only that would brake my heart. So dry your tears and put on a brave face for the rest of your friends and family who need you.
I want each and everyone of you to forfill a dream and at the end of it look at what you have done (completed) and feel the accomplishment and achievement I did only then will you understand how I felt when I passed away.
[To his brothers:] You are both amazing men and will continue to be throughout your lives you both deserve to be happy and fofill all of your dreams.
Dad – my idol, my friend, my best friend, my teacher, my coach, everything I ever succeeded in my life I owe to you and maybe a little bit of me! You are a great man and the perfect role model and the past two years of being in the army I noticed that and me and you have been on the best level we have ever been. I thank you for nothing because I no all you have given to me is not there to be thanked for its there because you did it cause you love me and that is my most proudest thing I could ever say.
Mum, where do I start with you!! For a start your perfect, your smell, your hugs, the way your life was dedicated to us boys and especially the way you cared each and every step us boys took. I love you, you were the reason I made it as far as I did you were the reason I was loved more than any child I no and that made me feel special.
Your all such great individuals and I hope somehow this letter will help you get through this shit time!! Just remember do NOT mourn my death as hard as this will seem, celebrate a great life that has had its ups and downs. I love you all more than you would ever no and in your own individual ways helped me get through it all. I wish you all the best with your dreams.
Remember chin up head down. With love Cyrus xxxx"
".....although the army was sadly the ending of me it was also the making of me....."
I think our young deserve rather more out of life than that.
BB/Atomboy,
ReplyDeleteWhen will these fucking numpties get it into their heads that there are no jobs!!
You can add 'Red' Ken, Ken Livingstone to that list. Here's Ken giving his backing to workfare:
Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London who has his eye on another term in 2012, supports plans to force people who are unemployed to carry out community work, or risk losing their benefits.
"It doesn't do poor and unemployed people any favours to leave them out of work, if you get people into the habit of getting out of bed, doing something, having a sense of worth and if that involves getting people who are currently unemployed helping out with the elderly or clearing up an area or things like that, I think it's worth doing."
So Ken thinks picking up litter will give the long term unemployed a sense of worth.
The left is fucked isn't it?
Deano,
ReplyDeleteFirstly, obviously, what a tragic waste of young life. Having said that, reading the above I'm torn between thinking:
"That doesn't read true: how can one person be so articulate in parts and inarticulate in others? Maybe it's propaganda"
and
"The education system obviously failed that poor lad: he's obviously intelligent, but left school unable to express himself properly"
Neither option says much about our leaders....
The ultimate accolade from Bella to Jessica on waddya
ReplyDeleteJessica is really good at looking at everything
I've often wondered what particular skills were necesssary to get an editorial job on the Guardian (apart from being Rusbridger's daughter). Now we know - it's being good at looking at stuff. Something for you perhaps, turminder, to tide you over the winter.
anon
ReplyDeleteShe's not good at looking at and understanding "stuff", I can tell you that much. I got very close to beating her with the two short planks she's thicker than on one thread a while back..........
Hi LaRit. Have you got a link to that GherkinGirl one?
ReplyDeleteOff out again - speak soon.
"..Neither option says much about our leaders..."
ReplyDeleteDon't say a lot that is great about our values either....(as Montana railed above at the start of the day) our educational system is less concerned with educating most of our young and more and more in moulding them for a life of uncritical servitude.
I'm glad that I wasn't the young man's teacher or commanding officer.
(I found his spelling adequate and his desire to find the right words for his folks very touching. I guess that he will have succeeded in his aim of making it a tiny bit easier for his family)
Perhaps I should have added the link to the full Indie article:Letters from young Cyrus Thatcher
Back to 'the voluptuousness of looking' anon? I haven't ciffed for about a month, don't miss it too much ; )
ReplyDeleteSad tale from the poor lad. Is that standard, that troops leave a 'deadmans letter'?
I'm guessing that it's probably encouraged turm - but I've never been a soldier so I really don't know.
ReplyDeleteReading that post, Deano, and looking at my lad sat across the room from me, and I just feel this terrible pain in my chest.
ReplyDeleteMy grandad lied about his age to join up in WW1 and was wounded in the Somme at the age of 16 - a year older than my boy is now.
I wear a red poppy for him.
Why the fuck do we never learn?
"....and in your own individual ways helped me get through it all....."
ReplyDeleteTouchingly existential really....
I thought you would BB xx.
ReplyDeleteThanks deano xx
ReplyDeleteBW - GherkinGirl's post is number one on the "Don't miss..." 1,2,3 list. And rightly so.
Hope you are OK, mate. Hugs x
We really can kiss goodbye to justice in this benighted bloody country. Just read Gherkingirls post - fuck, fuck, fucking appalling.....added to which just listening to R4. HMG propose to change the way damages are awarded in industrial/work accidents.
ReplyDeleteNo legal aid and court costs/lawyers fees to come out of whatever damages are awarded, rather than being stumped up by the business/company responsible for the accident. Kenneth Clarke telling us its all too expensive these days and they're looking at the way it works in the US.
They won't be happy until every last iota of the smallest possible gain made by working folk over the last 100 years has been jackbooted into the mud. We really are going to be stepping over the bodies in the streets. I'm finding it increasingly hard to hang on to the shreds of my comittment to non violent resistance.
I'm going to shut up about violent and non-violent resistance.
ReplyDeleteApparently me saying on Waddya the other day "If this was France there would be rioting on the streets" was incitement to riot according to some...
Oh, and they opened a 5 star hotel in Gaza yesterday....never mind peace processes, freedom, health care, jobs, food and housing, lets have a Movenpick in Ramallah
ReplyDeleteBB - is the conditional tense too troublesome for some people?
ReplyDeleteright, sheff, 'cos ice-cream is exactly what they need.
