sadoldgit

No one in this country could live on the state pension alone unless they have won the lottery. My wife has a Civil Service pension. It is fairly reasonable (at the moment) but she spent 33 years earning crap pay and this was her reason for staying in the job. I watched a programme called Location Location Location last night. One couple were looking for a modest semi priced at around £1m. The other couple were looking at modest 2 bedroomed flat price not much under half a million quid. Cost of living prices have excelerated way about earnings and benefits over the last 10 years or so. You used to be able to buy 3 pints and still get change from a ten bob note. Now a pint can cost you £7. A portion of fish’n’chips used to be a very cheap meal, now you are lucky to get change out of a £20 note. Cutting wages and benefits will only cripple the country even more than it is at the moment.

This morning I heard that Rupert Lowe, as of January 2025, was the 4th most followed “influencer” in the UK. I seem to remember a certain frequent poster in her choosing his user name as a piss take of the then CEO of the club, whom he hated with a passion. I allowed myself a quiet chuckle when I saw just how popular Lowe has become amongst the very people whose opinions and policies said poster supports (with a passion).

I am referring to the reaction on here to the fact that he was apparently in the frame.

Some food for thought for Farage/Robinson supporters and Islamophobes…oh, and nic. New data shows a record number of referrals to the government’s anti-terror programme, Prevent, in the year to March 2025. A total of 8,778 referrals were made, up 27% from 6,922 the previous year. The majority of referrals were made for individuals who had “no identified ideology” at 56%. This was followed by extreme right wing ideology at 21% and Islamic extremism at 10%. So, nic, according to recorded facts where ideology is known, we in the UK are twice more at risk from right wing extremist activity than we are from Islamic extremist activity. I’ll just let that sink in…..

That Frank Lampard seems to be doing well this season yet nobody on here (or very few) wanted him here last season. Let’s face it, unless you are a big enough club to attract the best, it is always going to be a bit of a lottery. Even the mighty United have had a run of poor choices.

How many more times do I have to tell you that I condemn every terror attack. What part of that sentence do you not understand? Dimwit. I do not read or reply to every post. I do not feel the need to immediately come on here and condemn every single terror attack because I have said, many times, that I do not condone terror attacks, therefore I do not feel the need to constantly repeat myself. You call people names yet get upset when you get it back. You accuse people of not answering questions yet do not answer questions yourself. You accuse people of being racist yet show racist tendencies yourself. You are a bit of a walking contradiction, aren’t you nic? Do you think that murders and rapes carried out by Muslims or people with a different colour skin are worse than those carried out by white Anglo-Saxon types? A simple yes or no will suffice.

Was his name nic? We have always had MAGA types here, the difference is that they used to fly under the radar but now feel emboldened to say out loud what they used to say and their breath.

Probably just as well that no one from here is in there. Or are they…..?

Capitalism often fails too, particularly the extreme versions. No, I haven’t. But I know all about Trump and anyone who calls Trump out for what he is, is off to a good start as far as I am concerned. If his policies work for the majority of people in NYC that has to be a good thing, right? Certainly better than Trump and his cronies enriching themselves at the expense of everyone else.

What question? Why is it a silly statement to point out that white people do the same (with a greater frequency). You completely ignore the fact that you only focus on Muslims or people with a different colour skin when these crimes are committed by all kinds of men. You are a hypocrite and quite obviously racist Get someone to read this to you. I abhor everyone who commits acts of terrorism. I abhor everyone who commit offences against women and minority groups. Everyone. Do you understand what everyone means? Samir is not “my” hero. He is a hero to anyone who doesn’t have a problem with Muslims or people with a different colour skin. He is no different to Stephen Crean. I think the words “I abhor the actions of Hamas on 7th October” and I abhor any act of terrorism speak for themselves to anyone with a reasonable level of intelligence. That excludes you, clearly. I don’t post smiley faces on posts about the murder of innocent people. That is truly vile. By the way, why do you get so shirty when, as you claim, people don’t answer your questions, when you don’t bother to answer questions yourself?

What does being a “35 year old socialist” have to do with anything? Trump is a 79 year old dictator but that doesn’t seem to trouble you too much. Great speech from Mamdani. It is so good to see Democrats pushing back against Trump. We need to see more of this, not just from Newson and Mamdani. Hopefully the Democrats as a party will now show more backbone.

