News, what news?

[El Prez]

I realised something this morning while stumbling around with Toots in the forest.
I have not read a newspaper, or current affairs magazine for weeks. I have not watched TV news since I don't know when, and even odder, I have not listened to the Today or Pm news progs on the radio for months. I'm not missing it.

Is this an indication of my frustration with our country's political leaders and the system? In a democracy where your letters to the top floor are answered by a minion with a repeat button, where Taxes are levied by men and women who have little or no idea of the way of life of most of the population and who live in an ivory tower; remote from the consequences of their actions.

I lie. I heard about a new Strategy; fireworks will be illegal after 11pm, and loud bangs will be banned. Well chuffing whoopy do. What is the point if there is nobody to enforce it. There are no police around here. There are no traffic patrols permanently on the road to deal with the Islington Cornish and their pals the Bromsgrove Janners with their 4x4 lane crunchers, shaved heads, football shirts, catatonic wives and snotty brats.

B. Liar came to power on the cry of "Things can only get better". Well if it's ok for his kids to go to private school, if it's ok for him to hire a Boeing 777 every time he wants to mwah mwah with GWB, if it's ok that he appears totally remote from what is actually happening on this Sovereign Isle, then it's ok by me. NOT!

It took a fire engine 23 minutes to get here on Wednesday when my neighbours gas tank blew it's lid (V Scary) Blair is about to go into bat against the firemen, again. A police car may get here within 20 minutes, if the nearest station is open. Not the end of the world, just a quiet corner of Cornwall. Things have not 'got better', standards, have declined in services and manners. People have become openly ignorant and feckless. The major arterial routes in this country are log-jammed virtually constantly. Public transport, for those who need it, is a poor joke, despite money being poured into it.
The NHS is staggering around like a drunk desperately looking for his way out of the take away. Their management leaping from brush fire to brush fire, issuing managerial edicts which stultify the nursing staff.

It is possible to continue ad nauseum. Perhaps that is why I have stopped keeping my 'leeetle gray cells' enlightened.

I think I'll stay here for a while, it's quite nice really, rubber walls, no lengths of twine. Nothing too sharp, apart from Loz's tongue, wouldn't want Robbie to cut himself on that now would we? If only the loo would flush, but plastic buckets don't flush, or do they, here goes................ nah, thought so.

[Spannerman]

............and to cap it all sea rod licences likely to be taxed at £22 a year letting the Spanish, Russians et al to profit at the expense of those Fowey boys, bloody madness says I...................

[thokenda]

Of course things are better. The economy is going so well !
Look how affluent everybody is, buy, buy,on credit of course.
Read somewhere that if what was owed to the credit card companies, banks etc. was spread out evenly over every household in Britain , they would each owe about £17.000,- .
Bye, Bye - I'm glad I live here, I wouldn't want to be around to see the results when that particular bubble bursts.

[JOHN WOOD]

Same as me Prez,just got back from sunny Menorca after a lovely holiday with the family,all 12 of us and turned on the TV and the worlds gone mad.Some ki-ti has won a tv programme on 4,the govt has stitched up the poor firefighters again,there have been freak weather conditions and plagues of hover flies.Luckily I bought a large bottle of Sangria mix home so its time to hit the sunlounger!

[Hyperlithe]

The interest rates go up yet another quarter of a percent. Who does it affect? Us poor people who can't afford to pay any extra. All it does is push us further into debt so we have to borrow more, why don't they realise this?

If I wasn't joining the RAF and being able to get my house rented out while I'm away I would probably be looking to sell it before house prices start dropping. No wonder people are staying living with their parents for so long!
Between mortgage rates and petrol prices, the only people I know who have any disposable income among my friends are the ones who live on benefits in association housing, have young children and don't work.
I don't begrudge them any of it, I could have been in the same situation if circumstances had been different, and none of them asked to be there.
But why does it have to be so hard for those of us with jobs? Where does all the money the government take off me go? Why can't I have any of it for myself?
We keep getting told we should be saving for our retirement because pensions aren't going to be enough to live on, but I don't earn enough to live on right now, so how can I save for forty or fifty years down the line?


rant over.

[Wully]

Prez, you had better enjoy your quiet, private bit of wood as much as you can because before long if that fat, useless lump of lard Prescott has his way there soon won't be much green fields left in England. How on earth did that eejit ever get into government. Surely he only got a job in Government because Blair is shit scared of him. But enough I have had my moan on another thread.

[harry hackedoff]

We are one
but we are many
and from all the lands on Earth we come
We have a dream,
and sing with one voice,
I am, you are, we all are Australian.