ReplyDeletethe world's gone a bit weird, hasn't it?
i know, i know, watching season 1 of fringe over the last week has perhaps made me a bit tin-foil-hat about a potential 'pattern', but...i realise there has always been a lot of shit around, but things do seem to be getting worse and it does seem to be happening everywhere at once.
Gah CiF*cked, World F*cked, I'm off to play with some conservation data/help my mate with ideas for his film on FB....
ReplyDeleteam just reading the Krinsky thread (v interesting piece) and saw this BTL
ReplyDelete"These Tory proposals are based on the ideas of Americans Lawrence Mead and Charles Murray,who influenced Giuliani"
Murray? Charles 'the underclass are genetically inferior' Murray? Charles 'an yeah, by that i mean black people' Murray? Charles 'fucker' Murray?
I mean, I hated this 'idea' when it was first mooted. I hated it more when the workfare parallel occurred to me. Now I've connected the dots back to Satan, well, I'm even less impressed.
growr.
to perk me up, have received my fee for the resale of the article. go on, guess.
ReplyDeletePhilippa
ReplyDeleteA voucher for a Big Mac with french fries and a soft drink of your choice?
"Jessica is really good at looking at everything"
ReplyDeletelooking at things?
How come the two of them can't even run a decent thread?
Rule 1 of maintaining a vaguely interesting, coherent thread:
Don't allow a certain clique (or claque) of fuckin idiots a privileged position whereby their basic ignorance; woeful, tedious prose style; all-too predictable 'witticisms', general incomprehension and self-serving prejudices get to dictate the tone and behaviour of the place...I mean FFS...look at those who are generally accepted as representing the intelligentsia (duh...in Europe).
This is the problem...they fell at the first hurdle..created a fuckin nightmare...luckily for the morons...the boss's daughter runs the place..so they're probably safe for now...until she gets another job (don't hold your breath) or marries a rich fella..had a couple of kids maybe...no doubt once the au pair's settled she'll be back part-time...and they'll move her into fashion or looking after the spoons...somewhere she can't do any damage...and then they can sort the place out..get rid of the dead wood...dagga dagga
kizbot
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this message will reach you somehow
What a fuckin artless, clueless shit-stirrer you are...by my reckoning this must be the 5th time in a month you've tried to tell other people how to post and...been called on it...then fallen flat on your face when trying to disclaim your blatant 'self-appointed head-girl' presumption (I was 2 of them..FFS..the irony..you telling me how to post stuff)
Your credibility's gone sweetheart...so that's erm..
you
the guy from Scunthorpe
Martyn in LaLa land
Kermit
Napoleon Fuckwit
and Dr. They're all out to get me cos I'm so smart
one by one...you all slip away into that little cliquey rest-home where you sit around telling each other what victims you are...and how right..and decent..and big-hearted and clever
wasting your time sweetheart...the evidence is all still there in turgid black and white prose.
got a recipe for humble pie (lactose, glucose, common sense and gluten intolerant version)
hehehe, paul, no, although i am now rather peckish.
ReplyDeleteAccording to gherkingirl's posting history she has lived in a hostel, studied at Sussex University, worked as a prostitute for 7 years, is a professional make-up artist, has agoraphobia, was molested by a Polish ATOS assessor, was raped by someone with a rich powerful politically connected relative etc.
ReplyDeleteAll or none of this may be true. She is certainly to be pitied, but not necessarily believed.
PhilB - two big Macs and large fries?
ReplyDeleteRiddle: if all the interesting posters and those who refuse to toe The Guardian line have been banned, how has 13thDukeofWybourne managed to survive?
ReplyDeleteanon
ReplyDeleteYou may be right - who knows. But it was a stonking, well written post and did describe very graphically the kind of thing a lot of people will be up against.
anon,
ReplyDeleteI don't know if gherkingirl's post was genuine, but I've known women in that situation and things do happen the way she describes.
Much shame on the originator of that post, if faked, but much more shame on the rest of us for turning our heads away from the reality that battered wives and girlfriends go through, when they have no money and nowhere to turn to.
I guess I'm asking you to look. It's not nice.
Phillipa
ReplyDeletecome on - do tell us....a large Starbucks frappacino and bun?
.......with a side of onion rings PhilB?
ReplyDeleteDuke walks on water luke.
But he also tends to take the Guard in small doses and uses his well developed critical abilities to steer clear of too much shite at one sitting. I think its called learning from the experience of esteemed comrades......
£25. so I wasn't far off with my first guess. every little helps.
ReplyDeleteanyway - on gherkingirl, have read her a couple of times, mainly on threads dealing with rape, and i have to say that she seems very very consistent, and credible, to me. fucked up things happen to people and I could see how the stuff cited by anon (possibly in a different order) could well stack up. so i'm with her, absent conclusive evidence to the contrary.
Monkeyfish, Kizbot got a bit weird when she was put on pre-mod and brought back. Don't be too hard on her, she needs CiF.
ReplyDeletechrist, cholera confirmed in port-au-prince.
ReplyDeleteheyhabib, you don't need to ask me to look, and you don't need to patronise me. I've seen it all already. I just don't weep crocodile tears at every sob-story I read on the internet and then rush onto Cif to prove my empathetic credentials to other caring people. It just doesn't make me feel any better.
ReplyDeleteRedminer achieves 1200+ deserved recommends.
ReplyDeleteAnnalisa Barbieri despairing about not being able to find a decent frock - and its all the fault of globalisation.
ReplyDeleteI should be happy that we can now all plunder from one giant global wardrobe. But it doesn't make me feel happy: it makes me feel sad, jaded and duped.
Where's my rifle?
anon, I wasn't patronising you, I recognised your point. They really wouldn't be crocodile tears.
ReplyDeleteOK, heyhabib, sorry.
ReplyDelete"Don't be too hard on her, she needs CiF."
