snafuSurprised – or maybe not – that more of this hasn’t been mentioned.
#thingsthatarenotmosques
Feeling the need to make sure that every Ukip screw up gets a fair thrash of the cane, I shall make no apologies for letting this not pass you by:
Nigel Farage’s Ukip branch rebukes BBC for ingrained liberal bias in holding straw poll about leader in front of noted Muslim place of worship… wait, hang on…
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/nov/27/-sp-ukip-mistakes-westminster-cathedral-for-mosque
After all, there maybe be members of our foreign contingent (but not the immigrants, obviously) who have not heard about this – yet!
snafuSo are you still suggesting that any government would deliberately attempt to keep the number of people who are unemployed just to ‘save’ money…..(or because they are evil)?
Because they are evil, obviously.
There are people who, when made unemployed, find a new job almost immediately whilst there are others who don’t have the knowhow or the confidence or have no idea what job they could go on to – these job clubs help all unemployed BUT they are especially good for the latter types. They need someone to help them with, for example, computer applications because, sometimes, they’ve just never used one. Or what to put on their CV or filling out an application form or helping them understand what the job requires.
At the job club (above) I met a man who was dyslexic and had no help what so ever from his adviser at the job centre, even after asking and being assured that he would get help. He was not stupid, there must have been plenty of opportunities for him because he had plenty of skills on his CV, but not being able to read properly meant he couldn’t work a computer or fill out an application form without assistance – which he was now getting.
Apart from the fact that unemployment costs the government a fortune, governments are judged on their unemployment figures, it would be completely counterproductive for any government to deliberately raise unemployment (excepting purely public sector (funded) employment which has a finite sustainability).
Deliberately? No, not deliberately…
If you tell a county council their budget is being reduced, even after jobs have been cut and savings made elsewhere, where do you think those savings are going to come from?
Lots of councils have cut funding from toddlers groups, OAP daycare, mentally and physically handicapped daycare (or whatever the new buzzword is), special needs groups, sponsorship of local clubs, as well as job clubs that used to receive funding from the council. I know of one remembrance parade that only took place because two council roadmen came in on their day off to put up barriers and operate the road closure by the memorial – previously their bosses had put it down as part of the days roster but what with cutbacks…
Government makes demands but leaves others to sort out the requirements.
Government incompetence is a very different matter (from government actually being evil)!
Really.
I don’t necessarily agree with the way that these programmes have been implemented but it does kind of make it hard to believe that the government is:
The Work Programme is a ticking boxes exercise.
I (bravely!) asked a couple of long term unemployed neighbours about it this morning and their response was ‘waste of time’. They go in, discuss what jobs they’ve applied for, discuss what replies they got to previous applications, make an appointment for the following week. One of them got a place last spring on a group that had been much reduced in staff numbers and computers: previously staff helped with making CVs and assisted with using a computer to find a job, and they kept track of what was happening, then the staff numbers dropped from about eleven to three and he was told he could come in and use a computer to search although he might have to wait, and his appointments with an adviser went from once a week to once every six weeks. If they wanted training they were directed to a local college where they could take English, Maths, and some computer admin courses – free. Anything else was to be paid for, although at reduced prices. Essentially they were on their own as far as looking for work goes.
snafuWell actually that was the inference you were supposed to draw from the post!
Sorry – it was actually sarcasm, but directed more toward politicians and not at you.
There are some of us who believe that this country cannot go on absorbing immigrants ad infinitum.
Really? You’ve never mentioned this before… (That is also sarcasm)
There are also some, who believe that it is not possible to go on funding a National Health Service without some financial limit to the way that it is currently funded. It pleases few, except the trade unions.
Ah, a unions rant.
It pleases those who could not afford to see a doctor, those who are involved in an accident and would have to prove that they had cover either before the ambulance crew would take them or when the crew are deciding which hospital to take them to, those who have – through no fault of their own – a lifelong debilitating medical problem which no insurance company would cover and which requires constant expensive medication. Would you rather that these people suffer and/or die due to a financial limit? (It is alright for you to say yes – we’ve already formed our opinions about you anyway)
Before the jackals assemble for the attack, let me make it clear that as a significant beneficiary of the NHS, I am a devoted supporter but, also a critic.
We have noticed.
