Marchbanks
Hat and Beard member
...and they sang a song about Margaret Thatcher.Well, that describes The Rattles.
Are we getting pissed off with the BBC
- Thread starter AV8
- Start date
Seanm
pfm Member
It’s basically forbidden knowledge. Which brings me back to my main point, which is that the BBC can do one.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
The more I think about it, the more I agree!
George J
Herefordshire member
In reply to Jez, Bob wrote:
Dear Bob,
On Saturday I shall have my 59th birthday. On my fifty fifth birthday I initiated the withdrawal of my NFU pension capital [about £72K pre-tax]. I looked at what an annuity would bring, and worked out that I'd be better to buy the lease on a very modest flat and at least save the rent during my retirement. That of course is still eight years away. Since my farmer father went bankrupt when I was eighteen, I was for the the first time of twice actually homeless. That is something that can happen easier than you might think in the private rented sector.
No fault eviction is still possible under certain conditions. I realise that I am far from a red in tooth and claw socialist, but I had a pang of conscience about being a property owner. To me it seemed a very real question of morality. Why should I have security of housing because I could more or less afford to buy a modest lease outright. Interestingly it was paid off in full this week, but not by me. That is another story. I no longer have the freedom to sell out, but I do have security for life.
There are many much better people than me who will never have that security. So really owning property is indeed a question that is not entirely without questions of morality attached, whether it is a second or sole property owned.
Apart from that, my personal chattels amount to two very old wooden living room chairs, and old oak table, a bed, My vintage radio set-up and a Mac mini. Plus a few hundred CDs, and about a hundred DVDs. Two classic steel framed bikes, a Henry Hoover bought new in 1985, a fridge and a washing machine. The rest can be put in bin bags when I die ... For most of a lifetime's work, not much to show. Even if all bought new [and most was bought second hand or inherited from the scrap threat] it would not amount to £5000.
Though in many ways I am quite conservative in the way I live life, I don't find it hard to understand people who genuinely are convinced socialists. And politically, I have always struggled to find any party I could be enthusiastic for.
Just two pence worth, from a bourgeois property owner. Best wishes from George
Dear Bob,
On Saturday I shall have my 59th birthday. On my fifty fifth birthday I initiated the withdrawal of my NFU pension capital [about £72K pre-tax]. I looked at what an annuity would bring, and worked out that I'd be better to buy the lease on a very modest flat and at least save the rent during my retirement. That of course is still eight years away. Since my farmer father went bankrupt when I was eighteen, I was for the the first time of twice actually homeless. That is something that can happen easier than you might think in the private rented sector.
No fault eviction is still possible under certain conditions. I realise that I am far from a red in tooth and claw socialist, but I had a pang of conscience about being a property owner. To me it seemed a very real question of morality. Why should I have security of housing because I could more or less afford to buy a modest lease outright. Interestingly it was paid off in full this week, but not by me. That is another story. I no longer have the freedom to sell out, but I do have security for life.
There are many much better people than me who will never have that security. So really owning property is indeed a question that is not entirely without questions of morality attached, whether it is a second or sole property owned.
Apart from that, my personal chattels amount to two very old wooden living room chairs, and old oak table, a bed, My vintage radio set-up and a Mac mini. Plus a few hundred CDs, and about a hundred DVDs. Two classic steel framed bikes, a Henry Hoover bought new in 1985, a fridge and a washing machine. The rest can be put in bin bags when I die ... For most of a lifetime's work, not much to show. Even if all bought new [and most was bought second hand or inherited from the scrap threat] it would not amount to £5000.
Though in many ways I am quite conservative in the way I live life, I don't find it hard to understand people who genuinely are convinced socialists. And politically, I have always struggled to find any party I could be enthusiastic for.
Just two pence worth, from a bourgeois property owner. Best wishes from George
misterdog
Not the canine kind
Like. x 10
misterdog
Not the canine kind
misterdog
Not the canine kind
Or if you are under the age of 30 and unable to purchase your own home or even have a job.
Blame Tony Blair for funding the pensioners so well ?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/905940.stm
Mullardman
Moderately extreme...
Maybe time for the 99% of this country being ripped off and oppressed by the 1%.. to actually wake up and stop letting them set us against each other.