Well in about two and a half months we will be

I liked the way Two Jags was portrayed in the Eye as the perenial bar steward on some cross-channel ferry. Every interview with the street of shame ended with him saying"Gin and tonic was it Sir?" Total W4nker

Rob, I too have had "holidays" from the news media. What refreshes is to see ourselves as others see us. Try watching the French news on Canal Neuf or the Dago stuff, or even BBC World Service TV

Onya blue

[Rotary Booty]

Hyperlithe

Us poor people who can't afford to pay any extra. All it does is push us further into debt so we have to borrow more, why don't they realise this?

'They' do realise this, but 'they' don't care because 'they' are the money lenders, and that's how 'they' make a substantial living!

Do you really class yourself as 'poor' when you have a job, a house, and a future career in the RAF?

Surely you're not one of those who don't read the small print that always states: 'Interest rates can go up as well as down', and 'Your home will be at risk if payments are not maintained'. Concern of rates rising is for those 'no hopers' who were disruptive at school, and left as soon as possible with no qualifications or prospects. They are the smokers, ('It helps my nerves') and drinkers, ('If you can't have a drink, or six, there's no point in living') who have to have something they can't afford, and believe the adverts that having all their debts as one payment a month will give them enough money left over to buy a new car!

Not you, surely (I know, 'Don't call me Shirley')

El Prez can't even afford a daily newspaper....... now THAT'S poor!!

Aye, Derek

[Spannerman]

I've been on both sides of the economic mortgage yo-yo, when I had a mortgage, interest rates started at 6.25% in 1968 by 1988ish they had risen to 15%. I went out of my way to find a better paid job in life, I wondered why I hadn't looked earlier! I had paid my mortgage off early and what a saving that was.

Trouble is that now that I have saved a bit of dosh I only get 4.5% on my savings, so it cuts both ways you know........anyway I hope when you join the RAF that you have more job satisfaction and a higher income.

[snyder]

People have become openly ignorant and feckless.

In the matters of ignorance and fecklessness which do you prefer, that people be openly or secretly so? I'm for secrecy, myself. Vices are always more fun when you're ashamed of them. Indeed, a shameless vice is nothing more than a habit, and I find most habits boring.

[Hyperlithe]

I class myself as poor financially, but not in any other sense!
Only because I know the value of any assets that I 'own' are seriously outweighed by the debt I have.
But in about 8 months time I'll be on about twice the earnings I am at the moment, and will hopefully be able to start repaying some of those debts.

[Artist]

I dare say I could improve my financial standing but to be honest cannot be bothered.

Am happy doing what I do, OK sometimes it can get a bit tight with the cash but thats how I have lived all my life anyway. Be it in uniform or in civvies.

As for the news.................am right alongside the Prez, B'liar and his lot just get on me tits. So instead of waking up to the Today Prog I now wake up to BBC Radio Two. The News channels I hardly bother with. Although I do find it interesting sometimes to compare the British News channels with the USA News channels on the old Sky Sat.

As for the Papers..........Well I bought the Mail on Sunday today and the first few pages are all about that Dipsh*t Swede who manages the England footie teams ex lovers tales of what a hunk he is in the pit! Sums up the bloody Country for me that does!

Artist

[El Prez]

Snyder not biting, good try though.
This was an island of anally retentive, relatively polite people who went out of their way to avoid embarrasment, to themselves or others; and in doing so attempted to attain or indicate a higher social position or aspiration to position than they perhaps held. Old fashioned, yes, non-pc yes, patronising, very much so. But that's the way it was, and is in my head. I've deliberately broken two of my rules. Starting sentences with but/and. (I'll go to hell for that)
What grates on me, particularly at this time of year, with holiday makers pouring into the county, is the 'stuff 'em' attitude. It was deemed impolite to invade another persons space with noise or nuisance; it is now considered a right to behave as a yob, and be almost admired for it.
It's not just a British malaise, it's international, although we do seem rather good at it.

I can feel the migraine returning....................

Stix is visiting next Friday en famille, any messages, threats or inducements would be welcomed.

[bigbart]

Too right, who gives a f**k about which footballer shags which girl band member? And no I don't want to see a photo of Gwyneth Paltrow without make-up, or a picture of Justin f****ng Timberlake wearing scruffy jeans. I really don't care, and anyone who does needs a slap to wake them up. The news only winds me up these days and gives me fuel for moaning. So I think I'll join El Prez and Artist and switch off the news channels, and be much happier.

[harry hackedoff]

Get him to blow your own trumpet voluntary. And I noticed that nice snyder bloke is using the wrong bait, on this occasion. Enjoy the day, Rob, and get the evidence on here first Get Rattus Negros Norvegicus, Sub Specie Droppus, to visit and before you know it there`ll be no more chocolate digestives