Obama gaffe???

bavz, just give it up – ok? The UK pays peanuts for the monarchy and gets far more back in return than it would otherwise thanks to the Royal Estates being exploited by the Treasury. Now our elected representatives, on the other hand, keep voting themselves pay increases, allowance privacy and the rest.

Who are the real villains?

Doh…where did they get all their land from ??????:rolleyes:
You obviously miss my point totally about the amount of land they control,and historically where/how that land was aquired,I am not anti rich but I am anti privilege.
If you think I dont despise most of our polititians then you really have not been reading my posts at all.
Do wake up at the back 😉

regards baz

bavz, just give it up – ok? The UK pays peanuts for the monarchy and gets far more back in return than it would otherwise thanks to the Royal Estates being exploited by the Treasury. Now our elected representatives, on the other hand, keep voting themselves pay increases, allowance privacy and the rest.

Who are the real villains?

I had no intention of debating british monarchy.. and Michele Obama “touching” queen should be non issue except to few stuck up traditionalists.

I’m finding it strange that nobody except fox is finding it unacceptable for US president to BOW DOWN to Saudi King. :confused:

You do realize, if I may be so blunt, that if Barry threw crap in the kings face, more than likely the US media, other than fox, would either:

A: Not report it
B: Try to make rational sense of it
C: Blame it on the king, he deserves it after all

Not that I like fox personally, I honestly don’t watch too many news programs because they basically repeat the same crap over and over, but at least fox does report on things the other big 4 news channels don’t, at least here in the states. The other 4 channels have so much invested in the guy they cant cant stand to see anything bad come from it.

And does anyone really believe that if GWB had done this, even this early in his presidency, that he would be given so much “slack”? I think not.

Also, since we are on the topic of gaffes, how did Gordon Brown like his DVDs and his wife like the models of air force 1 and marine 1 for their children? I thought they were very personal, touching gifts :p

Oh, and if that bust of Churchill needs a safe place, I would be willing to put it in a place of respect in my own house if it already hasn’t made it back to Britain.

I had no intention of debating british monarchy.. and Michele Obama “touching” queen should be non issue except to few stuck up traditionalists.

Im finding it strange that nobody except fox is finding it unacceptable for US president to BOW DOWN to Saudi King. :confused:

No, quite a small proportion. Estimated to be about £4 billion last year, or 0.3% of total GDP, & 0.7% of government spending.

I know what you mean abou the proportion…what I really meant was that it is totally wasted money,totally wasted on a whole raft of completely unneccessary blood sucking gravy train riders,the whole euro thing is a very expensive shambles.

cheers baz

It seems to me that painful conditions are too easily dismissed as being ” all in the mind “.My daughter wasn’t correctly diagnosed until a Maori doctor in Surfers’ Paradise of all places identified the condition in 2 minutes after her GP had fobbed us off for months. But we digress ….

My daughter has a lifelong painful condition and I couldn’t agree more about doctors not listening to you.

Me too.

A couple of years ago I developed multiple symptoms which my GP & his colleagues couldn’t make sense of. After 6 months, they were starting to talk about psychosomatic conditions, apparently because I was confusing them by changing my story (that was because new symptoms were appearing!) until I saw a consultant who had the bright idea that maybe I had two separate conditions. Bingo! A couple of scans later, they had two definite diagnoses.

17 months, one operation, a few months worth of antibiotics, 9 months on painkillers, several steroid injections into joints & some physiotherapy later, one condition is more or less cured & the other one greatly improved, though I’ll have to keep taking medication for quite a while.

“Psychosomatic”, huh! As soon as someone listened properly . . . . and neither problem was even in her speciality.

I didnt actually mention health care in my post,I have had some health problems in the last 15 years and i think it is an absolute lottery who you are referred to in the UK,but my overriding impression of doctors is an almost complete lack of common sense and unwillingness to believe what they are told.With me they seemed to believe that I enjoyed visiting them and I became a ‘problem’ patient with a health anxiety disorder !!!:rolleyes:
I now go to a specialist hospital in London but even they are just starting to think about causes that I was asking about over 10 years ago.Victorian attitudes :rolleyes:
I bitterly regret not getting away from the ‘old boys network’ and paying to see somebody abroad 😡

regards baz

My daughter has a lifelong painful condition and I couldn’t agree more about doctors not listening to you.

