Preparedness for when

jk0

mardatha wrote: »

IRight now they're probly on the phone to each other and Mrs Merkel, begging for a special deal so they can pop out in Downing St waving a bit of paper and grinning like idiots.

I think he has to get off a BA plane at Heathrow and make the speech on the tarmac doesn't he?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO725Hbzfls

GreyQueen

Hell, if I had a penny for every twenty-something I've heard brag how they don't vote because it doesn't change anything, over the last thirty years or so, I'd be sitting on a tidy pile of cash.

They wouldn't have it any other way, even if you tried to point out that the reason that their age group was getting the shortchanged by UK legislation was that there wasn't going to be any consequences for the politicians. Whereas, the oldest voters vote en masse and thus there is very much a hands-off attitude to touching anything which might be to the slightest detriment of pensioners. Because it would be political suicide.

Being of working age (and of the generation of women who has presently had another seven years added to her working life and who expects to see that increased to retirement at seventy), my terms and conditions, both in working life and general societal expectations, have been dragged downwards by the laziness and political disengagement of the youngest working adults.

But yes, I agree with money about the level of illiteracy passing for journalism in even so-called quality papers. I also have several university lecturers among my circle and they are having to tell repeatedly tell law students that actually it does matter if you spell and write poorly when you are aspiring to a highly-paid professional career. And that you can't come to tutorials in your pyjamas and that you can't expect to be hired for professonal jobs in law firms with purple hair and nose rings.

The students are incredulous. The law lecturer less than twenty years older than them but might as well be from a different planet.

candlelight_2013

I don't normally post on this thread, but I have found recent posts interesting regarding age and intellegence (or lack of).

I am 71, I left school at 15, started a job as an office junior in a Solicitors' office 2 weeks later. Went to night school to study shorthand and typing and became a legal secretary.

I gave up work when I had our elder daughter and 4 years later our younger daughter was born.

When she was 6 I started working part time at our Register Office, and then worked my way up to a Registrar of Births and deaths and a Deputy Superintendent of Marriages. I am not clever by any means but I have a reasonable brain. I worked there for 26 years until I retired.

What I would like to ask is, is it acceptable to begin a sentence with "so". When I was at school my english teacher always said that was a no no, but now you hear it so often on TV when academics and such like are interviewed. Has this now changed and is it acceptable?

Candlelightx

GreyQueen

I often joke that my 1970s English teacher would be spinning in her grave if she could see some of the things being published today.

Except that good lady is very much alive, according to a relation who knows her socially.

The howling errors are often hononyms, as the people writing them are using their spell-checkers rather than their education. One particularly risable example of this was in a novel published in the last ten years where, in a scene set inside a church, the bride is described as walking down the isle.:rotfl:

The other one which always makes me flinch is s/he was sat - ouch!

[Deleted User]

I hope this isn't inflammatory, I know it won't please those amongst our members who are feeling that the older generation have damned them to a future that looks bleak and cheerless and that we are the vehicle of their downfall but back in the 1970s when I was in my 20s we had a referendum over whether or not to join the common market which subsequently evolved into the EU. I voted NO, felt it would be the wrong thing to do and felt it would lead to more and more control over MY future being handed to outside powers and I didn't think that was either fair or sensible. We voted YES as a nation and I, like all the rest of us got on with what we'd been gifted by OUR elders, got on with learning a completely new weights and measures system, got on with learning a new metric currency and got on with life. It wasn't as difficult as I'd thought it would be! soon we were all just living a normal life.

To those who are feeling that the older generation has wrecked their lives, we thought the same back then it didn't and before I'm shot down in flames I KNOW this is bigger and a reversal of that same process but on a far bigger stage that the world has become. Life will still go on, we ALSO have a stake in the future, not as long a stake as you younger folks but I promise you this we, even if we are older will work our fingers to the bone to make the future we now DO have as good for you and us as it's possible to make it. I don't know anyone of my age who will sit back and do nothing, we will work and do our share towards whatever needs doing, retirement doesn't mean idleness and letting you do all the work, we will pull our weight as we have done through all the years of our lives while you were growing into the people you are now. Our parents did the same for us, fought wars for our future and we are the same stock as they were,we have a stake in our own futures that matters to us, why would we NOT make them good?

Perplexed_Pineapple

Good morning all. What interesting times we are in. I can't get too worked up by the hysteria on Friday. The real changes will start next week when the politicos and business leaders have had the weekend to think about it. The only action I have taken is to take out as much cash as I can - I'm with B@rclys, their share price fell 30% initially on Friday which tells you something about the security of their business arrangements, so the cash is better in my pocket than on their computer.

Blue_Doggy wrote: »

I don't think food prices will stay up in the long run, the UK farmers will not be able to compete with Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, etc. and will go out of business, and the UK can buy the cheapest food available in the world market. Then the farms can be sold for building the houses we are so short of ... (Personally, I hope not, but I am probably in a minority on this.)

There is also the factor of food security - the reason for subsidising farmers is to maximise this I think. It may not matter so much if food prices go up if other living costs go down - historically people used to spend a lot more of their income on food and a lot less on housing.
GQ, it could be one good thing to come out of this episode if it gets younger people politically active and interested. Ultimately we need them to be engaged and it is apathy that has let TPTB get away with so much, for so long.
I don't usually post off-topic links on here and I'm sure some of you have seen this but this did make me smile:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37iHSwA1SwE

Thoughts with those who are going to struggle in weeks and months to come. The consequences of Brexit will not fall evenly on us and we should support each other where we can.

[Deleted User]

candlelight_2013 wrote: »

What I would like to ask is, is it acceptable to begin a sentence with "so". When I was at school my English teacher always said that was a no no, but now you hear it so often on TV when academics and such like are interviewed.

Likewise, we were told not to start a sentence with "and", but that also seems to have gone by the wayside.

The other thing that annoys me greatly, is when someone repeatedly begins a spoken sentence with "erm".

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

the bride is described as walking down the isle. :rotfl:

The groom must have had a long wait.

GreyQueen

Yes, PP, I've also thought that if current events prove a wake-up call to the youth, in terms that voting does actually matter, that is of itself a very good thing. And may turn out to be the best outcome of the referendum.

The online petition to stage referendum v.2 is apparently running at 2.9 million and F@rage remarked that it isn't best of three. I don't have a lot of time for the man but I concur.

I do notice an attitude in younger adults that everything is actually open to argument and appeal after the event and, that by objecting and carrying on, things will be changed their way. In my working life, I have to tell people that there is no right of appeal for some decisions, and they're speechless at the injustice of it all. It's always the under 35s, too.

cbrown372

In Scotland the voting age is now 16 for Scottish Parliament and local elections but not for UK or European Parliament elections. This made for an increased interest in politics at an earlier age and a need/want to use their vote.

I'd also suggest that from about age 16 we all thought we knew best and certainly better than our parents