General Chat

:-D :-D :-D

'Dear' a total misnomer anyway :-D :-D :-D
Anyone who thinks of me as 'dear' - let alone call me it to my face would just have to look at me to know they'd better run :-D

Strangely, whilst walking through town after work, this bloke decided to shove his face in mine, in an intimidating way. He got so far, then recoiled. Now, he either had very bad eyesight and suddenly realised I was more wrinkly than he first thought. He maybe caught sight of my (not subtle) preparation for gobbing in his face, or, (as is usual) my face gave away what I wouldn't say :-| (I was brought up to be polite)

Both my sister and I 'suffer' from this.

The voice may be saying 'nice' things, but the face conveys the utter contempt :-P :-P :-P
Something not conveyed on the internet.

We 'suffer' from not being able to lie :-)

When we're together, and someone says the 'wrong' thing, we look at each others' faces, especially the one who is trying to be polite in their response. We know when each other is trying to control their facial expressions, and it sets the other one off into a laughing fit - much to the confusion/annoyance of the moron in question. We don't care - job done!! :-D

There is nothing so rewarding as justice when appropriately meted out :)

Chris I just love a good frying pan christening :-D :-D

If I ever meet up with Mr Rollo and he refers to me as 'dear Chris' - I should warn him now I will have my heavy frying pan hidden in my shopping bag.

'Blessed are the rich, for they shall inherit more'.

(A headline from yesterday's Times.)

And students from lower income families not getting the maintenance grant - if i hadn't had a grant to go to university I wouldn't have gone - mummy and daddy couldn't have helped out - they couldn't afford to. Here we are, just perpetuating the old class system , as far as education is concerned

.....and public sector workers getting a 1% pay rise for the next 4 years. His generosity knows no bounds!!!
Let's hope none of his relations have to go into a care home, hospital, need to claim benefits etc etc

Who are the biggest losers? Those on very low incomes, including those who work for minimum wage, not just "benefit scroungers" as they are termed. For those who think it's a "good" budget - good for them perhaps, but they don't think about others.

It's despicable, Joy :-(

'Few Governments have ever made taxation popular'.

Maggie
what about those found fit for work who are seriously ill
and died within days of them deciding :-( :-( :-(

The sick and disabled are easy targets

There's also a naïve misconception that thousands of people on benefit 'cheat' the system.
This is an interesting article:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/may/13/welfare-fraud-error-universal-credit

I agree people shouldn't be able to just roll up and claim benefits and housing, but I'm sure not as many as are claimed do. There's definitely something 'odd' going on with some government departments.

My daughter was accused of not updating her situation regarding tax credits. She had phoned and written, telling them of her change. They still paid her, then tried to sanction her.
They said they couldn't find the letter. She had sent it recorded delivery.
They did, however admit to the phone call and even sent her a transcript of the phone call she made, where she plainly explained the changes. Unfortunately, they claimed, their own transcript wasn't evidence enough!!
Strikes me, they have a target, to sanction X number of people. The government can then claim there are many more benefit 'cheats' than there are.

One man was sanctioned as he missed his appointment.

He was having a heart attack........

I think there is a somewhat naive misconception amongst some that immigrants target Britain just so that they can claim benefits and, as Rollo says, why shouldn't Europeans come here to work?

Indeed, it could be argued that the economy would suffer without some immigration.

As for this notion that Europeans (actually, we are Europeans) have 20 children, I would love to see some hard data to prove that claim.

In fact, I was under the impression that the UK has one of the highest birth rates in Europe and some of the largest families.

Why shouldn't Europeans come here to work? They always have done since the year dot and latterly some of my rellies including my wife. I worked for years in France and Germany with no angst at all except for ribald mockery of my strong English accent when speaking German. The list of people who made great contributions to UK life born abroad or their parents born abroad is endless and of course includes the wonderful Chris Rea.

The logic behind a system where entitlement to housing benefit and so on did not require contributions to a social fund ( as in all the rest of the world ) was (a) need was often immediate (b) expensive bureaucracy. At the time it was setup large scale immigration from Europe was not on the horizon.

If the UK switched to a contributions based system then (a) people claiming benefit would not be seen as getting something for nothing as the various tv shows suggest and (b) the UK would be less attractive to, say, young Romanians.

However more than half of current immigration is from outside the EU and yet nothing much is done to put the brakes on. Business hates immigration blocks and has made it clear to UKGov that it needs the cheap labour whatever Ms May might want. Who else will work all night making in flight meals for Heathrow on min. pay if you are lucky ?

What people need to realise is the system was set up to help those in poverty.
However it has been exploited so badly there is no more money in the kitty.
Therefore honest people are paying the price
. It's going to be a hard pill to swallow
but I feel it will go a long way to helping us recover.....
.and could even deter people from thinking the UK is a soft touch.
Its going to be more than a struggle
but the benefit system and NH's have been over exploited
. We will have to see how it pans out over the next few years......
.but in my day we didn't get nothing like what people think they are 'owed' ;-) ;-)

An excellent budget. I hope it is the start of many more to come.

Rollo I used to know Chris Rea and his dad :-D :-D

more than once he asked me for a kiss over the ice cream counter


I think on the whole the Budget could of been much worse
so I am quite happy with it :-D
what I meant by sort immigration out was
it will stop Europeans coming here to work
and claim for 20 kids that don't live in this country
saving this country a fortune ;-)

and the inheritance tax will do my children just fine and dandy when I die :-D

says it all really

http://goo.gl/MYG62h

UK taxpayers top-up the current poverty low wage culture.

Rollo, I find your patronising attitude incredibly irritating. Please stop it. Maggie is not your "dear Maggie".

It's very off-putting and adds nothing to the debate.