ReplyDelete..but I feel it's in my best interest that the site is destroyed...it's such a conundrum
notice how heverdale's started to get deleted btw...tends to happen when the spam are revealed as fuckin hypocritical simpletons...it'll be in the community guidelines somewhere...sec. 5a paragraph 7 of the 'Platinum' Account holders special edition partII probably
is there a link o the redminer thread? am a bit lost in cif at the minute....
ReplyDeleteRedminer post @ 9.11pm
ReplyDeletecheers deano.
ReplyDeletelost on cif. on cif...
Given the benefits situation in the UK (not to mention government complicity with torture, deaths of deportees at the hands of private contractors, Diego Garcia, etc.), perhaps we should be asking the Chinese to raise the question of human rights with Cameron.
ReplyDeletedeano
ReplyDeleteRedminer's post should have pride of place on the Guardian 123.Speaks volumes that it doesn't.
gets better every time. have added my small 'thumbs up' to the masses. interesting that it isn't on the 1,2,3...
ReplyDeletewith that in mind, would like to suggest a new strapline:
No doublethink, no prevarication, no quarter.
Either fight now or fuck off.
I thought that too Paul
ReplyDeleteSpike
ReplyDeleteMy other half was wondering this morning how it was we had the cheek to complain to the chinese about their human rights record.... :o)
Redminers post was a call to arms - don't think the groan'd be up for that even if our masters were filling the football stadiums with us and dropping us out of helicopters
ReplyDelete@mf
ReplyDeleteIt'd be interesting if hevers could say what it was that got deleted - orders for an extra pint of gold top and a plain yogurt?
Hevers didn't say anything that warranted deletion imho - just pointed out (politely) that kizbot had seemed to be arguing that s/he should go away and stop expressing herm opinions.
ReplyDelete@Thauma
ReplyDeleteIf complaints about bossiness are barred along with bullying parodies, there won't be much left but recipes.
And obscure (to me, anyway) references to television, Peter.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I just politely pointed out a few things... that quibbling wasn't going to work, she was arbitrarily choosing how she defined style and what is good or bad style to suit, that actually she was the one wanting to escalate not me, by inviting me to go back in the posting history to illustrate how it had carried on without me - which would have required quite a few reposts - that she claims to be not attacking style but did not actually comment on the substance of my debate at the time on the science stuff etc.
ReplyDeleteNo biggie.
The above post of mine, I hasten to add, is in no way directed at Leni - I wrote it before I saw hers! (Bad timing.)
ReplyDeleteinteresting - french sec state for housing, benoit apparu, has been heard musing on the UK workfare plans being 'a really good idea'.
ReplyDeletethose riots could be getting closer....
...she was arbitrarily choosing how she defined style and what is good or bad style to suit...
ReplyDeleteThis has come up before. Why do certain people on WADDYA think that whether a post should be allowed to stay or be cleansed from the record (or the merit or validity of that post) should be determined by their view of its style?
It has moved from the idea of being protected from anyone saying anything you don't like to wanting the way in which something is said to be limited to an authorial voice of which you approve.
Why don't CiF and WADDYA just run everything which is posted past Kiz and Marvin and EnglishHelmet first?
Why don't they invent a new sticker, like a royal warrant:
This comment has been approved by our most esteemed contributors and is therefore declared fit for public consumption.
What a bunch of deluded arsewipes.
french sec state for housing, benoit apparu, has been heard musing on the UK workfare plans being 'a really good idea'.
ReplyDeleteHeh, Phillipa - wouldn't give much for Benoit's neck if he tried that one en France...
My son is joining the army. Simply because he sees no other way of continuing to provide for his future and family.
ReplyDeleteTBH, it really scares me, but we just have to hope for the best. He knows I don't want it to happen, but I'm told I mustn't say anything, so all I can do is be as supportive as possible, and remind him never to stop seeing others as human beings too; and hope he gets through it without too much damage. He's an adult now, with little ones, and he has to make his own decisions, and I have to respect that.
This is only because there are no jobs, or no job future. He couldn't find anything here and moved to another part of the country (from making contacts through the internet). There he eventually found a temporary job on minimum wage, but he worked hard and managed to make it a permanent one, and he was progressing well. Then came the recession...
In a way he's been one of the lucky ones, or his employers have been, as they've just about managed to hang on so far; but it's taken away his future prospects there, and the hours are much more uncertain.
He's been as determined and hardworking as they say is necessary, and the banksters and fraudsters and worshippers of the Economy-god have kicked him, and many like him, back down. So our young people - lots of girls too now - are heading for the forces, as the only protected job left. Decent wage and family accomodation, and in-service training. I see the sense of his arguments, and I admire his determination to try to overcome every obstacle; but I don't want him, or any of our young people, harmed in some completely pointless skirmish to support U.S. power exercises.
Service to his country - humbug. What service has his country done for him? An education that was often little more than free child-care for the day (preparation for fodder for the Economy), because we didn't have the influences to get him into anywhere we wanted to get him, or the money for the extras (and as for senior schools, we haven't really got any good ones - all I could do was refuse that he go to the worst); and now opportunities removed as fast as they can preach about how everyone should follow up their opportunities.
All of this from those who, had they been born into a different part of society, haven't the brains to have made it - would now be being treated like scum for being on benefits. How dare they preach about it.
So now they say - let's not have the forces either - whatever it is, let's not have that job there any more - then let's really punish them for not being in employment. It's insanity run rampant. It is Wickedness - when none of it is necessary - plenty of billions for whoever of their string-pullers wants it.
My son's great-grandfather, after whom he is named, was caught up in WW1 and only just survived Le Somme. Many of them had no idea - young men often off for a lark more than anything else - a chance to break away from home - after all, it was all going to be over by C-mas - thousands killed on a day in gas and mud and bullets (58,000 on the first day of Le Somme), mostly because of stupid leaders not seeing them as real people at all - the lower classes - vermin - what's it matter?
