Ronnie

I like the triumverate of Loki, Gladders and Houchen. Of the three of them, Loki's capable of some exceptional intelligent posts when the time comes for it and he drops the smugness and those are my favourites to read.

I've loved Mark Henry's work this year but he falls to second place in the wake of Bully Ray. Probably the first time I've ever watched him and thought he really excelled at something. He has that JBL and Steiner knack of spreading conviction in what we see expressed on screen and a welcome surprise.

I really enjoyed Ian's Bulldog breakdown and was set to vote for that one until I got to his "Bound For Gory" post, and I couldn't resist. It summarised the deviancy in that thread perfectly in a two-minute read, captured those cringeworthy moments that had slipped from memory (MrK shagged his cousin following their Grandad's funeral!) and has the odd comic moment too, such as KrAzY's serious contribution being that he didn't wash up once. A great read from those fantastic opening words onward.

The description "Who tries and fails repeatedly?" makes it sound like the perfect award for FamilyGuyPMSL ... except that his style isn't to crack unfunny jokes.

There are only two on there who try to be funny unsuccessfully though, surely? And of those the most oblivious to his lack of aptitude in the joke department is Dangerously420.

Houchen's the master here. Love his posts.

Then why make a nothing post then?

neil's Nayim. You're David Seaman.

He's going to lob it over him?

I asked my other half this same question when dropping her off this morning. She had pointed out that it's in no way "a blight on the countryside" as labelled by some (how are rail tracks noticeably visible to people in the vicinity in the same way that, say, an electricity pylon would be?) and I had countered that it seems a lot of investment and trouble just to cut her trips to London by 30 minutes.She pointed out to me that the presence of HS2 will free up the existing line for regional services. The current line is used by the Virgin trains (which travel fast), regional services, and freight trains. As things currently work, the Virgin trains sometimes have to slow right down because of the presence of the slower trains ahead, or the other trains have to be held aside for periods so that they won't act as obstructions to the Virgin trains.I don't know whether this justifies HS2, but at least it's another dimension to the argument.

You can have wazzock. The OED doesn't know its etymology so I doubt bobbins does.

I must confess, my knowledge on the history and development of insults is limited.

"misogynistic."Edit: Aw, beaten by Pitcos.

and all of these people could be in the running for being the world's most powerful person.

How long is the snow set to stick around for?

It comes from a line of JavaScript in the header, which I don't think neil can access. So it looks as though the answer is "Until Moo passes through on a whim and decides to remove it."

Yes, the assumption there is that she could have afforded to take out health cover, which presumably she couldn't - many people can't.

But -- if you're a fundamentalist Republican -- that presumably comes down to choice on what she spends her money on. If you choose to spend your money on a pair of Nikes and go without food, then even though you're still poor and in an unenviable position, you still chose to go without food.

To back up that point would be the statistic that "only" 27% of households with an income below $25k in 2009 went without insurance. They went without other things. It's ridiculous that people find themselves in that situation but the statistics indicate that "not being able to afford it" doesn't mean that people simply go without it.

Personally, and without sounding like some massive socialist, but I think universal healthcare is one of those fundamentals of a decent society, and it always amazes me that the US hasn't had it until these recent reforms, which kind of partially introduced it.

Totally agreed. I don't even see why there's any need to debate it; it should simply be self evident. It's absolutely rotten to think that the accepted response in a society to a couple whose child is born with severe medical complications is "Unlucky, pal. Good luck with that", the understanding being that such a couple are on their own.

For those interested in a)American politics and b) healthcare reform..

That's a real feel-good story but I think the response from those hateful Republican extremists would be entirely predictable: "Had she taken personal responsibility in the first place and purchased insurance then she would not have been in that position."

It's brutal but, given the American system as it is known to be, I don't think anybody could reasonably state that she would've been unavoidably condemned to death without Obamacare. The system is clear over there; if you don't take out health insurance, you have to cover the costs of your treatment. She didn't take out insurance.

We're far too sensible to have such a system over here but there is something of a parallel: We don't provide universal house insurance and I don't think that we'd be saying that the insurance companies are unreasonable for not insuring against a robbery that has just occurred, nor that the person who failed to take out insurance should be bailed out for having gambled unsuccessfully.

I'd like to see universal coverage in the USA though, don't get me wrong.

^^ "Babes"? Only if the author is thinking of the star of the eponymous film.

