I believe I want my country back

thor

Why is everyone so bothered about the bible being removed from hospitals? You can still read it if you want, just bring in your own copy. It is not as if it is being replaced by the Koran or the Bhagavad gita.
If hospitals wanted to waste money on a book then at least get in something exciting like say the Lord of The Rings? Now that would be a much better read.
Trying to appease the church is political correctness gone mad!

meheraltaf

peterbaker wrote:

I don't want to see public funds spent on understanding other cultures which are not representative cultures.

Why do public authorities here need to spend money on understanding witchcraft from Angola? ..............Why does the Metropolitan Police have to spend money on travelling to Latvia to track down a murderer? .......
Why do we need "synthetic phonics" as yet another new method of learning to read? Haven't a clue. Why do the rest of us have to foot the bill because so many homes are failing? Why are so many homes failing? What kind of homes? What kind of citizen?.......................................

America is being asked to double it's foreign aid budget particularly to support the tongue-chewing Gordon Brown and the undisciplined Bob Geldorf and their mixed ideas about Africa. Why exactly? Do we really believe that Africa will ever be better than the nasty mess it seems to have been for decades? Maybe if we dig out all the nasty bits, sprinkle what we've dug out all over our own country and then transfuse ... well what exactly?..................................................................................

And if you are laying dying of MRSA in hospital you might not be able to reach for a Gideon's bible anymore, becuase some citizens think it's discriminatory.

.... I believe we are drifting into the mire.

People ,read British history,never mind the magnanimity of understanding or respecting other cultures/faiths/customs or traditions at this stage, it is disheartening to read the posts who are simply post for the sake of argument. What this Great Nation is striving towards is actually to correct the past. By having knowledge of the country's history none of us would hearltlessly condemn another nation either.
There is no present without a past,with the past issues being addressed at least in this century with the hope of moving foward and not backward , and it is not a bed wetting lefty school of thought.

mrcow

thor wrote:

Why is everyone so bothered about the bible being removed from hospitals? You can still read it if you want, just bring in your own copy. It is not as if it is being replaced by the Koran or the Bhagavad gita.
If hospitals wanted to waste money on a book then at least get in something exciting like say the Lord of The Rings? Now that would be a much better read.
Trying to appease the church is political correctness gone mad!

thor

The Gideons donate Bibles (more than 50 million of them per year) to hospitals, schools, hotels, prisons and others establishments all over the world where they feel that they may be of help to people.

It's got nothing to do with hospitals wasting money!

peterbaker

chugalug wrote:

Hi Peterbaker, nice to see you back!! Perhaps what I was trying to say is that you appear to be having a 'Daily Mail' rant at the world in general. From that, I assumed, (perhaps wrongly) that in line with the typical DM reader you wouldnt want people like me in this mythical country that has always been better than it is now. You may have come from a council estate but would you want to live in one now?? I bet you've spent your whole life striving for something better than what your parents had and that's not a council house?

My parents still live in the same house - they bought it in 1973 although that isn't particularly relevant because their house and garden has set the standard on their development since 1956 when they moved in. It is still the prettiest garden in the village and my parents never expected the council to fix every last little defect even when they rented it. They took responsibility for looking after it, and they still do now.

That's also why they didn't wait to see whether the council would actually really go ahead with their plan to redevelop the land that contains the lock up garages that go with the council houses. They instead spoke to the idiots who work for the council planners and reminded them that actually they have owned the freehold and right of access to one of the garages since 1973 and perhaps they might wish to consult my parents about their next move. "Oh!" said the planners. My parents have written a letter to confirm the information, but as at yesterday, they had had no reply in a fortnight. My father said "I thought there would be a standard time in which they would acknowledge a letter like that". I did not say "No I think you'll have to wait and see Dad". I actually said something else which would qualify as the type of thing you see written about poor standards in public service in the Daily Mail I guess.

Chugalug, I am really not sure why you particularly think I wouldn't want someone like you living in my country if I got it back how I wanted. Why do you think that?

I am arguing for decent standards in all things, that's all. I don't know if you've noticed, but the place is falling apart. I am not a "let's wait and see" kind of person, so I tend to put things back together a bit when I can. I'll give you another example. I live in a small block of flats, most of which are tenanted. I have been away for a week and arrived back to find junk mail littered inside and out of our block. The majority of the occupants dont seem to care - many are the culprits - they can't be ar*ed to take in the pizza leaflets with their mail and dispose of them properly. None of the others can fail to see the things I see but I guess they are too proud to stoop, and wait instead to see if the guy who hoovers the stairs will tidy it on his once weekly visit.

I was tempted to wait and see how long it took someone else to tidy it up because I almost always do it. Then I thought I shll be walking past the bins on my way to work so I may as well do it. Glad I did. It rained afterwards. Would have been paper mache trodden everywhere by tea time, wouldn't there?