So many advances since then in social care and the rights of workers - all being swept away as fast they can, just for more to be soaked up by the power-and-wealth crazy bosses of the politicians - thousands to be sacrificed at the whim of the few. The 'lower classes' - vermin - what's it matter?
BB
Why the fuck do we never learn?
Or, why don't they ever learn anything?
our mad world
My other half was wondering this morning how it was we had the cheek to complain to the chinese about their human rights record.... :o)
At least the Chinese are honest and don't pretend to have a democracy.
could be coming, sheff. just showed redminer's comment to oisette ('cockyachts' took some explaining) and i can imagine the wider response if apparu goes ahead.
ReplyDeleteanyway - dinner.
Moonwave
ReplyDeleteI cannot begin to imagine how you must be feeling.
Is he in any position to choose what branch of the army he goes into? There must be some that are safer than others. (although I know naff all about it really).
Best wishes and good luck to you and yours x
This has been an educational feature especially requested by Dotterel.
ReplyDeletemoonwave, I would much rather those of your upbringing were in the forces, than those who seek glory. Best wishes, respect and hope for your boy.
ReplyDeletejust a test!
ReplyDeleteMy best wishes moonwave - it would scare me too.
ReplyDeleteI was very relieved when neither of my two sons found it necessary to look to the military for a future.
I can well understand your lads thinking sadly many decent kids in working class parts have reached the same conclusion - that's what makes me feel angry.
You could never quite see the Blair sons in the military could you?
Best wishes for your lad. I hope he can keep out of harms way whilst getting some useful skills for his future - if only we could have had a Peace Corps with our kids giving useful service to less fortunate folk overseas.
Moonwave
ReplyDeleteThe armed services and especially the army has always attracted young working class men looking for something other than the limited range of jobs on offer to them in civilian life.And from what i understand it's often those from the toughest backgrounds that make the best soldiers.
With regard to your son he could opt for a non combatant role although i think he'd still have to do basic training.You didn't mention what you son either does for a living or what his interests are.But maybe he could do a job in the army that he's keen on doing but which doesn't put him in the firing line.Worth thinking about.
Good luck moonwave. These are the lengths we are forced to. I hope your son is very safe through out his career.
ReplyDeleteI had a pal a few years ago, worked with him at an off license. Really great guy, was into his fitness, liked the ten mile run etc. Any way, he went for the Marines entry test, and aced it, couldn't do the 'skip across the tops of 5 telegraph poles section' The instructors sugessted he do climbing, to get his head for heights. However he was 27 and would only be able to to take the test once more before being too old.
He got hypnotherapy and went back fot the assault course. Passedit no problem, he told me he was still bricking it, but the hypnotherapy let him just 'go for it'. So he passed, he was then lined up with the other recruits about to be sworn in. He told me that he was aware that his hand went up in the air, without concious action. The Sgt comes over and he says, 'This isn't for me, I don't want to sign up for this.'
I think he dodged one there.
@moonwave
Hope you get a lottery win that means your son can do what he likes.
Ducky your puerile behavior saddens me,
"I can resist everything, except moderation"
How do you like your duck in your fave resto? Roasted? A l'orange? Moderated?
ReplyDeletemonkeyfish said...
ReplyDeleteI feel that now the consensus has you down as a recognised arsehole.
Which consensus is that then? The one you rigged with recommends while hiding behind a group of girls. If it weren't for you, this place would be Ok. But you are determined to abuse this site to continue to launch your neanderthal campaign against the Guardian.
Confit de canard with rissoled potatoes and a nice salad for me, please, luke.
ReplyDeleteAnd the potatoes cooked in the duck fat.
:p
Luke, you could always give him your e-mail address if you like his comments?
ReplyDelete"Which consensus is that then? The one you rigged with recommends while hiding behind a group of girls."
ReplyDeleteNah, mate, even those who once felt sorry for you, now think you really are a cock.
moowave
ReplyDeleteSo sorry your son feels joinng the military is his only option. What have we come to! I hope things go well for him and he stays safe.
I remember meeting American soldiers in the early days at Greenham Common. A lot of them, especially the black ones, had joined for similar reasons - the only way out of totally crap circumstances. That was back in the early 80s. Plus ca change.
Hello lovely peeps!
ReplyDeleteAnd cheers for all the approvals of GherkinGirl's post... it was just a trawl through the thread when I was half asleep this morning and I thought it was just too bloody important to not park here and highlight... saw that it made top pick on CiF.... and quite bloody rightly so!
Have had some real problems posting and am really shattered..... hope to get back to UT later ;)
x
How many frothing shits would be posting their bile all over the internet if this reality was daily front page news in the media?
Moonwave - best of luck to your son and sincerely hope he can keep out of combat operations - for his own sake, and for those on the 'other' side.
ReplyDeleteturminderxuss said...
ReplyDeleteHe's not got the hang of the multiple id's yet. For someone who admits that workplace bullying led to their breakdown this is either an elaborate skin thickening exercise or a very slow suicide..
Fancy telling the mods that you are responsible for fucking with their website and that you enjoy bullying disabled people. How silly.
BTW, After your group crawl over my website on Friday, some of you left your IP addresses and ISPs behind. At least eight of you.
So who's with Tiscali then?
If you want to be a real cyberattacker, you ought to get some proper training in first.
Anyway, I see the lonely mallard has arrived so I'll get off and watch a film.
ReplyDeleteLaters
heyhabib
ReplyDeleteYou are not my mate. I loathe and despise you. You are a vile, cowardly little cretin and at 41, it's about time you grew up.
Dotterel
You still haven't got it have you? Ok. I'll give you a clue. Carpet bombing.