Young people, students, the unemployed, the employed, the 'middle classes', and the rest. If you are not in the Govt., the Cabinet, or the small band of exceptionally wealthy financiers, lobbyists and media moguls who tell them what to do... then you are a nobody. I don't give a **** if you've voted Tory all your life and run your own business along Capitalist lines.. You are still a nobody. They don't give a flying **** about you. You are at best a 'useful idiot'.
Time to wake up.
Young people, students, the unemployed, the employed, the 'middle classes', and the rest. If you are not in the Govt., the Cabinet, or the small band of exceptionally wealthy financiers, lobbyists and media moguls who tell them what to do... then you are a nobody. I don't give a **** if you've voted Tory all your life and run your own business along Capitalist lines.. You are still a nobody. They don't give a flying **** about you. You are at best a 'useful idiot'.
Time to wake up.
MikeMA
pfm Member
The think about Alan Clark was that he at least had a degree of self awareness. I suppose I should be ashamed to admit that I enjoyed his diaries.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
You missed out 'sheeple!'
But, anyway. What seems to happen in the UK is that votes for non-socialist parties usually outweigh those for socialist parties (and, of course, some would say that the Labour Party is 'not really socialist'). Most people aren't bothered about nebulous concepts like 'equality' or 'social justice'. Maybe they should be, and maybe the country would be better if they were, but they just aren't. Most people's horizons stretch as far as their own livelihoods and health, and the prospects for their children, if they have any. (And yes, a lot of this is fuelled by the appalling British press, but they are pushing at an open door).
Interestingly, in the last 12 months or so the Tory Party has swivelled 180 degrees from 'we must pay our way' austerity, to 'well, it's only money'. Does Labour have even the glimmer of an idea about how to present themselves as a viable alternative? What could they offer that the Tories, in non-austerity guise, are not offering? Can they persuade people to act unselfishly by voting to help others, possibly at some cost to themselves? Perhaps most importantly, can they demonstrate even the faintest hint of competence, and drag themselves away from their favourite hobby of tearing the Party to pieces?
droodzilla
pfm Member
An interesting quantitative analysis of which politicians BBC journalists like and follow on Twitter:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/02/bbc-journalists-twitter-study-reporters
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/02/bbc-journalists-twitter-study-reporters
Bob McC
Living the life of Riley
Not at all.
I roared laughing at them when I read them.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
But wait ... I thought you hated the Guardian?
eternumviti
Insufficient privileges to reply.
Ah, the 'coven'.
Bob McC
Living the life of Riley
Not sure what your point is George, whether you support our resident Trot or not.
Anyway, you would be welcome to stay at my second property, a Breton shack, should you ever coincide with my stay there.
Bob McC
Living the life of Riley
My French shack would not be wanted by anyone in Brittany other than for a second home.
Anyway I will no longer engage with you, you are a miserable Trot who has one or two valid points but goes way too far with your bitter rants.
droodzilla
pfm Member
Mullardman
Moderately extreme...
Some good points there Joe, but it doesn't follow that because people are mostly motivated by self interest.. then they will automatically vote Tory/Non Socialist. What is really happening is very much a 'Turkeys Voting for Christmas' scenario.
The question is why?
All I can say to that is that most of my friends and acquaintances who voted Tory, or Brexit,or both, have a woeful grasp of the realities of politics full stop and UK politics in particular. They are exceptionally receptive to the Brexiteer bullshit etc.. and they believe the Thatcherite/Osborne 'Household Economy' version of events which legislates for them to be royally screwed.
Why?
Ignorance.. plain and simple. Brought about by a pathetic education system, Govt control of the BBC, a foreign capitalist owned press.. etc...
But mainly.. ignorance.
I have to admit that the Tories are the masters of the three word mantra... Labour need to get this sorted. They need to stop with the endless factionalism and start to focus on one message.
Seanm
pfm Member
Reflective, responsible way to react to scholarship aimed at helping them to meet their public service responsibilities.The BBC replies:
Really glad that's cleared up.
Joe Hutch
Mate of the bloke
Well, up to a point. But the Tories have been winning more elections than Labour since WWII, despite the fact over that period more people have been educated for longer than ever before. Both of my parents left school at 14, and my siblings all left school at 15 or 16, whereas all bar two of their children, and both of mine, went to university.
There are a few 'out' Tories on pfm, and none of them seem any more 'ignorant' than some of the self-confessed Socialists; they just believe different things. There's also the self-sufficiency vs dependence on the State issue; even if one believes in greater equality of wealth, one may not trust Labour to deliver that.