On my way home today, I didn't wait and see whether the idiot with a cigarette in his mouth the moment he stepped on the bottom of the escalator out of Canary Wharf station would light it. I immediately reminded him as I passed him on his left that the fire risk was right there on the escalator. "I know" he grinned. Yeah right. He obviously wasn't in a hurry to get out and smoke the damn thing or he'd have been using his legs like I was. He just wasn't thinking straight, was he? I reckon his next move would have been click fizz, inhale and then arm down to his side and flick had I not opened my mouth when I did.

Tomorrow, I won't wait and see if Transport for London deduct another £6.10 from my Pre-Pay Oystercard for a journey that should have deducted just £5 from the card. I will go straight to the booking office and tell them to please put it right with a refund and a bug fix in their computerised fare charging programme. I bet I have to fill in a form and post it to Capita and wait and see if they will refund it though. Meantime, should I wait and see if I keep getting charged £6.10 a day next week, do you think?

Strangely I didn't wait and see if the booking office clerk was right when he told me yesterday that a weekly Travelcard would be cheaper than a pre-pay Oyster card for my daily commute. I had a feeling he was very wrong about that so I helped him along by asking him how much a normal daily ticket was, then got him to multiply it by five and then compare it with the price he gave me for his Travelcard idea. "Oh!" he said, which is what some Sun, Mirror, Times, Guardian or Telegraph readers sometimes say when they read some things in the Daily Mail I guess.

You might have thought I'd have been safe waiting to see if the Post Sorting Office would ask me if I had a seventh red card to swap with a piece of undelivered post yesterday morning after I handed them six cards and they found seven items (I have been away as I said earlier). Well no actually. They just gave me the six that went with the cards I gave them without mentioning the seventh. I went back today with the seventh card I'd found and they said "Oh you were in early yesterday weren't you, and collected loads - didn't you take it then?" Ehm No, I didn't realise there was a seventh card then so I have brought it now. Can I have the parcel that goes with this one then? "No - we returned it to sender". When was that? "Yesterday".
Yeah - well ... the country is going to the dogs as I said....

...speaking of which, if you saw someone regularly bringing their dog to the gardens you part paid for in maintenance charges as a flatowner, and that someone loitered until the dog had done it's business, would you wait indefinitely and see if that someone actually desisted from their habit, ... sometime,...maybe? You guessed right. I didn't wait and see for long. I think I let it ride for two weeks but before I went away I happened to be right on the spot having just got out of my car when said someone arrived there so I said hallo to the lady and asked if she lived on the development. No she didn't. Did she mind me asking why she regularly brought her dog to our gardens to do its business? "The Council Dog Warden says it's ok". Did she mind me asking what the hell the Council Dog Warden had to do with it because the garden is privately owned and even the road pavements and streetlamps are privately owned here, and did she realise that young children played on the grass? Yes she did realise that young children play here regularly, "they are from the council estate" she said as if council estate children are used to dog dirt so it doesn't matter. Why don't you get your dog to do it's business in your own garden where you can make sure it's properly cleared up? That's what my parents did when they had a dog. "We haven't got a garden" she said. Well, I said a few more words and she raised her eyes to heaven, and touchwood she got the message and permanently buggred off somewhere else with her damn dog. Goodness knows what the poor thing does for the rest of the day with no garden. It wasn't a small dog. I saw her and the dog making for the park some streets away yesterday morning on my way back from the sorting office. Looks like it worked.

Just doing my bit to move things along from my back yard, chugalug. What's yours like?

I have been back in UK less than 48 hours as I write this. I have read two free Metro newspapers - do they count as Daily Mail reading for an ex council house boy who hasn't really striven to achieve anything special but may have achieved something?

IvanOpinion

Jeez peter, having read that list I reckon you are one of these poeple that are not meant ot get up out of bed in the morning unless you want to chance fate.

Although it is good to hear of someone taking responsibility and just getting on with things. Near us we have bits of grass that are effectively public areas - they are at the foot of peoples gardens (between the footpath and the road) and are about 1-2 lawnmower widths wide. Apparently some of the people spend hours complaining to the council about getting them cut, they have formed strategy groups that meet to determine how they should handle this and then they spend hours writing lengthy letters to the council (which is silly considering it is another departments problem). Others take their lawn mower and run it up the strip once or twice (takes about 20 seconds) .... I heard that one neighbour complained that another cut their strip because it was absolving the council of their duty.... duh! comes to mind.

Somethings are just not worth worrying about and are easily resolved by rolling the eyes and fixing it. Maybe smoe people are so sad that they have 'hours' of free time with nothing better to do than complain ... personally I have a life to get on with.