This is my favourite one, especially with the Freddie Mercury reference and Tony Slattery references.

"Hulkyfan's back an' he's fookin' crackers,

he's the true king of the fapper spackers!"

That's brilliant, as is singing the $tew quote.

The chief motivation for the euro is consumer transparency? Are you kidding me?

I didn't write that. I said "I don't see the economic problem if any of the countries were to fall out. What are the benefits of the euro again? Price transparency?" Isn't it evident that the comment about benefits of the euro was adjoined to the lead-in "I don't see the economic problem", especially as I'd outlined earlier in that same message that there are separate also political reasons?

Nowhere did I write that the "chief motivation" is "consumer [sic] transparency". But price transparency was the big economic reason promoted by europhiles at the time, as was a reduction in the transactions cost of having to change one currency into another. And all being said I don't think that these benefits outweigh the surrendering of sovereignty regarding monetary policy. I'm no longer "not swayed either way by the economic arguments" as I was ten years ago.

Also, Gladstone's snarky cynicism at least saves him from buying all the rolls of tinfoil that aaron gets through.

You jest, but it's expensive stuff!

I don't think you necessarily have to be a conspiracy nut to see the affects unchecked capitalism has had on the world wide economy. And to question just how much influence multinational corporations (especially the banks, but many others as well) have on western governments through various lobby groups.

Oh, that's just an excerpt and incredibly mild and close to rational. That's not indicative of why he's considered a nutter.

One of my friends vanished after going for a walk in the mountains near his Italian home last year. His car keys, passport, computer, phone, cards etc were all where he had left them. Not a penny was missing from a charity that he ran. He got more in his pension than I earn (hence the second home abroad). Now, I suppose that his fate could have been one of many things, such as suicide, heart attack, kidnapping (he lived in prime N'dranghetta territory), spontaneous combustion ... but this idiot still litters the internet including mailing lists where friends and family will read them with matter-of-fact references to how he is an undercover member of MI5 who has moved on to other things and just this week came up with "proof" of his claims after another person who's not all there remembered that he once sent her a postcard from Italy ... and it had a police station on the front! "That's interesting. People in subversive operations often like to leave behind a calling-card."

Fair enough aaron. Could you please give me a succinct definition of what a corporation is?

My friend's dad is an unemployable moron who sees conspiracies everywhere. I got included in one of his circulars the other day, so I'll save aaron the trouble and paste in his definition:

It seems the revolution has begun. The Occupy demonstrations have taken place in over 95 cities across 82 countries, but it's no longer just about 'the economy, stupid' (to use Bill Clinton's famous phrase), but about the corporate state. The economic crisis was caused by large financial institutions which had more power than elected governments. It was the economy that moved people into activism, but a bigger picture is now emerging.

 

Mussolini talked of the "Corporate State of Fascism". That's exactly what's developing now. It's been a hidden Fascism, with a democratic veneer, but since the turn of the century people in the US and the UK

Getting back to Europe, I've found this whole thing has certainly made me think again. I was always instinctively pro-European in a sort of vague way, but this crisis has really exposed some of the follies of the European project, and it looks a lot like the Euro-sceptics were right on the Euro. The more I learn about the ins and outs of the European legislature, the more I realise how thoroughly undemocratic the whole thing is. Perhaps we're best to distance ourselves from Europe but take advantage of our close trade ties with them.

That's exactly how I've come to see things. I was also instinctively friendly towards the idea of building some degree of "sameness" with our fellow Europeans. I just don't have the mentality of many that I am what I was born and I don't like others; you know, that sort of mentality that sees the fans of one football team detest those of another or adherents to one faith want to kill non-believers. I speak a bunch of European languages to different degrees and have friends all over Europe. I don't want to be monolingual and, heaven forfend, stuck only with fellow Englishmen.

I find it interesting to look back with older, wiser eyes. I know that we're often guilty of revisionist history, but I can defend against that because I wrote down my views in the form of a dissertation on the UK acceding to the eurozone. I remember my conclusion verbatim: "I'm not swayed either way by the economic arguments" but that the UK should go into it for political symbolism. I was really wrong!

Those who have it right are the Norwegians and Swiss, who benefit from the same trade conditions as EU members but without having to surrender sovereignty and transfer money to poorer neighbours. It's now my view that we should do the same, joining them as part of the European Free Trade Area.

