Newspapers and the economy

neverdespairgirl

m1ntie wrote: »

Hi NDG

I am aware from your previous posts that you are of the Jewish faith. I have Jewish and other non-christian friends who also celebrate Christmas.

It is interesting how Christmas seems to have become an almost "universal" mid winter festival that everyone can enjoy regardless of religious belief.

Sorry, I must have written misleadingly.

My other half is Jewish, and Israeli (has had both British and Israeli nationalities from birth).

I, on the other hand, am neither Jewish nor Israeli. I was born and brought up in an Anglican household in London, Sunday School and church every week, and went for a couple of years to a chapel-service-every-morning Anglican boarding school to boot!

In our home, we don't have non-Kosher pork or seafood. And we spend time with OH's Orthodox Jewish relatives in Israel, and they come here from time to time.

OH's family didn't celebrate Christmas. His Dad always worked, because he got quadruple pay for the day, and OH, his mother and younger brother tended to push off to Israel for a week or so to avoid the whole deal.

Since he's been with me (11 years) he's come to my parents' house for Christmas and Easter. I went to his parents' place for Passover and Yom Kippur until his parents died.

neverdespairgirl

No, they are different widths, height over the arch, all the rest of it. You need to look after your feet.

Austin_Allegro

I don't think the media often gets 'got at' by the government unless it's something really serious that requires a 'D' notice (government gagging order).

We've all heard rumours of BBC bias of course, but I think that's more of an internal thing than state diktats being handed down.

I think it's more likely that the press reports what will sell papers. Most people are expecting a gloomy Christmas so if an article says the opposite, people are more likely to sit up and take notice (and buy the paper). It's like the old saying that 'dog bites man' isn't news, but 'man bites dog' is.

Austin_Allegro

m1ntie wrote: »

Hi NDG

It is interesting how Christmas seems to have become an almost "universal" mid winter festival that everyone can enjoy regardless of religious belief.

Mainly a mixture of commercialisation and political correctness.

Commercialisation of Christmas (mainly from the US) required that everyone could join in, so the religious aspects were played down, and more recently, political correctness didn't want to 'exclude' anyone so it became a jolly midwinter non-denominational multifaith jamboree.

Humans have celebrated the midwinter solstice in one form or another for centuries before Christianity anyway, so the 'universal midwinter festival' has a longer pedigree.

Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Christ only started as a way of Christianising the Roman midwinter festival of Saturnalia, and the modern Christmas only dates to the early Victorian period where the festival was revived (the Puritans banned it and it had fallen out of observance) because of the Victorian love of tradition (and commercial potential).

That said, I'm a practicing Anglican and am happy to celebrate Christmas for its symbolic meaning, even if its 'true' meaning is pretty vague.

m1ntie

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

Sorry, I must have written misleadingly.

My other half is Jewish, and Israeli (has had both British and Israeli nationalities from birth).

I, on the other hand, am neither Jewish nor Israeli. I was born and brought up in an Anglican household in London, Sunday School and church every week, and went for a couple of years to a chapel-service-every-morning Anglican boarding school to boot!

In our home, we don't have non-Kosher pork or seafood. And we spend time with OH's Orthodox Jewish relatives in Israel, and they come here from time to time.

OH's family didn't celebrate Christmas. His Dad always worked, because he got quadruple pay for the day, and OH, his mother and younger brother tended to push off to Israel for a week or so to avoid the whole deal.

Since he's been with me (11 years) he's come to my parents' house for Christmas and Easter. I went to his parents' place for Passover and Yom Kippur until his parents died.

Sorry for the misunderstanding - you sound as though you lead an interesting life though.

I grew up and went to school in North Manchester in the 50s & 60s, in an area with many Jewish people and so had lots of Jewish friends. I even earned pocket money lighting fires etc on a Friday afternoon.

My first serious girlfriend was Jewish, but her farther was not very impressed!

Austin_Allegro

m1ntie wrote: »

Sorry for the misunderstanding - you sound as though you lead an interesting life though.

I grew up and went to school in North Manchester in the 50s & 60s, in an area with many Jewish people and so had lots of Jewish friends. I even earned pocket money lighting fires etc on a Friday afternoon.