BB
ReplyDeleteThat John Bird is a twat who gets between 7 and 8 grand for his after-dinner speeches... missed his approval for Welfare to Work on the radio..... that littlerichardjohn is bang on the money too on that thread.
Good to see my psychic powers are on fire.
ReplyDelete>>Fancy telling the mods that you are responsible
>>for fucking with their website and that you enjoy
>>bullying disabled people.
Unlike some peoples. You logged in, then posted, with the wrong ID here, I raise your admissions as mitigating circumstance. I refer you to the answer given by my right honourable friend;
"Nah, mate, even those who once felt sorry for you, now think you really are a cock."
Dot! You have got yourself deleted! What did you say?
ReplyDeletethaumaturge
ReplyDeleteWhat's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose.
Some say your toes
I think it's your mind, your mind, oooh yeah your mind.
LaRit
ReplyDeleteI couldn't believe what I was hearing on You and Yours. Seriously. All the "it's the welfare state to blame for people being kept poor" shite.
Admittedly he did say that it was initially Thatcher's fault for destroying jobs and "parking" people on housing estates, but after that he sounded as right-wing as any of the numpties we see trolling over on CiF.
I always thought Bird was a decent bloke. I have changed my mind now.
Ducky
ReplyDeleteCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretinCretin..... ad infinitum.....
Get the picture sweetheart? You are a nasty piece of work and you seem to forget that you are not immune to being traced.... I understand if you have a website, it's really quite easy...no?
More of Turkey than a Duck..... gobble,gobble,gobble.......
Thauma,
ReplyDeleteI just posted that I wanted to talk about the moderation!
Ok, so I may have copy pasted "the moderation" until I hit the character limit, but hey, we all need to vent occasionally ;-)
Thauma
ReplyDeleteDo you want me to give him a slap for you ?
I have to say - and I have, in my normal cowardly way, tried to keep out of this fight, save to delete your spam posts - that you are beginning to sound really paranoid, EH.
ReplyDeleteFirst on CiF you thought that anyone who looked at you a bit funny had to be GIYUS. Then you thought that Monkeyfish was GIYUS. Now you think people are storming the EH citadels and spamming your site, wherever that might be.
I for one really couldn't be bothered. I tried extending the olive branch at one stage and was told in no uncertain terms where to get off. Fair enough, that's your right.
But any sympathy that you might have had is wearing sorely thin. The "quack quack quack" stuff was irritating but not such a problem. But your little hissy fits on here are just childish and stupid.
If anyone around here needs to grow up, it is certainly not habib.
EnglishHermit
ReplyDelete"You are not my mate. I loathe and despise you."
I know, I have brown skin, after all.
"You are a vile, cowardly little cretin"
I could kick your arse any time, I know this because you keep crying about getting bullied on CiF "boo hoo!"
"and at 41, it's about time you grew up."
You're two decades older and post "quack" repeatedly as a response. I despair for your wife/partner.
...And what Thaum said.
ReplyDelete"Confit de canard with rissoled potatoes and a nice salad for me, please, luke.
ReplyDeleteAnd the potatoes cooked in the duck fat.
:p"
Not bad but I prefer Magret with a reduction of port.
Luke, you could always give him your e-mail address if you like his comments?
Did I say liked, Sir HappyFool?
Nice one, Dot!
ReplyDeletePaul - have a shot if you like, but its insults don't faze me and he just keeps on proving his own utter, utter worthlessness as a human being.
Hermit by name, hermit by nature: as no-one else can stand to be anywhere near the carbuncle.
Magret..... ahhhhh! Nice and pink, and yes, a lovely rich jus from the pan juices and port. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteHabib
ReplyDeleteI despair for your wife/partner
You don't seriously think he is capable of having a wife/partner, do you? I certainly don't recall him ever mentioning one.
PhilippaB said...
ReplyDeleteis there a link o the redminer thread? am a bit lost in cif at the minute....
09 November, 2010 18:31
Is redminer the same guy as NorthRed, by any chance? Because he always did some top posts, and had people clamoring for him to be ATL.
It all just seems like one great big whirlwind of fuck at the moment, doesn't it? I hesitate to check the news of a morn, Which is probably the intention.
Thatch only had a few years to plan, this lot had 13. Labour only used to get one term, or one term and a bit. And NuLab oiled the wheels anyway.
I hate to think of him being alone. Everybody needs somebody.
ReplyDeleteBB
ReplyDeleteApart from a short period when the Big Issue was first established, I thought Bird was 'OK'.... but he's an Establishment monkey-whore..... with a very comfortable existence - he is their 'proof' that there is a 'meritocracy'.... he knows his function, gets well paid and has no intention of saying anything which would interrupt the cash-flow to his bank account. I'm afraid I have similar reservations about Kid's Company found Camilla B......
It's 'buffer-zone' politics, where all ideas of really confronting the appalling inequality we have here and challenging the 'feudal' system is emasculated and sectioned off and where 'charity-providers' fill in the gaps which keep everyone's attention focussed in the wrong direction.
heyhabib
ReplyDeleteI know, I have brown skin, after all.
Here we go. Playing the racist card. If you'd checked your youTube account, you will see a full description of why you are a complete and utter plonker. Hint. It has something to do with posting abusive comments against my videos.
As you can see it has fuck all to with race. It is people like you who CAUSE RACIAL DISHARMONY by fabrication and deceit.
Thank you Thauma, I try!
ReplyDeleteThe wide open goal ducky left after it was just an unexpected bonus!
Couldn't possibly say if Rednorth = Redminer ......mods narks are around......but I'll be voting the Redminer/PrincessCC ticket for poster of the year .........again this year.
ReplyDeleteHang on
ReplyDeleteIf habib thinks your music is shit, there is a very strong chance I might like it, EH...