Ivan

RedOnRed

Peter, perhaps they should send you to Guantanamo Bay? A few minutes of the inmates having to endure your monologues would surely guarantee them repenting their sins and confessing every thing.

peterbaker

Yeah some things are just not worth worrying about but there's a lot of important things that need changing. I suggest we stop mixing the two. I try not to, and I hope you don't disagree too much. I can assure everyone that I have no fear of getting out of my bed in the morning or continuing to point my finger where it needs pointing or alternatively where something sharper needs inserting. I am no fatalist, so I expect to influence the outcome of every day I live and breathe, mateys!

In my last post / bedtime brain-dump after a mere 2 days back in this mixed-up, dumbed-down and often clueless country I wrote about poor quality staffed local authorities (a decades old problem), poor quality staffed Transport for London (exacerbated by my experience this morning, but I won't bore you with it - suffice to say I am no longer out of pocket, but another fiasco made me half an hour late for work while huge numbers of Customer Service representatives farted about on overtime rates achieving very little); then I wrote about poor quality staffed Royal Mail (exacerbated by the discovery of another missing parcel today and my discovery that since I last bought a book of stamps they have gone up to 30p); then you got the decades old complaint of extremely poor personal standards and discipline of the majority of people now, who's parents never did National Service, evident in such things as thinking that to stoop to pick up their own rubbish or anyone elses is somehow uncool; penultimately we had one seriously uncool idiot smoker (male); and finally one obnoxious London dog-owner (female). I am assuming neither of the last two had parents who did National Service and/or possessed more than half a brain in the family.

In my book, you may continue to turn your blind eye to your two foot wide strip of grass and to Guantanamo. One can be sorted out locally by running your mower for 10 yards extra as you suggest Ivan, and the other can remain as a salutory warning to anyone remotely toying with the idea of sympathising with terrorist causes or visiting dodgy parts of volatile countries looking for trouble.

loopy_lass

Pennywise wrote:

I've been despairing at the state of the country for ages. You don't need to go far to see how life can be very different. I went to the Isle of Man last month. I couldn't believe the difference. It's really made me want to emigrate there and I'm certainly looking into the options. Despite being out at night at the weekend, I wasn't afraid - no drunken violent yobs even around the pubs and clubs just "merry" youths. Very little vandalism and grafitti. Actually being served by someone who looked hygienic and spoke English in MacDonalds - now there's a first - in the UK they look like they've been dragged out of a gutter and only speak swahili. I was listening to the local radio news and was astounded to hear that the police were seeking witnesses to a crime where a shop window had been broken - in the UK the police wouldn't even bother turning up yet alone actually making the effort to investigate it! Driving was a pleasure, no speed cameras, just a lot of very sensible hazard warning signs at dangerous spots. Lots of police "walking the streets" not hiding in their Volvo and BMW police cars like in the UK. Why the difference? The Isle of Man have their own parliament which isn't affected by the cancer of political parties like the UK, they aren't governed by the UK parliament, and are free to choose which parts of the EU they want to adopt.

guess u didnt go to ramsey, peel, pt erin/st mary, anacha (not sure of spelling) but written as its said....

lol... no just kidding.... compared to the UK the IOM is great... like the uk needs a roof & central heating tho ;-)

enjoy

loopy_lass

Frogling wrote:

Lol! You wouldn't say that if you saw my cousin - 25 years old, very good looking and muscular (I think he's the reason I've got so many friends!!!)

er... and er... may i ask just where your cousin may be er... working in this hot weather..... ;-) just to go along and er.... mmmmmmm yer... er.... oh sorry just to go along and make sure his sun cream is rubbed in well... no i mean to make sure hes uncovered properly i mean covered properly....

thort id lighten the mood.... sorry x

chugalug

Welcome back peterbaker, looks like this one will run and run!!! From your first post it sounded as though you were having a rant about the country going to the dogs foreigners and louts being pandered to - the old Daily Mail thing about how things were always better in the past before the sixties came along and ruined it all blah blah blah.......... I was just pointing out that from a lot of peoples point of view this isnt true and that I take offence at those sort of rants and the sort of viscious press the DM seems to favour simply because on the surface I'm probably one of those people that contributed to the 'deterioration' of this country. IMO the damage has been done since the eighties. For whatever reason we embraced free market capitalism. Every one was encouraged to think of themselves and sod those at the bottom, after all the wealth will trickle down wont it? After 20 odd years we have a generation with no hope and no work as traditional industry is gone - this might have happened anyway who knows? Organisations always chasing the bottom line in the name of profit etc etc. Anyone who thinks this hasnt contributed to the general decay of services and attitudes really needs to wake up. At the same time govt and the media laments the loss of 'society' and community spirit. IMO you can't have it both ways. You cant be in govt chasing the bottom line pandering to peoples base instincts going with whatever the latest opinion poll suggests and not expect the population to do the same. Okay so the country can't be a wonderful place for everyone because we all have different wants and needs but there are good things about this 'progress'. Don't you think??