Ronnie, do you think ultimately Germany has benefitted from the Euro itself? If anything it feels like it's roped itself to all the bottom feeders and is held back.

The short answer is that I don't actually know, because the counterfactual (Germany from 2002 to 2011 still with the Mark) doesn't exist. Looking at its economic performance it still seems to be a powerhouse; they continued to enjoy low inflation (the Germans for important historical reasons are hugely averse to inflation and so have always taken measures to minimise it, even if it means spiking unemployment), they're richer than the rest of us (ignore insignificant outliers such as Luxembourg), their unemployment level (though high because of the absorption of the former East Germany) dropped five percentage points between 2005 and 2007 and they run a massive surplus between exports and imports of about $180bn. But how much of that is attributable to the euro and what would the case be otherwise?

There's another way of looking at things besides the straight economics, and in that respect the Germans would be well pleased with the euro. It doesn't need spelling out but the Germans are hellbent on avoiding their past and making impossible any chance of a repeat. It started in, erm, 1951 (?) when France and Germany entered into a "community" to share the Alsace's coal and steel resources, the principle being that one of them wouldn't be capable of running a war without sole ownership. Successive integration has further reinforced the fraternity between the European states to the point that war between the member states is inconceivable. Surrendering their national currency and fiscal sovereignty really underlines a one-ness.

This being the case, I'm sure the Germans are thrilled. Look at the willingness that they've shown to bail out their neighbours. They'll pay money to save the euro. Can you imagine the headlines if we were in their position?

Everyone says if, say, Italy left the euro it'd be this giant calamity, but Britain pulled out of the ERM, which was effectively a proto-Euro, after Black Wednesday and the world didn't end. In fact, our economy prospered and the eurozone was fine as well.

That's quite correct. The ERM behaved as a currency union, since the exchange rates between members were fixed, meaning that monetary policy was surrendered from doing what was needed in the country to instead preserving the value of the currencies. And once it was gone the government of the time could get back to the real job of putting measures into place to get the country out of recession, instead of having to raise the interest rate twice in the same day. (I think it went to 15%!)

I don't see the economic problem if any of the countries were to fall out. What are the benefits of the euro again? Price transparency? Who cares about that really? OK, it was easier to see the price you were paying if it was quoted in euros rather than millions of lire, but does anybody in practice really think "I could get that lasagne/haircut/bread cheaper in Slovakia, so I'm buying it from there"? I won't even drive for another few minutes to save a couple of quid on a tank of petrol! And what else? Just the gesture that "We're surrendering our currency for idealism's sake." Forget that.

Good man, Ronnie!

 

He was the online equivalent of the drunk bloke in the corner of the pub who has a go at anyone who looks at him until the barmen have no choice but to bar him. Entertaining as hell.

That's how I see him too! He can be placid, chatting away appropriately but not particularly noticeably, but then a point comes when he's had a bit too much to drink and the red mist descends and he noisily takes umbrage with someone who is not particularly bothered about it. Brilliant!

My favourite was his kick off on Harvey Dent, calling him all the cunts under the sun for no reason. HD took it in his stride as you'd expect, which did nothing other than provoke another outburst. Dead funny. Must try to hunt that one down.

You're referring to the one that got him a suspension. His first post after his return was to say go back at HD, pointing out that he was accurate in the post that got him his holiday: "Just proves that the post I got banned for calling you a boring cunt is fucking true".

I know it'd get boring if he did it every day, but I'd love to see it more often.

I don't think that was Carbomb but some mong called Casey V. I heard that Carbomb thought there were "too many mongs round here" or something like that. Ronnie might confirm this!

Not as far as I know, no. I'm afraid you'll have to call out the big guns and ask Detective Sprules to get on the case for this one.

I enjoyed that guy coming on and screaming at Pity. Reminded me of a UKFF version of the Shawn Stasiak vs The Rock story.

 

Did that guy just get outright banned in the end, or is he still free to return and scream bloody murder at other good posters? I hope it's the latter.

Ha, well remembered! It's that "rape-baby", thescarswillbecomeasymbol. His account's still active so we can live in anticipation of a return.

My favourite of those types is the former Bubble Ray, Brother Devon. He comes out with some great stroppy posts when he gets frustrated with someone for the umpteenth time. (And I'm not grassing him up; the original account was deleted at his own request.)