Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

purch

Generali wrote: »

I honestly fail to understand how Communism hasn't been chased from the British education system along with Nazism and fascism.

We used to have a History teacher, who you would often see at weekends selling the "Soviet News" outside Wimbledon station.

He also used to plaster the school notice boards with various posters promoting Communism and the Soviet Union. When I was in the 6th form my best mate and I would go around the school removing them.

You can guess who got into the most trouble :mad:

lemonjelly

lemonjelly wrote: »

I've never been on a train first class!

PasturesNew wrote: »

I have.

Posh Alert!

lemonjelly

silvercar wrote: »

I find the over-ernest MFW scary. A bit like a dieter turning anorexic.

Plus mathematically it makes more sense to build up a pension at a younger age, than clear a mortgage and then start a pension.

I wonder about the implications of the consistent raising of the pension age on the pension industry.

Is it worth saving into up to the age of 70, when you may only realise benefits for a very short period of time?

silvercar

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I suppose I remember some of the execution-era stuff, and the whole orphanages thing (I must have been about 10 at the time, or a little older) but nothing really from before that.

My eldest has a friend who was adopted from a Romanian orphanage. He would be 24 now. !!!!ly child who sadly lost one eye due to malnutrition (he was 8 months old by the time he was adopted). He shows no interest in visiting Romania. He has an elder sister who was adopted a few years before from South America, she has visited her birth country a few times and is very interested in her roots.

silvercar

Why does this forum object to the word l o v e l y ?

michaels

Generali wrote: »

I honestly fail to understand how Communism hasn't been chased from the British education system along with Nazism and fascism.

There's this bizarre apoligism that goes on: Communism would work fine but for individual greed. No! Communism is a creed of repression that has always led to the Gulag and the deaths of millions in the name of ideology.

How people can moan about Americans and 'Neo-liberalism' while cheering on Marx and his fellow travellers makes me shudder.

I think technology has brought the state the tools to much more sucessfully run a 'Chinese Style' 'corporate communism' and almost all 'advanced democracies' are actually moving in that direction taking choices away from the individual 'for their own good'.

I am uncomfortable with Lydia's comment that not all are fit to take part in democracy but that as a system it is better than dictatorship/rule by the elite. I think as soon as anyone makes a value judgement that some people's opinions are more valid than someone else's it is the start of a slippery slope. Apologies Lydia if I misinterpreted your view.

lemonjelly

zagubov wrote: »

I'm thinking if he's in his 60s , spent most of his life in the police state that was Causescu's Romania, would he easily think I'll just go and ask those cops for some help........:eek:

Everybody thinks because Romania went to the LA Olympics and condemned the crushing of the Prague Spring they weren't a repressive country. They're the only Eastern Bloc country that executed their dictator, which doesn't sound like a vote of confidence in authority.

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

I certainly don't think that - nor do most people, surely? Causescu was a tyrant to match many.

Causescu was overthrown in 1989. That's 25 years ago. Near enough half his life...

PasturesNew

lemonjelly wrote: »

Posh Alert!

If being a member of the criminal underclass, as I was there by having no ticket, is posh .. then yes

lemonjelly

silvercar wrote: »

Why does this forum object to the word l o v e l y ?

On another thread I think the forum has censored the word s a l e !:eek:

bugslet

lemonjelly wrote: »

I wonder about the implications of the consistent raising of the pension age on the pension industry.

Is it worth saving into up to the age of 70, when you may only realise benefits for a very short period of time?

I try to hit a balance between having a pension, no mortgage and living for now as well. It could be better to concentrate on one over another, and I understand the point of paying more into a pension when you are young.

However when I was young, up until 30, I was poorly paid, either because the job didn't pay or because I set up in business and paid myself less than a £1.00 an hour for a couple of years. Increase in business size means that I can throw a reasonable amount of money into a pension, though since apparently you need a pot of around 500k, it's probably not a reasonable chunk. I don't see how people on an average wage can manage to save enough to arrive at that kind of pension pot, whilst covering living expenses. I overpay my mortgage slightly. I don't have holidays as in going anywhere, though I go and eat out once or twice a week usually; I'm an extrovert that shrivels without some company, though mostly comfortable living by myself.

As for living for now, two years ago I went to a client's funeral, she was 44, shortly followed by a close friend who was 56.

It's all about hedging bets!