LaRit - CamillaB is a slightly different kettle of fish. While it is true to say that she can't have had a very easy life to begin with when she first came over here, most people coming from Iran at the time were those who had some standing and certainly some dosh back home - no backs of lorries and undersides of trains for them. So she was probably pretty upper-middle class to begin with, if my instinct is right.
I still have a lot of respect for her, though, because she could have chosen to do something completely different with her life.
I will be back later - just discovered they are repeating Twin Peaks on the horror channel. I only ever saw this in France and therefore probably missed 90% of the humour in it.
EnglishHermit, whether your music is shit or not is open to debate, but whether you are a bigot is not.
ReplyDeleteEvening me ducks.
ReplyDeleteLaRit & BB
IIRC, Camilla B was born into a very privileged family.
deano
I too shall be voting for the Yorkshire contingent this year.
And if any one has a loaded gun, I have a good use for it - it says in our local free paper that Cleggie has had dog excrement posted through his letterbox since the Forgemasters affair, so I propose we use a scatter gun to distribute the shit even further round his hallway.
LaRit
ReplyDeleteRe; Camila B - Not many of us make it into Debrett's for instance:
http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/l/26480/Cami+la%20BATMANGHELIDJH.aspx
"Magret..... ahhhhh! Nice and pink"
ReplyDeleteAgreed, but theres no point salivating BB. Apparently you cant even afford lamb these days (if even silks are broke these are indeed troubled times!) Perhaps Mrs Monkeyfish can pass you her recipe for Spam curry. That's nice and pink.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZukABwA7qMM
ReplyDeleteWell, I think it's shit. No, shit can be composted. I think it's awful, worthless, irritating muzak. I followed a link to an embarrassing school boy love poem set to the dulcet tones of a jingle written in assembler code.
Make your own minds up, why not post honest, constructive reviews. Here's mine;
Oh god, my ears, my beautiful, unsullied ears! I told you I'd been to the doctor, you utter bastard; first for making this whining 6th form drivel, and a thousand times over for posting it on the internet. I pity the few benighted souls who have stumbled across your droppings as they browsed, and pray that they are able to put the tedious experience behind them. In would wish illness, curses and ill fortune upon you, but if this is what you produce, well, you must suffer enough, and constantly. It's understandable that you try to share the grief out as much as you do, in future I shall attempt to ignore you, and put out of my mind the half heard whispers, the cautious postings of the neophytes, "sweet lord, what the fuck is that? When did MAM fuck Charleysays?"
Twunt.
The Debrett's site is comedy gold!
ReplyDeleteHow about "Clear advice on correct forms of address for titled people..."?
So I take that "Ey up me owd" isn't the right way to greet them titled people I meet at the bus stop, then?
MsChin
ReplyDelete(*waves* somehwhat frantically)
Camilla B was born into a very privileged family
I've always had my suspicions... not because Kid's Co. isn't a good thing and not because I don't think she doesn't care, but because, Charities set up for the benefit of those in most desperate need are always the one's who have a conscience coupled with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo ......
Hi All--Just back from Vancouver. Spent some days with youngest brother after his prostate surgery. He seems to be coping well.
ReplyDeleteBB King put on a tremendous show. We really enjoyed it very much, and the venue was quite small ( 1000 or so ) which produced a close and friendly atmosphere. He played a mixture from old to newer stuff which went down really well with an audience that was mainly 'mature'. All in all, one of my most memorable concerts.
Those posts by Redminer and GherkinGirl were certainly worth a read. Well constructed and stark.
Thauma, Habib--Checked out that 'music' you're on about. Not for me I'm afraid, and I don't speak duck so will just keep scrolling on by.
Leni, hope you're well.
Paul, I reckon it's because he craves attention, and he's certainly not getting it on Cif. I stand guilty of providing it and should probably cease.
ReplyDeleteMore importantly !!
ReplyDeleteThere's a thread from Nick Clegg on CIF if anyone's interested.
"Oh god, my ears, my beautiful, unsullied ears! I told you I'd been to the doctor, you utter bastard; first for making this whining 6th form drivel, and a thousand times over for posting it on the internet. I pity the few benighted souls who have stumbled across your droppings as they browsed, and pray that they are able to put the tedious experience behind them. In would wish illness, curses and ill fortune upon you, but if this is what you produce, well, you must suffer enough, and constantly. It's understandable that you try to share the grief out as much as you do, in future I shall attempt to ignore you, and put out of my mind the half heard whispers, the cautious postings of the neophytes, "sweet lord, what the fuck is that? When did MAM fuck Charleysays?"
ReplyDeleteIf that was written in the few minutes since the music came up your a genius. Even if it wasn't its a magnificent review. All I could come up with was "its shit".
Luke
ReplyDeleteI'm no silk!! And I am a crime/immigration/family barrister (with a bit of free housing on the side). All in all, the three most underpaid areas of law, comparatively. And I do have to think twice about buying lamb, surprisingly. Usually only for special occasions. And if I have had a few cheques in.
Fucking hate spam though. Bleugh.
MsChin - thanks for the info. I figured as much. People have the image of refugees as poverty-stricken "La Jungle" inhabitants. While it is true to say that a lot of them are people who have sold up every last possession to be able to get transport over here, many are from quite wealthy backgrounds - which doesn't prevent them being genuinely persecuted at home, either, but it is a bit of a myth that they are all at death's door from starvation when they arrive here.
My housemate is out, I'm catching up on stuff she won't watch stored on our digibox, first "Lost Land of the Tiger" (they found them in Bhutan, YAAAAAAAYY!!!
ReplyDeleteNow First Life: God (aka David Attenborough) explaining early life.
I'm as happy and excited as a kid at Christmas, anyone want some of the overflow?
Oooh, Boudican, concert sounds fantastic! Saw the man once and he was incredible.
ReplyDeleteYou would like Bitterweed's band - make sure you check them out on your next visit this way.