Much is made of the claim that the NHS is ‘free’ at the point of delivery. It is not. It is funded by the taxpayer thru’ insurance contributions administered by the Govt.
But when you go to see you GP do you pay before your appointment? If you answer yes then either someone is being sneaky or you are not seeing an NHS GP.
In Ireland it used to cost (about four years ago) 70 Euros before you could even walk through the door, and at least the same again for a prescription. THAT is not free at the point of delivery.
Nigel’s comments were intended to encourage people to think that there might be alternative ways to fund the NHS in ways not entirely dissimiliar to the present.
Didn’t he suggest sell immigrants into slavery to fund the NHS? If he didn’t then he missed a trick…
Any suggestion like this serves only to enrage the all too powerful and dominant trade unions who now exert their brand of tyranny instead of the capitalist bosses.
The powerful and dominant capitalists would rather that the thing was privatised so that they can get their grubby fingers into the pie, complain loudly that they can’t do the job on the money the government gives them so put prices in place that they raise each year at above inflation percentages and hive off any profit for their shareholders whilst complaining that the minimum wage is still too high.
The inefficiency of State run enterprises (Jobs for life, jobs for the boys, don’t have to work too hard, just ‘clock’ in or, get someone to do it for you) versus capitalist greed with all its own excesses.
Hmm. So why not privatise the RAF? Put each section out to tender. Make it run at a profit. No? Why not?
Look at the railways; British Rail was not fantastic but it was not the joke that the current rail companies are now. Every company has a different average cost per mile which varies outrageously, usually depending on how (un)popular the service is, which would have been smoothed out with the previous nationalised rail company. The demand for a good shareholders return each year means that the carriage of freight on rails has priced itself right into the articulated’s of its main competitors on the roads.
Apart from the benefits of scale economics – buying in bulk etc. I think that the NHS should be broken down and administered in smaller self contained units. Perhaps a modern version of the cottage hospitals which were a feature of my youth. The unions wouldn’t like it because it would destroy their ’empire’. Administration would be more controllable, it would be possible to see how much actual work was done by the staff in an eight hour day. It would be easier to track wasteful duplication of labour and materials.
???
Cottage hospitals – massive duplication of staff and services would be required. Duplication like that costs money and is usually uneconomic, staff sitting around waiting for customers – sorry, clients – to walk in. Drawing in hospitals to one site meant that these services could be offered much more economically: the problem comes when the bean counters want costs cut back and ignore the fact that demand hasn’t decreased (their eye being on a nice, profitable and influential job in the city, with their CV saying that they successfully cut costs and balanced the books in the NHS and with a lovely reference as well).
As for the NHS being broken down to smaller units, surely they are already? http://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories/pages/caretrustlisting.aspx
As for the unions having their empires ‘destroyed’…how? Like political parties unions can be localised, but the main ones are national so a nurse in a union would still be in that union wherever he/she worked in Britain.
And you would allow the staff to have eight hour days, would you? I am sure the doctors and nurses will be most appreciative, especially those currently expected to be available to work 24-36hour shifts despite what the unions have requested.
snafu‘Keep the unemployed out of work’…..are you serious?
Does the government also live in a massive castle on top of a high mountain that’s surrounded by impenetrable thorn bushes? Do they have cellars full of gold coins that they’ve stolen from simple folk that live in the shires…
(Local government does in Hampshire…!)
Which is cheaper – pay benefits to the unemployed and have people moan about scrounging, or organise a group for them to get together with a couple (or more) of focused and knowledgable individuals who can help and assist those who need or want the help?
I visited such a job club last year which was run by a coupe of retired ladies and an ex navy officer – all volunteers – who all had experience in the careers field who were doing a marvellous job with the unemployed and had a fantastic success rate at getting people back into work; but the club was closed in the summer when local government decided they could no longer afford to organise the power, computers or accommodation for them. The outlay was already accounted for and there were no wages to pay out so the cost was effectively minimal, so now those unemployed who would have benefitted from attending are having to do it by themselves – and some of them are just not equipped to do that, and probably never will be.
Poisoned apples are undoubtedly against some H&S regulation, but I shall let someone else come up with the page and paragraph number.
Just to clarify. Winter Fuel Payment does not depend on any temperature being reached and is paid to all pensioners automatically. The Cold Weather Payment is an addition paid to the vulnerable pensioners when the winter weather is very cold.