Ah, a 'shabbas-goyim' as they are known. I got loads of money for doing stuff like this (and babysitting for families with loads of children) as a minority gentile kid in a Jewish area of London.

sportbeth

EdInvestor wrote: »

From Martin's blog:




Surely getting value for money is a key ethos on the site? Whether that's seeking the best interest rates for your cash, or reducing the cost of shopping or grabbing a voucher for a meal out ( so you can actually have 2 for the price of 1) to my mind this is not an anti-spending site, quite the reverse.

Indeed I'd quite like to see a feature on the best way to use the likely falls in prices and inflation over the next year for long term "investment" spending - whether it be on big items like cars, electronics or furniture, or home improvements, whatever.

If you have plenty of savings and reasonable job security, why would you not do this at a time when your savings will earn very little because interest rates are so low? Especially since by doing so, you would be helping the economy overall?

Exactly my philosophy. Hubby and I are DINKIES, well paid jobs but a huge mortgage that stretches us (our first house together and my father always said to stretch as far as you can for your first mortgage.

We've got a reasonable amount left over each month to play with though, some goes into savings and I apparently save like his mother used to in the 70's. One savings pot for the car, one for the holiday, one for emergencies, another for the house. It drives him mad but it keeps me happy.

We're both very concerned about our jobs, not under threat yet but you never know what will happen next year so we are being cautious. If all goes well though we will come out of the recession having saved a few grand on our mortgage and my frugality will have been helpful.

We did however spend a lot of cash on something that we looked at last year and hummed and haahed about. Our crockery set for our wedding gift which we recieved vouchers for was priced at £500, last week I bought it and had it delivered for £225 after haggling with the supplier for a couple of freebies and it was already at 50% discount.

In the new year sales we will also be looking for the two 19" LCD screens that we've wanted for our house for a long time. I don't see the point in anyone not spending, as long as it is conscious and sensible and affordable. And the recession if nothing else will buy me what I would consider a few luxuries that I didn't buy last year when the going was good.

Davesnave

EdInvestor wrote: »

If you have plenty of savings and reasonable job security, why would you not do this at a time when your savings will earn very little because interest rates are so low? Especially since by doing so, you would be helping the economy overall?

Maybe because one has been over to the Savings & Investing Board and taken their advice to get fixed rates @ around 6.5% for a year or so?

After all, someone has to top up the building society funds, besides the government, that is.

lynzpower

I certainly am spending more now that prices in the shops are coming down. ( sorry to all MSErs who feel im betraying the mantra!)

I was there for doors opening at the pier for Xmas pressies, and also I bought a few unneccesary tops that were reduced. If I wasnt econimically stable Id be talking want vs need but were not in bad shape. Ive bought presents and cards for people I might not have bothered with if I was skinter.

The thing for me is that Im buying things around the price that they should be- a pair of trainers made in a sweatshop shouldnt ever be 70 quid, they should be more like 30.

EDIT- (for FC) one thing that bothered me in the boom was discussion of "throwaway fashion" "you can wear it once then it doesnt matter if you dont wear it again" Really got my goat, environmentally it makes ZERO sense to throw away clothing. Incidentally Ive had superamrket/ primark clothes that have lasted a few seasons I cant believe people would want to throw them away!

If it wasnt for the vouchers we wouldnt have had a nice lunch out on Sunday choosing to eat at home.

Im happy to "share the wealth" and im not about to make life stop for the next X amount of years

Back on topic- you surely shouldnt read the london freesheets for anything approaching news. They are vehicles of the advertisers.

For moneysavers- the FT had a deal on recently of a months for a quid delivered ( quick search should throw up whether that deal is still on)

neverdespairgirl

m1ntie wrote: »

Sorry for the misunderstanding - you sound as though you lead an interesting life though.

I grew up and went to school in North Manchester in the 50s & 60s, in an area with many Jewish people and so had lots of Jewish friends. I even earned pocket money lighting fires etc on a Friday afternoon.

My first serious girlfriend was Jewish, but her farther was not very impressed!

Some of OH's relatives weren't exactly over the moon either - especially his Grandpa. His Granny wasn't that happy either, muttering the odd "Doing Hitler's work for him" to OH.