I should think Blair has made Labour un-electable for the future far beyond the life expectancy of anyone here to be honest.

Actually my LC250 probably did closer to 170 MPH but I didn’t want to be seen to be exaggerating, and I Am NOT! I was astride it at low level in the back of a Chinook :p

Very drool…:);):)

I have a Kawasaki 400 triple in at the moment. The owner collects Kawasaki triples, and I’ll be having the 500cc version that he owns in for some work next month.
I’ve also got an early ’75 Goldwing in, a smattering of V4 Hondas, a CB900 and a Yamaha XJ650.
Oh and a Yamaha 600cc Thundercat, awaiting MOT.
And a Francis Barnett 250 twin.

I’m still formulating my answer to last nights thoughts on society.

A.

Trumper – Margaret Thatcher lacked any sense of ego or self interest.

Charlie, if you really believe that could you get me an ounce of whatever you’re smoking these days, when you next see your dealer.
Of course she had self interest–she got to lead her party, or are you seriously telling me she was completely selfless in that and everything else? What about Dennis and his business affairs in what at the time was apartheid
South Africa–bit of tacit support there I’d wager??

And what about how she meddled with the successive leaders of her party, Major–who she supported initially, Hague or Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

You’re an intelligent bloke most of the time–don’t let yourself down by writing b*ll*cks–please.

Charlie/Gary.
I have to go and lay spanners on a RD350LC for a few hours.
While I work, I’ll give the cure for all ills some consideration.

Although my initial thought is that it’s bigger than just family.
And I do believe much of the past, not just the last 30 years is relevant.
It’s a cumulative thing.
A.

So Charlie.
What you’re saying is that it’s all labour’s fault??
Everything was good when she left power and it’s all gone wrong since then..??
Interesting concept.
By default, you’re saying that the Conservatives are 100% right and the Socialists are 100% wrong.
So much for getting things sorted in a spirit of cooperation.

I tend to see Blair’s Government as a continuation of what went before–in fact, apart from his propensity to start wars, and talk like a t**t, in his first term he did next to nothing.

I think what we now call ‘dependency culture’ goes way back before Thatcher, way back before Atllee in fact introduced social welfare–although it was David Lloyd George (A right slippery f*cker) who laid the foundations of it.
I actually believe it to be something buried very deep in the national psyche.
All about the difference of meaning between ‘service and servitude’.
Look at those words and see the different way they are treated in other countries.

I do believe that until we start addressing those issues, we’re going to continue drifting downhill. No modern politician has come close to addressing the real issues of this country–Thatcher & Blair included.

The importation of cheap labour started long ago, and has been an ongoing expedient used by left and right to keep the labouring classes in line.
I think they call it ‘divide and rule’.
The Tories did it because it kept wages low, the Socialists did it because they hate the white working class because it doesn’t measure up to what they see as their picture of utopia.

And Edgar, you’re right.
It’s as Juvenal wrote in 100 A.D.–It’s all about ‘Bread and Circuses’.
A.

simple things are not good enough anymore.

Gary,
funnily enough, those are exactly the things which please me the most these days.

Andy, but what I’m really driving at runs deeper than that.
I can’t say I’m terribly impressed by the copper and his antics, or as I said above, a load of people like Glenda pretending to be working class–which I am, and not in the least ashamed of that, but I see all of that as a symptom of a much deeper malaise.
But, we used to live to be able to live together in reasonable harmony–so again, what happened??

Andy

No. It wasn’t always like this.

We grew up in a different world. Now my kids tell me I have become one of “The Grumpy Old Men”. Actually, I like progress and I embrace change. But I abhor lack of moral values, courtesy, decency, integrity and respect that is now almost ‘the norm’. And in terms of ‘respect’, it is a word that is mostly banded about freely by those who either don’t know what it means or don’t show it.

Andy, I know this sounds impossibly quaint but I remember walking in the street with my Mother and we bumped into her boss, who tipped his hat and greeted her.
She referred to him as Mr Norgate, and I had to greet him as such.

Can anyone tell me what we have here now is better??
How did we travel from there to here??
What happened..?