I stand corrected, thank you; too much listening to OAPs on Radio 5, I think.
Of course there is the possibility that they use it to buy a few tins of kitty chunks for Tibbles or another bottle of gin instead…;o)
snafuSir William Hilary
WHYTE, John B N, Seaman, RNPS, LT/JX 203668, killed
Not much help, unless you didn’t have his service number…
snafuBut he can change his mind, can’t he Charlie? After all, that is exactly what proper politicians quietly do whenever convenient (and hope that no one remembers what they had previously promised…).
snafuWe must, of course, remember that the Liberal-Democrats didn’t win the last general election…
Nobody did, really. The Libs could just as easily gone in with Labour so that the Tories were the opposition. Now that would make Johnny-boy foam at the mouth.
# 68 – Precisely so and if anyone seriously believes that the the UK is a worse place to live in now than it was 50/80 years ago then they are living in another world.
Indeed, but it is all relative. Here is part of a fascinating interview with a chap called Harry Leslie Smith, who was an RAF wireless operator during WWII, about his life:
What was it like growing up in Barnsley in interwar Britain?
I don’t know how you can sum it up because it was so brutal – there was no other word for it. I was born five years after the end of the first world war. That alone was a disaster that crippled soldiers. That’s the trouble with wars, too: after a war, the government doesn’t give a damn about the soldiers. There were guys with no arms or legs who were living under the same desperate circumstances as everyone else.
My elder sister died in the poorhouse at the age of six from tuberculosis. For a young kid, I think the worst part about it was – I just couldn’t keep up with my studies. For one thing, we couldn’t stay in the same place – I must have gone to at least six or seven schools by the time we’d finished hopping around because we couldn’t pay the rent here or something else. And then this job I had which took from after school until just about dark and on Saturdays. So I was just ******** by the time it came to weekends.
Do you remember your youth as a time of hunger?
Oh yes, absolutely. If you didn’t have a job, you didn’t have money; if you didn’t have money, you didn’t have food – that’s the whole point. That’s why I did this barrowboy job as a child. I got four shillings a week and managed to put a little bit more food into the house. I had a maths teacher – Froggie Dawson – he was a rather fattish man, with a corpulent body. I remember one time I hadn’t gone to school for a couple of days; it was in the winter, and the snow was on the ground, and so when I came back, at the end of the class, he made me stay behind, and demanded to know: “How come you were off school yesterday and the day before?” And I remember lifting up my shoe – and I had cardboard there for a base, and it was all soggy. So he said – go home now, get there as quick as you can, and see me after school tomorrow. So after school the next day, when all the others had gone, he reaches into his drawer for a pair of shoes. And they were a bit big but I knew I could stick some newspaper in the front, and I thanked him profusely [sobs]. We didn’t have any hope at all that I could remember, until after 1945. We just didn’t believe they were going to do anything about it, because we existed under such a cruel system for so long…
…You’ve told David Cameron to keep his “mitts” off the NHS. What would happen if the NHS was dismantled?
Then you’d be back to my early childhood when the rich could buy care and the rest of them had nothing. They either lived or died according to their genes or their strength or will or something. It’s not fair. I think everyone has the right to his life and to live it to the best of his ability. To even think we could live without an NHS is just unbelievable to me, and I think it’s about time governments really worked to fund it properly, even at the expense of getting some of these rich people paying more taxes.
What’s your fear about the situation facing people in Britain today?
Even now I shudder to think what people are going through to feed their children. It’s so bloody unnecessary as far as I can see. It’s appalling. It’s all these zero hour contracts – how could the government allow something like that to even come into existence? You can’t take money from the average worker and not from the big businesses. The government hand everything out now to private companies – in the old days, the government used to be the ones who looked after everything. How the hell can you privatise water? It’s the basis of life.
What advice would you give to Ed Miliband?
I spoke with him at this year’s Labour conference and actually I told him – I said, you have a chance now to be a prime minister who will go down in history! But you have to assert yourself and you have to make it clear who you are and what you’re planning to do! But it didn’t seem to work. He said, “Yes, yes,” and patted my arm. And it’s true – anyone who came up now with a good plan to rule Britain could rule it for the next 20 years, because it’s at the stage where it can be saved and it could be saved.
What message would you give to my generation?
