Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

There used to be a red fairy tale written by a communist writer in Germany around 1920 or so. The content was when Franz and Erich had a walk through Berlin Zehlendorf and spoke about their kids and life in Berlin's poor areas. Seeing all the big luxury houses in Zehlendorf, they shouted towards such a house:
"wait until we are in power, then we will live in your house".

Doesn't say this all?

Starmer had lost my "kind of sympathy" shortly after he took over from Corbyn. What a shame, just a few weeks later and I realised that Starmer and Labour have no clue and they don't even have experts.
Wales had a 3 weeks lockdown in October 2020 and their Covid figures still rose.
Starmer demanded from Johnson a new lockdown to stop the English figures from raising.
They have more or less continued like that since then.... People don't look at those details and don't get suspicious...

 

I think it's more a case of optimism over experience, @simone_in_wiltshire Don't we all want to believe that someone, somewhere has the interests of the people they lead uppermost in their minds? Given that so many heads of state are former lawyers or bankers, though, I shouldn't be surprised that they're greedy, self-serving ******s. The only real difference appears to be in their respective levels of intelligence and ability to make pretty speeches.

 

We must hope, @simone_in_wiltshire, Starmer is not in charge during the next pandemic. Boris had many, many faults, but he was not totalitarian at heart ... basically because he couldn't be bothered to be and only cared about himself. A man like Starmer, backed up by a woman like Reeves, is a much more scary prospect where lockdowns and vaccine mandates are concerned, IMV.

 

I don't like kitchen roll for blowing my nose though @KT53, and a sleeve is far better....

I could always go back to material hankies, but I've always found them a bit manky. I still smile when I think of my Mum ironing my Dad's ones, with his initial on them, though.

 

Who says crime doesn't pay
Benefit fraudsters claimed to have 18 kids to get £300k only have to pay £2 back

 

Hubby has a neat pile of initialled hankies in his drawer. He doesn't use them, but I find them useful for putting the pips in when making marmalade.

 

Totally agree. The socialist parties have all in common to believe that people are not capable of carrying for themselves and need a leader.
For me as an East German, the Tories have always been closer to my heart. Freedom and democracy are very important to me.

 

Um....democracy? When there's a choice between one lot of corrupt, self-serving, power-mad politicians or another one? Freedom?? Freedom to a) work like an idiot so you can spend your few leisure hours spending, spending, spending on consumables that you don't need or really want, or b) become part of the 'never worked, never will, why bother when you can scrounge off the State' brigade. Sorry, @simone_in_wiltshire, I'm sure if I'd grown up in a less capitalist country I'd share your views, but I didn't, and it's breaking my heart to see France follow the USA and UK route to rotten politics and unthinking consumerism.

 

For me it is all Bad Dictatorship
For some the assisted dying may be Good

Regards

 

Our prime minister keeps jacking up the amount of carbon tax we must pay so that we can somehow help the climate through more taxes. He's quite serious about cleaning things up and that's why he's had to jet over 92,000 kilometers in the last three months to get his strong message out there.

 

I always use material hankies!! Some with my initials on, some without, and at least one with my Dad's initials on.
I wash and iron them.
Admittedly I sometimes wash my wife's paper tissues, if she leaves them up her sleeves or in pockets.
I've also washed paper money, coins, rail tickets, and a mobile phone.

 

Its a complete racket that they are all using.
There is this idea that we should all feel bad about living and need to be made to pay for it.

 

@noisette47 You have never lived in a communist country but still dream of an ideal world
As far as I know, there has never been a law that forces people to consume here in the UK. It's people's own decision to do it.
That's what I mean with what all socialists have in common: they always believe people can't make their own decisions.

We were forced to work and if you didn't work, they sent you to labour camps (happened to my brother).
We worked 1/3 longer hours, but got hardly paid for, just enough to have the bare minimum for a month and no penny left for savings. I used to have friend, he always told that story, when he hadn't to eat for a couple of days, and knocked on my door. I gave him my last bread and speck (cheapest bacon). He knew that I will have nothing to eat for the next two days until salary day.
At work, one or two always worked for the one party. Each team had a member that reported to the party on a regular basis.
You had a duty to vote in an election, and if you haven't voted by 10 in the morning, they knocked on your door and asked you to follow the polling station. The minute the polling stations closed, the news on TV announced the result of the election, of course, it was 98.9% for the one party. Isn't it funny that in Germany nowadays the election forecast know the exact end result with closing of the polling stations even the postal votes (1/3 of all votes) shouldn't haven't been counted as it is in the UK where it always takes hours to get a result?
If you decided to go to one of the official demonstrations, and you did not the same but the opposite, you were arrested inside seconds and no longer seen for many years.

Having a free press (what the UK has got, but Germany doesn't) and a voting system that kicks out a ruling party inside one single election is a dream become true.
Having no neighbours who spy on you, and being able to express your own opinion is more worth than you ever can imagine.

 

a) is a life choice for those who are influenced by advertising and peer pressure, @shiney, and there are millions who are. I may be wrong or it may be dependent on area, but I got the impression that there are a fair few in b) as well. That's been going on for several generations now.