Nigel “12 jobs” Farage, who earns over £1m a year, wants to lower the amount that “young people” receive as a minimum wage. Currently the minimum wage per hour for those between 18-20 is £10. For the under 18’s it is £7.55.

What is “vile” is posting laughing emojis on posts about the deaths of innocent people. I called the Hamas attack on 7th October “abhorrent.” Perhaps you should google what it means. I have called out the behaviour of extremists of any background abhorrent. If you want to ignore reality that is your problem. You are all over Muslims when they do something wrong but not a peep out of you when they do something positive. No mention of the train hero who is Muslim and of Algerian decent. No mention of the new mayor just elected in NYC. You call people “scumbag”, “vile” and “thick” which is the biggest example of the pot calling the kettle black ever seen on this forum. Little wonder you root for the likes of Trump and Farage. You, like them, exist in a parallel universe of “fake news” and “alternative facts.”

There have been a number of positives since Labour were elected, not enough mind you, but some all the same. Labour’s problem is that they have been drowned out by the right wing media who jump on every misstep, perceived or otherwise, and they also haven’t been very good so far at selling their good news. As with Brexit, Farage is grabbing the headlines and setting the agenda. The whole small boats/immigration debacle, whilst an issue, isn’t one of the biggest issues that this country faces. Starmer and his cabinet have been too cautious and too wary of Farage so far. The promises to build 1.5 million homes and not to raise taxes were also mistakes and never likely to be kept. Taxes will need to be raised to pay for the damage caused by Brexit. It is a shame that they have only just realised that they need to be talking about that.

A Muslim mayor in NYC, that will rattle Trump’s chain!

The attack has yet to be declared as Islamic driven has it? I condem the attack no matter what the motive, if there is one, and he is just not severely mentally ill. If you could be bothered to engage your brain occasionally you would have digested the fact that I have constantly said that I condemn extremist activities no matter who carries them out. Just to spell it out for you so we don’t have to do this again, this includes terrorist activities carried out in the name of Islam. Got it yet? As for posting the article about Samir Zitouri, clearly it had nothing to do with denigrating any other actions taken by any others which helped to save lives. You are the one who has made an issue about the individuals concerned. I mentioned Samir because he is still fighting for his life. I am sure you will join everybody in hoping that this very brave man pulls through. Nothing “pious” about praising a true hero is there, especially when he is seriously wounded? Even Sir Ed Davy called for him (and the other guy, before you accuse me of ignoring him again) to receive the George Cross. Is he a “pious scumbag” too? Why did it offend you so much that I posted the article about Samir? 🤔 Another question for you. If I had only mentioned Stephen Crean would you have kicked off about my not mentioning Samir Zitouri?

We are all aware of the horrific way that the Hamas extremists have treated their prisoners, but apparently when the Israeli’s treat Palestinian prisoners equally horrifically they are “heroes.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/nov/03/israels-top-military-lawyer-arrested-after-she-admitted-leaking-video-of-soldiers-abuse

Once again you are displaying your ignorance so there is no point in replying to you. I will say though that you seem to be very keen for it to be blamed on an Islamic terrorist even though there has been absolutely no indication from the police so far that is the case. As for the hero who saved lives, this is the guy. https://news.sky.com/story/train-company-lner-extremely-proud-of-rail-worker-in-critical-condition-after-mass-stabbing-as-family-call-him-hero-13463705

Tell me what hard work is involved in going to bed with $10b worth of assets and waking up the next morning with $20b worth of assets? Why is it perfectly ok for a small minority of the human beings on this planet to hoard the largest amount of money while the vast majority, most of whom have to do boring mundane jobs, struggle to make ends meet? Some of these people are even struggling to put a roof over the heads of their families and food on the table. Do you think that they can be blamed for their lack of being born with a silver spoon in their mouths, for not having the aptitude to run a business or maybe not have the opportunity? Without the “plebs” of society who consume the goods that businesses provide, there would be far fewer people like you - hence the phrase “we are all in this together.” People like you and Musk will not go down in history kindly. Where are all of the Musk libraries, museums, schools, universities, hospitals etc? He, Trump, Farage etc. are all about what’s in it for them. You sound like you are one of them. Brexit has cost this country a fortune. In an ideal world those who voted for it should pay higher taxes. Because we are supposed to share the burden, we will all need to pay more tax. As usual, those of us mere mortals will face a bigger hit than the rich as we don’t have the means to take advantage of the tax loopholes/avoidance schemes. If the higher burden is placed on the rich, do you really believe that their lifestyles will actually be affected in any meaningful way other than not buying another yacht this year? Do you see the difference in that and not being able to afford £7 for a pint? By the way, apparently 10% of the richest households own 50% of the wealth in the UK. What was that about money trees? Sounds like some have money orchards.

