Nice people thread part 7 - a thread in its prime

zagubov

morag1202 wrote: »

If I didn't vote I think my grandad would come back and haunt me

Right from the word go he used to take me with him to vote and sit me on top of the box so I could post his vote whilst telling me that it was not my Constitutional Right to vote, it was my Constitutional Duty.

p.s. I love mushrooms

Exactly!
Before I went to vote first time, my mum pointed out it was my duty and inside the booth you had to forget your interests and vote for the good of the whole country. It's not merely a right.

My uncle gave me a book about constitutions of modern states back in the 70s. There were about 30 democracies, and that included places as small as Iceland. Only 1 in Africa (Botswana), 1 in South America (Venezuela), about 3 in Asia (Israel, India, Japan). Made me realise that we can't take it for granted.

PasturesNew wrote: »

Hurrah .... I am usually surrounded by people trying to put me on a guilt trip with mantras of "it's YOUR fault if you didn't vote...."

I always tell my students that one benefit of living in the UK is that you can vote to get rid of leaders and they will move out of the way without anyone risking as much as a stubbed toe.

PasturesNew

Spirit wrote: »

viniculture,

I had to Google that one

PasturesNew

We never discussed politics at home. If any of my relatives ever gave me a book it'd have been a cheap book with a torn cover from the market probably called Noddy's Big Adventure.

zagubov wrote: »

and they will move out of the way without anyone risking as much as a stubbed toe.

That Gordon Brown nearly didn;t leave number 10 did he... he clung onto the free house.

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Oh Lydia, the needle didn't bother him, he got attention from some one new then, it was the sitting in the waiting room, Rofl.

But he liked cuddling the receptionist, the vet nurse and the vet nurse assistant (who were amazed dog dog likes him) the bet nurse there is ace, and she really seems to care aout her patients as individuals, depsite being sole nurse in a very busy and very easy high street practice.

I see. So the weeping was about feeling bored in the waiting room with nobody (either human or canine) making a fuss of him and not being allowed to run around? Not so much different from a human toddler then.

lostinrates

Well....


Big dog might well not be having an op today having had a dreadful stomach over night (and over the floor). That means putting it off until summer.

zagubov

PasturesNew wrote: »

What've governments done for me?

Spirit wrote: »

This reminds me of the Life of Brian
Reg: But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, viniculture, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?PFJ Member: Brought peace?Reg: Oh, peace? SHUT UP!Education, healthcare, roads,national security, BBC etc.

Nah your right Pastures you won't have ever had access to any of that:D

Only allthesss and Hamish probably saw it but at least one party poiltical broadcast used that sketch (after which they won an election by a landslide). None of the parties that didn't use the sketch won any election at all.

Here's a challenge. If a major party was able to use that sketch,(because they'd identified what voters needed) I bet it would win in a UK-based election.

The fact that we have to justify the mere act of voting tells me the parties aren't doing their jobs properly.If parties varied their pollicies so there was a real choice then democracy in Britain would be in better shape. Instead of just being different management teams for the same economic policies. There's a danger we might deteriorate into a US-style system where you can't see a beam of daylight between each party to justify voting for either.

Also if they had at least some members who looked like they had some life experience beyond having gone to a private school.

Don't want to turn the thread political so won't name individual parties I could groan about and will end rant here.:mad:

misskool

proper hard frost this morning Thus begins 6 months of scraping my car. I really wish I didn't drive at this time of the year.

Generali

As we seem to be getting political, while of course not having political arguments, on the NP thread, I found this opinion piece interesting:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/11/what-if-the-gop-loses-atlas-shrugged-vs-the-fire-next-time/264556/

Not so much the first long quote that starts, "I will tell you what happens, I close my business of 10 years and lay off my employees. I am done. Thats what happens." which I think is either a lie or plain nonsense: you'll shut down your successful business because your taxes go up a couple of percentage points...seriously?

It's the second quote I found interesting as it exemplifies the problems Mitt Romney is having getting elected, the one that starts, "If the GOP does indeed suffer a defeat in 2012, renewing the party will be much more difficult than 1972 was for the Democrats.".

The thing is, Mitt Romney is a moderate Republican and moderates from both sides are generally electable as you need to get a few people from the other side to vote for you. Ignore that even Obama would be considered to be on the far right of the Tory party in economic terms let alone Romney, in the US he's a Republican moderate. So far so good.

The big credibility problem Romney has when standing against a failing (too strong? Weak perhaps?) President is that to gain the GOP nomination he's had to take some extreme stances and now has to back down from them because he is neither electable nor believes in them!

vivatifosi

misskool wrote: »

proper hard frost this morning Thus begins 6 months of scraping my car. I really wish I didn't drive at this time of the year.

Same here. Though I've found it helps to have the right tools. I bought a scraper for my windows from the scandinavian shop that sells household goods (Clas Ohlson) and I've never had one that works as well. It just cuts through the ice. From the same shop I bought the best long-handled brush that clears snow from the middle of my roof and a wide squidgee that clears moisture off my windows quicker than anything. I'm quite pleased with my toolkit:o.

Respectively I have one of these:
http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Ice-Scraper/Pr170111000
one of these:
http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Snow-Brush-Ice-Scraper/Pr170110000
and one of these:
http://www.clasohlson.com/uk/Sonax-Squeegee/Pr349315000

vivatifosi

Generali wrote: »

The big credibility problem Romney has when standing against a failing (too strong? Weak perhaps?) President is that to gain the GOP nomination he's had to take some extreme stances and now has to back down from them because he is neither electable nor believes in them!

That's the great irony of the last two candidates. Neither McCain nor Romney are particularly to the right of the party. The correct candidate was probably selected. However its that taking of stances that get you the nomination which is damaging. In McCain's case he had to take the raising Palin as a running mate (which was an absolute gift to the democrats as she was so easy to caracature) and Romney's you have his legendary flip-flopping. I just can't see how someone can switch from mild mannered governor of Massachusetts to having such "out there" opinions. Makes you wonder what would be being said if Rick Santorum had won the nomination instead and whether he would have had to go the other way.