The way the pro-Obama media are reporting his reception in Europe it sounds like he’ll soon be named president of the EU as well as athe U.S.

Or he may just go for “King of the World”…:D

A large proportion goes into the almost bottomless european pit to refuel the gravy train etc- grrrr :rolleyes:

No, quite a small proportion. Estimated to be about £4 billion last year, or 0.3% of total GDP, & 0.7% of government spending.

depends on whether you think ‘JH’ and the shopkeepers son were any better than ‘wing nut’ 😀

cheers baz

Well,in a sh*g or die situation I’d choose death every time. ( Someone has to have these intellectual discussions ).

I know, my point was that as you said the UK use to be cheap but now cost have risen in the UK and not necessarily for any good reason.

A large proportion goes into the almost bottomless european pit to refuel the gravy train etc- grrrr :rolleyes:

I didnt actually mention health care in my post,I have had some health problems in the last 15 years. regards baz

I know, my point was that as you said the UK use to be cheap but now cost have risen in the UK and not necessarily for any good reason.

Well Jonesy
You ignored my point about how much land the ‘Wales’ family control…Do you know exactly how much ??
If you want to believe ‘official’ figures then dream on boy…they are at best usually misleading or more usually ‘terminological inexactitudes’.

Not so much ignored Baz as acknowledged but didnt see it as relevent to the bottom line. However much the royal estates bring in that money goes to the Treasury…unless you want to get into conspiracy theories about money squirreled away into offshore accounts etc.

For the money they get it seems they are obliged to have their lives lived in a goldfish bowl and every personal conversation, even amongst old and dear friends, subject to the court of public opinion and the scorn of the chattering classes. You know what, to live my life like that, I’d want more than £12mn!.

Must give her some credit,though – after all , would YOU want to wake up next to Prince Charles ?

depends on whether you think ‘JH’ and the shopkeepers son were any better than ‘wing nut’ 😀

cheers baz

The point being is that nothing in life is free and having the perception that a so called free service is the best way to deal with the problem is always the best way.

I didnt actually mention health care in my post,I have had some health problems in the last 15 years and i think it is an absolute lottery who you are referred to in the UK,but my overriding impression of doctors is an almost complete lack of common sense and unwillingness to believe what they are told.With me they seemed to believe that I enjoyed visiting them and I became a ‘problem’ patient with a health anxiety disorder !!!:rolleyes:
I now go to a specialist hospital in London but even they are just starting to think about causes that I was asking about over 10 years ago.Victorian attitudes :rolleyes:
I bitterly regret not getting away from the ‘old boys network’ and paying to see somebody abroad 😡

regards baz

Don’t knock the old girl – she’s the same age as me and any woman who’s got this far without ever doing a hand’s turn of work in her life certainly has my admiration.

More than I’d want to wake up next to the Duchess of Cornwall frankly 😮

Nah not all of us were taken in by the fluttering eyelashes…she didnt have much taste in men either :rolleyes:

cheers baz

Must give her some credit,though – after all , would YOU want to wake up next to Prince Charles ?

They even give us soap opera characters like the late, unlamented princess bimbo.Moggy

Thanks Moggy, reading this thread and trying to think of something to say about her, but you’ve said it, nuff said.

I remember when we were a cheap little island…we used to view most continental countries as extremely expensive,and now we are one ourselves. cheers baz

Part of the problem since the late 1940’s and the introduction of the NHS is that the UK’s population has demanded more and more freebies or social add ons. What many forget to understand is that someone has to pay for those social resposibilities that the gov’t is now obliged to provide.

On the tiny island that I live on, we have a free health service i.e hospital and state pension, for which we pay 6.5% of our salary towards. There is no unemployment benefit as such though you can go cap in hand to one of the local parishes for a hand out. To visit the doctors cost £26.00 a time and the dentist considerably more. Oddly waiting lists for major operations are less than 3 months, if you are unfortunate enough to have an emergency you are taken to A&E and admitted to a ward within a couple of hours. My tax rate for 2009 is 12%. The point being is that nothing in life is free and having the perception that a so called free service is the best way to deal with the problem is always the best way.