First of all, I would suggest that voting should be made compulsory, and until it is, what they have to do is get up off their arses and go to cast their vote. If they don’t like any of the people who are on the ballot, spoil the ballot! Spoiled ballots are counted too, they might not realise it – and if the government comes to power and finds only 37% of the people are voting for them and the rest are saying, “**** on you!” maybe there’ll be some changes.
Britain is seen as a rich country today, despite the need for food banks and soup kitchens, despite the fact that OAPs cannot all afford to heat their homes when it is not quite cold enough for winter fuel benefit to kick in, when job clubs and other unemployed assistance groups are being closed to save money and keep the unemployed out of work.
At least we haven’t gone back to workhouses; not yet anyway, but give them time…
The only way that I will snuff it early is by drowning in a bog of your claptrap. If you want to join in with the ‘grown-ups’, try to be be sensible and less juvenile.
Which. essentially, means bow down before me, say and do nothing to displease me, do not question my wisdom since you are not worthy, and NEVER make a spelling mistake in any communication with me and expect me to take you seriously… Pompous, self important windbag. (Watch how he takes TonyT to task later for mixing up ‘non’ and ‘none’ – post 79 – although he might let him get away with it since they would both hate to be seen to spout a French word, no matter how silly it makes the sentence if you read it properly!!!)
Isn’t that right, Greeny?
I like the idea but, I think that a turd is much more in keeping
One of yours, or maybe ‘St’ Nigel would oblige?
You can reply to more than one post within a single post. Also, what is with the formatting here? Nobody uses the quote function when replying to a thread but uses the tedious ‘RE#’ syntax, yet you can make four or five concurrent posts?
It boosts his post rate. And he hates having to reply to just a small part of the post so he blats the whole lot and leaves you to figure out what on earth he is referring to…
Anyway, RE 74, ‘grown ups’ don’t fall for UKIP’s reactionary, paint-by-numbers guff, so take a leaf out of your own book.
Come on, have a little respect – he is in the grasp of political dementia and needs all the sympathy he can get. And don’t you know it it is Autumn – all his leaves have long left the branch…
Nigel would.
Yes, I’ve heard that it is written on the wall in the Ukip headquarters toilets. Tee, hee?
Are you really Snafu thinly disguised ?
I’ve had a quick look and come to the conclusion that I am not him, and he is not me. Not that that will satisfy you, but maybe if you ask me what number I’m thinking of and we’ll see if meddle can guess the right figure?
snafuFor the interested…any pictures of the beast to whet our appetites?
snafuWithout – I hope – tempting fate, is this day, the day that Nigel and UKIP take their first confident steps on the path to Government ?
Sounds a little like my sister back in the days when she was apparently going to be Mrs Simon Le Bon; if only she knew then that she never would, but instead marry a railway manager from Braintree…
Yes, as the old saying goes: if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. English beggars, obviously. We don’t want none of your foreign beggars around here, thank you.
snafuHostilities were already underway – it was sunk at about the same time that the Japanese were invading Malaya.
snafuIt’s not as though it’s unique or that special…
No?
How many Magisters are there, both static and flyable – more or less than the number of Spitfires possibly buried in Burma, for example?;o)
snafuPersonally I do most of our shopping at Sainsbury Kings Lynn anyway, largely because it’s a new store with massive wide aisles.
Don’t get too used to it, apparently the shopper doesn’t like being in wide aisles since the feel too open and exposed. At least, that is what the marketing guys say, giving them the opportunity to reduce the aisle width and stick another coffee shop, launderette, shoe repair kiosk or MacKing burger counter in the newly available gap – which has happened in several of the larger supermarkets around my way. At least that makes it difficult to leave their flaming great stock trollies in the way of the baked beans or breakfast cereal.
snafuFirst things first Charlie. Let’s deal with and cure all the simple problems first and then we might gain sufficient expertise to solve the complex ones.
Like the common cold rather than cancer, or maybe ebola…?
snafuObviously something is pushing it…;o)
But it will never get anywhere near that speed on a British road unless they sort out the potholes!
snafuNo Bassets are in museums AFAIK, but there’s one in open storage at Biggin Hill. A few of them went across the pond after they ended their military life.
Guessing you are talking about the former RAF ones, but is prototype G-ARRM not on display with FAST, or the nose and c0ckpit of G-ATDD not still with the Science Museum at South Kensington?
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