Best wishes to your bro, and to everyone who cares about him.
thauma
ReplyDeleteDifficult not to rise to the bait though.
@ luke Ex tempore mon brave. Channelling Mr Brooker perchance?
ReplyDeleteI know I shouldn't Paul, but willful misunderstanding goads a response. I had the shit kicked out of me every day from the ages of 7-16, it teaches you some stuff. Ducky's minor league. Peace. utwh4me. p : )
Dot - go for it; will read tomorrow when I wake up!
ReplyDeleteMsChin
ReplyDeleteMy winning scrabble word from last night:
squit:
1 British informal a small or insignificant person
2 (the squits) diarrhoea
Thauma--Would love to hear Bitter's band. I enjoy his taste in the music he proffers here ( with a few late night exceptions ) so if it's anything at all like that I'm sure it would be enjoyable.
ReplyDeletethauma
ReplyDeleteI've largely kept out of this thing with EH until tonight but from what i've seen all of us including monkeyfish have been pretty restrained given the provocation.
I take it therefore that EH is now part of the clique on waddya that thinks we're all marked with the sign of the beast whilst they all have the sun shining out of their arses.
Boudican
I'd pay big money if i had it to go to a BB King concert.I know it's a cliche but they don't make 'em like him anymore.
Hehe - excellent, Dot.
ReplyDeleteI love it when my other half is off to one of his meetings in the week cos I get to trawl through all the "retro-detecto" on TV choice (as he calls it) instead of compromising on things that we would both want to watch. I am pretty sure he spends the whole day watching the SyFy channel when I am out of the house!
It's a bit sad really. 15 years of marriage and the only thing we ever really argue about is what we are going to watch on the telly!!
Moonwave, I'm really sorry, that's terrible. I second Thaum's comment.
ReplyDeleteBoudican
ReplyDeleteSound like a great gig!
Good to hear your bro is bearing up well too.
I think I have a couple of minutes of BW's band on my phone. All I need to do is work out how to upload it to the puter and we're in business. I will try and stick it on youtube tomorrow when I can sort it out.
Boudican/Paul - Cherry (BW's main woman, band-wise) is an amazing talent. She has the biggest voice I've ever heard, and amazing vocal control. Of course it doesn't need to be said that the band is fucking fantastic also.
ReplyDeleteHave been boring everyone I've run across since the gig with how good they were.
And the available recordings on line don't do the experience justice. Something you have to see live. Got goosebumps.
Paul
ReplyDeleteI can't bear to go on the Clegg thread.
I am still suffering from PTSD and suicidal thoughts for having voted for the bastard.
Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLa Rit
ReplyDeleteJust a test
I was getting rather despondent about posting, yet somehow found myself having another go at it. It shut me out again, so I expected to see only a gap when I looked back - but it got through! - or someone let it through. It's really difficult to join in a conversation when the comment doesn't appear until a few hours later (or another day) - and can make it look rather weird.
Heyhabib, Turminder, Paul, Deano, Sheff, Thaum
That's very kind. Definitely not to do with glory - just someone trying his honest best to provide for his family - one an infant who I haven't met as yet.
Of course, it doesn't mean anything terrible has to happen - it's that extra worry. You know how it is - a parent sees all of the dangers - while the 'child' is sure they're going to be just fine - and at present he still has the bravado of the young adult - nothing's going to happen to him.
At present he's signed up for the minimum time, and hopes to get himself as much training and extra experience as he can manage while he's there - that he can't afford himself (every time it's costs) - so that he can move forward afterwards.
I admit that I really hope the Afghanistan thing winds down - not just for selfish reasons, or meaning a lack of concern for its citizens - only that I can't see that it's doing anything of much use, and too many of our young people are loosing their lives and futures for - what?. The government we're supporting there are just as corrupt as whatever.
BB
Also do I know naff all about it.
Because of the recession, whereas before they were looking for people, now they've got them queuing up and can be very choosy. So he's going into the infantry - which doesn't sound like the best option, but it seems it's now the quickest way in, and it means he can start early next year. At least he'll have the mid-winter holidays with his young family first. His wife has got used to the idea - she has the same worries as myself, but they need more security of income and soforth (and I'm afraid I can't help much - much as I wish I could).
I'm proud of him for keep on doing his best - he's sure not a quitter - however much it all keeps getting stacked against him. And it's really not fair for the youngsters now - when I left school we could walk into most anything.
It's a government who knowingly create despondency and desperation of which I despise.
Now for some more good news
Atos Origin with the Shaw Trust and Pinnacle People have joined forces to bid for DWP employment services contracts - with the aim of providing the compulsory and work-related interviews for getting the disabled back into work - into all of those wonderful jobs just waiting for them.
A strong new team has come together to help deliver the government’s Work Programme.
Atos Origin, Pinnacle People and Shaw Trust are working in partnership to win positions on all 11 lots of the Framework for the Provision of Employment Related Support Services.
That means that Atos are after more juicy contracts - no problem finding money for those of course - to bully further the sick, disabled and confused. Making sure these people fail their medicals isn't enough for them - they want to be carry on kicking them - for the right price.
That really isn't decent.
I'm proud to say that in times past I had posts deleted on the same threads as Rednorth.
FFS, everyone, just ignore the duck. Like a child throwing a tantrum, he'll carry on doing it as long as you react. Just consign him to the cyber naughty step and let him play up on his own until he gets bored.