That isn’t what the police are saying so far, but don’t let that stop you jumping to conclusions. You are another hypochondriac (it’s good to know that I only have to worry about Black people carrying knives), you can’t wait to have a dig at minority groups.

I had a few Caravan albums back in the 70’s but never got to see them live. It came as a pleasant surprise then when a mate got us tickets to see the Caravan acoustic trio in Canterbury last Sunday night. The number of octogenarians in the audience was staggering and we wondered if some of them would make it to the end of the gig. The music was excellent and they went down a storm. They didn’t play enough oldies for me but some of the new stuff written during lockdown is worth a listen - from the album It’s None Of Your Business. Pye Hastings’ vocals have suffered from the ravages of time and the quaint English whimsy isn’t there anymore, but there are some strong tracks, well performed.

Another “benefit” Nigel? https://www.independent.co.uk/bulletin/news/brexit-uk-eu-world-travel-tourism-council-b2855226.html#

Everyone that Reform have put in front of a camera so far I have found obnoxious. It isn’t only their views, they are genuinely all very unpleasant human beings (which probably explains why they have the views that they do). Before Blair became the PM I found him to be an oily git. I found Ken Livingston to be an obnoxious character. In fact there are plenty of people left of centre who I find obnoxious. Yes, I found Goodwin’s views to be particularly unpleasant last night but the way he presented himself and his views made him particularly obnoxious in my view. I was unaware of this person’s existence before last night’s QT so I googled him. I was led to a Facebook page where a poster had suggested that he would make a good PM. The number of posts supporting that view was frightening. Apparently he “tells it as it is”, is “well presented”, “says what we are all thinking but are too scared to say” , “he tells the truth.” You get the picture. One person in the audience last night pointed out that he answered every question with a response about immigration. He was spot on, he did. He was arrogant. He lied. He constantly talked over the other panelist’s and shook his head when they disagreed with him. This idea that all of our problems stem from the people arriving here on rubber dinghies (only 4% of the total amount of immigrants) is all they have but they hammer home the point constantly and, as Farage did with Brexit, he has made it the major item on the political agenda as far as a large percentage of the public are concerned. He has no idea how to deal with immigration just as he had no idea how to run the country after Brexit. Farage, Tice, Anderson, Pochin, Jenkyns, Yusuf, Lowe (when he was in Reform and still as an independent), Goodwin, the woman who runs KCC all present as unpleasant individuals who trade in nothing but hate and division.

I have just sat through a particularly unpleasant episode of Question Time thanks to someone called Matt Goodwin who, apparently, works for GB News but is clearly a mouthpiece for Farage. He managed to turn every question asked into an issue about immigration. That included the issue about Prince Andrew losing his Prince moniker! Why is it that everyone I see who represents or speaks for Reform are obnoxious individuals? This guy looks like he would not be out of place in the Nuremberg Trials. So many questions about this but the main ones are how do Reform get so much time on QT when the LibDems have more MPs and why didn’t Fiona Bruce shut him down when he constantly went off topic? He wax asked about Andrew losing his royal title and he went off on one again about immigrants FFS! She was harder on Tandy when at least she was trying to answer the questions put to the panel. Why on earth are we giving air time to these odious individuals?

I quoted Trotsky, I don’t think that he could be referred to a being on the right! I would apply the same criticism to Labour if they were behaving in the same manner as Reform or Badenoch’s Tories. Here is another couple of quotes for you to think about. ”The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.” Elon Musk ”The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.” Hannah Arendt. There are a few people on here who would agree with Musk, especially those who put laughing emojis on posts about dead women and children. Unless you agree with Musk I would argue that, whatever you think of Labour, they are still a far better option than either Reform or the current Tory Party. I notice that you don’t mention the LibDems as an option. Why is that? Not Musky enough for you maybe? What really saddens me is the number of people saying that they are fed up with the main parties and want to give Farage a chance, as if he hadn’t done enough damage to this country already with his Brexit campaign! They see what is happening in the US and fancy some of that over here, God help us. If you still aren’t convinced that the worst of all options is a vote for Reform, take a look at the mess they are making of running the Kent County Council. If you think that Labour are “pony” you really have no idea how bad things could get under other parties.