Preparedness for when

ArthriticOldThing

During my last stay in hospital - a few years ago - I (and other patients n the same ward) had to help an elderly lady with her meals as the nurses just put it on the table and left. She was unable to reach the table herself. They would also order for her when she was not quick enough for them and she often got things she could not eat. Unbelievable.

1Tonsil

Riots have broken out in Athens in front of the Military headquarters and parliament. The rioters have thrown hundreds of Molotov cocktails and the riot police are firing tear gas. They seem to have moved away from the demonstrators, press, and the few unfortunate tourists who were there watching the demonstrations and waiting for the vote to finish just before midnight.

alice-mary

Hope you and yours are safe, 1Tonsil.
Alice
xx

GreyQueen

elona wrote: »

GQ :wave:

Am I right in thinking you are an aficianado of steam punk? If so then I have a book of short stories by George Mann about the Newberry and Hobbes casebooks. If you would like it let me know and I'll pop it in the post for you.

I've read the odd thing which could be called steampunk but I wouldn't classify myself as a fan, so I will pass on this, but thank you for your kindness in thinking of me.

Had an interesting convo with a stranger today about the EU and possible voting for a Brexit. He was about my own age and wasn't aware that what was voted on back in the seventies wasn't to join something called the EU but to stay in something called the Common Market. We agreed that there is a huge difference between what was presented as a trading partnership and what is effectively a pan-European superstate. Interesting.

We may end up as improvrished as other non-EU European states, such as those well known northern banana republics like Switzerland and Norway. Pass me a cuckoo clock, a Toblerone and a pickled herring.

I have also upgraded my personal holdings in hyperinflationary Zimbawean dollars and have swopped my 500 million note for the 10 billion note, the one I orginally wanted and couldn't find. £2 well-spent to have an at-home reminder of the frailty of fiat currency. It was issued in 2008, which makes its message a lot more immediate than the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic.

Frugalsod

1Tonsil wrote: »

Riots have broken out in Athens in front of the Military headquarters and parliament. The rioters have thrown hundreds of Molotov cocktails and the riot police are firing tear gas. They seem to have moved away from the demonstrators, press, and the few unfortunate tourists who were there watching the demonstrations and waiting for the vote to finish just before midnight.

Hardly unexpected. Keep safe, and remember only light the Molotov cocktail just before you throw it.

Nargleblast

I was not old enough to vote about the Common Market in 1975, but back then everyone believed it was to do with business and trading, not politics. Were we being naive back then? Someone I knew who did take part in the vote said she voted No because she was a devout Christian and there was some biblical prophecy that foretold disaster if a certain number of nations (coincidentally the same number of nations in the Common Market) banded together. Fast forward 40 years, and her views were not so batty after all.

Frugalsod

GreyQueen wrote: »

We may end up as improvrished as other non-EU European states, such as those well known northern banana republics like Switzerland and Norway. Pass me a cuckoo clock, a Toblerone and a pickled herring.

Well personally I would prefer to live in the "socialist hell holes" we call Norway and Sweden. :beer:

GreyQueen wrote: »

I have also upgraded my personal holdings in hyperinflationary Zimbawean dollars and have swopped my 500 million note for the 10 billion note, the one I orginally wanted and couldn't find. £2 well-spent to have an at-home reminder of the frailty of fiat currency. It was issued in 2008, which makes its message a lot more immediate than the hyperinflation of the Weimar Republic.

Yes my Hundred Trillion Zimbabwe dollar notes are also framed in my hallway. Fiat currency is only a problem when there is excessive credit creation. The pound sterling was remarkably stable post WW2 right up until the first oil crisis in 1973-1974. It has been the deregulation of banks since 1979 that has seen the rise of credit faster than wages and and the inflation of bubbles galore.

1Tonsil

alice-mary wrote: »

Hope you and yours are safe, 1Tonsil.
Alice
xx

Yes fine thanks, we are in Corfu in a little mountain village on the coast. It is surprisingly quiet in the village tonight, usually we hear the kids playing in the square but even they are quiet.

I have no idea if any demos happened in Corfu town, but I doubt it. I heard nothing anyway.

There are special offers on at many hotels on the mainland, just been offered a five star hotel for three nights for both of us at less that fifty pounds a night, including a gourmet buffet breakfast at my favourite lake side resort in the mountains. Might just have to go and see how much the discounted ferry is for residents tomorrow morning.....
even preppers need a break sometimes. It will also be cooler up there in Epirus.

Meanwhile my OH has had to go out to help someone with their musical gear electrics...just as we were settling down to watch the movie in front of the fan........ oh well....



Ooooooh the common market....that brings back memories......especially ones on how good it would be for all of us....

Blue_Doggy

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Just looked on Wikkpaedia and the first 'pension' was before the poor laws were abolished in 1908 and it paid 5 shillings (25p) to those whose annual income didn't exceed £31.10shillings (£31.50). The pension as we know it today was intorduced in 1948 and was the first to be paid to those not paying National Insurance. We've really only had that security and the NHS since 1948, people must have managed, in a way, before that or we wouldn't all be here chatting today would we? I guess our forebears were either prepared/forced to accept a very much less privileged lifestyle than we are used to or were made of tough stuff indeed. I would think if you'd been reared in straitened circumstances you'd take on all the knowledge and skills to enable you to make the best of what you did have. Life would have been a whole lot bleaker, hunger would have been well known and illness put up with if you couldn't afford to pay the doctor though wouldn't it?

That's what the Workhouse was for, "out-relief" if you could manage on a pittance and a food dole, otherwise you could get a bed and a roof over your head, but so horrid that most people tried to avoid it.
People died in ditches, or out-of-the-way corners, if they were unable to get help. And if you couldn't afford the doctor, and he insisted on being paid (some didn't) then you suffered your condition until it killed you. Friendly Societies with their small subscriptions were a way for the provident to get help in an emergency.

If your children could help out from their wages, they did, or you could go and live with them (and get on as best you could with their other halves). This, of course, still happens today.

(Incidentally, the reason many very old people don't like to go to hospital if they can help it is that many NHS hospitals took over the old Workhouse sites and buildings.)

Butterfly_Brain

Frugalsod wrote: »

I do not think that this is going to be the last we hear of such laws

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-07-13/1984-comes-europe-end-freedom-speech-spain

We are heading for totalitarian dictatorship if we don't stand up to the Bilderbergers