ReplyDeleteGoosie:
ReplyDeleteIt is to do with the harassment and bullying that comes from this blogsite. heyhabib believes I am a racist because some ugly twisted bitch decided to trawl through my back posts and quoted me out of context. In your collective frenzy, you all fell for it. What silly feeble minded idiots you really are
Oh for fucks sake, get over yourself, you might not be a racist.... but you want "England for the English" ....right? does that include all those Brits who are....(in no particular order).......... Caribbean/Somali/Nigerian/Ghanaian/Pakistani/Irish/Japanese/Korean/Angolan/Portugese/French/German/Australian/Chinese/Ethiopian/Eritrean/Serbian/Czech/Polish/Bengali/German/French/Swiss/Finnish/Swedish/Dutch/Danish/Welsh/Saudi/Uzbeki/Kurdish/Iraqi/Iranian/Lebnanese/Palestinian/Israeli/Jordanian/....... need I go on?
Is this what you don't like?
We to are permitted live on petty little Island with a brutal, ruling class who have ensured their primogeniture through the ages.... Imperial history, which stole the souls, language, lives, land and belongings of those closest to it (the Irish, the Scots and the Welsh) and then set about doing the same to the rest of the world......
You? Not a 'racist'? You don't even understand the basic fucking meaning of the word....
Paul--Good on you for staying above the fray. I just don't get the value of pointless shit stirring myself.
ReplyDeleteAs far as BBKing goes, you are spot on. Well worth the money to see one of my faves. Thing is, he seems to enjoy playing as much as we like the show!
Dot--Yes please, very interested.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBliss..........
ReplyDeleteLaRit - well said. But Spike has a very good point also.
ReplyDeleteSo ... off to bed, no more to engage with senile avians.
I'm sorry you had to encounter that Philippa. You won't get over it, you'll just have to learn to cope. : (
ReplyDeleteI'm off to bed before that Clegg article causes me to have a fit of the apoplexy / vapours or whatever it is that the posh ladies (as listed in Debrett's) get.
ReplyDeleteNight all.
NN, Thaum. xx
ReplyDeleteHugs to the doggy for me!
I've been pestering my two men with the Wiki page for your dog's breed in the vain hope that they will give in and let me get one...
Boudican
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy and i think i've got a way to go before the Nobel Peace Prize comes heading my way:-)
turminder
Point taken :-)
I hate to say it, but I have heard far worse stuff than EH's being played in clubs these days..
ReplyDeleteBoudican - best wishes for your brother.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a great event.
BB - put you foot down girl ...no dog, no remote control, no Sunday lunch, wash your own fucking socks etc.
200 posts coming up....
203 posts coming up
ReplyDeleteDeano
ReplyDeleteYou have a point there
Except... my husband is more likely to put the washing on than I am.
And although I do awesome roast dinners, he does a mean curry and various other asian stuff. So starving him out is not the problem.
And I recently accused him that the only way I would get the remote was out of his cold, dead hand.... :o)
from the clegg thread, which i think it's fair to say is going swimmingly for the coalition.
ReplyDelete*******
labourpartysuicide
9 November 2010 10:09PM
Fuck Off and die you disgusting excuse for a human being.
*********
I suspect the mods may have called it quits for tonight...
Atomboy said...
ReplyDeleteThis has come up before. Why do certain people on WADDYA think that whether a post should be allowed to stay or be cleansed from the record (or the merit or validity of that post) should be determined by their view of its style?
Yep, if they don't actually like what you are saying, but can't actually find anything wrong with it, then naturally they will resort to attacking the style instead, commonly by interpreting the style as infering dodgy character traits or intent.
It's commonplace and cheap and the sort of thing that happens all the time on footie boards the world over, not to mention on the more fiery economics and political threads on here.
And one can deal with it by being robust, but it's trickier with more moderation, and if you don't want to cause unfortunate knock-on effects to a community.
Another difficulty, is that if you are a relative newcomer, then you are likely to get targeted by such types, as Kiz has done about half-a dozen times to me now. And a few others in that clique, having a pop.
And of course, in having to defend yourself so often it can seem to mods as though you are the troublemaker.
But there are solutions to that, and I usually find a way get enough of what needs to be said to survive. And the deleted posts, though brief and polite, contained enough to show that she may as well bail because it was all downhill from there.
Of course, the fundamental reason for all this is partly down to the fact it's a corner for the expats to banter on the net. Hence they are the ones who often moan when debate threatens to break out and last for... ooh, maybe a day or two!! My first time on Waddya I joined in a debate with a few others who weren't regulars at the time. And soon saw the jibes surfacing. Debate, lets newcomers join in more easily than banter, which tends to involve injokes, familiarity, and can easily be taken the wrong way if you don't know each other. They might not even be expats!!! So obviously, debate must be suppressed!!
If the paper created a separate board for banter and expats, a lot of it would melt away. Though it would still be a clique, unless you seeded debates and stuff, or protected and welcomed the new.
3P4 - hope you and your next dog have taken a few steps towards finding each other?
ReplyDeleteThe Acers and the Autumn here has been good this year too.
I doubt Pen will ever take your sensible advice on board! Man is addicted to quoting book titles...
>>Except... my husband is more likely to put
ReplyDelete>>the washing on than I am.
You mustn't wear wet clothes, you'll catch your death...
Good park Philippa!
BB
ReplyDelete"If habib thinks your music is shit, there is a very strong chance I might like it"
I owe you for that, I'll not forget.
habib
ReplyDeleteThat was more an indictment of my taste in music than yours, darling.
Given that BW thinks that my favourite band sound like a rattlesnake that has swallowed a car alarm....
Boudican
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear your Bro's doing OK and the BB King concert was a stonker. All in all not a bad few days then!!
Will have a quick squiz at the Clegg thread.
turm - it's still there! i think the mods have given up in a tearful mess.
ReplyDeleteand when Jess went to sleep, all the Mods went to sleep, the right wing trolls crept under their bridges, the paranoids and the conspiracy theorists, the misogynists and EDL supporters all went to sleep too.
ReplyDeleteNN all, sweet dreams everybody, sweet dreams...
Hello visitor from South Africa 0/
ReplyDeleteHello visitor from Chile 0/
ReplyDelete