Glen Quagmire

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.

 

As a history student I can observe that since the onset of capitalism the standard of living for most people in the western world has improved considerably. We live longer, eat better etc.

 

Even now in the midst of a recession most of us have it pretty good.

Yes and no. If you were to take the capitalist era as that beginning after Feudalism, then I would agree that standards have improved in several areas. However it has been tempered by a lot by regulation (some loose, some very stringent) and a lot of different interpretations in different parts of the world combined with numerous political positions attached to it. Child labour laws, minimum wage laws, trade unions, health & safety and so on have helped contribute along side e.g. ensure that the food you eat is safe, medical treatments are proven to be effective and aren't quackery, you can go to work without fearing that you may end up not coming back home that evening or that what you do will likely send you to an early grave.

Yep, although we're in a recession we still live comfortable enough lives in this country. Many social developments over the centuries have made what we have today possible.

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.

The problem is though that Norway and Switzerland don't have the same relationship with the EU, Norway is pretty much an EU member in all but signing on the dotted line - it universally accepts EU regulations, even contributes to the running of the union, but has no effective say about what is drawn up in the corridors of Brussels and Strasbourg. The Swiss relationship with the EU is complex, in that it's defined via numerous bilateral agreements with a "guillotine clause" that makes the relationship an awkward one. The Swiss generally feel that the EU would compromise traditional Swiss sovereignty, but at the same time it knows that as it's surrounded by the EU, it pretty much has to do its bidding when it demands it as isolating itself from its neighbours is not an option. If the UK left the EU tomorrow, it would not be as "free" as some would like to think, especially when it comes to matters of migration (e.g. France and Spain in response tell British residents to formally apply for foreign residence or get deported), numerous agreements between the UK and the EU would be along Norwegian and Swiss lines with the UK's hand greatly reduced etc. If the UK was not in the EU at present I'd agree that it should not join at least in the short term, but it's in and is an established member, best to work things out and have a voice of significant influence. Withdrawal should only, and only be an absolute last resort.

Fair enough. But the PM analogy is a bit off in that it's specifically being that one level further removed that makes it so irrelevant to me.

Not that much. IIRC the Prime Minister cannot be a Catholic either. One of the reasons Tony Blair converted to Catholicism after he left office and that were Ian Duncan Smith as Conservative leader were to have won a General Election there might have been a constitutional crises (of course there was pretty much no chance of IDS getting into that position).

"I was elected to lead. Not to read!"

Snake: "Oh no! Beta!"

Mayor Quimby: " Can't we have one meeting that doesn't end with us digging up a corpse ?"

These are the same Tories who keep rattling on about localism and how decisions should be devolved down to councils rather than being mandated by evil bureaucratic Whitehall?

Eric Pickles is just a cunt, full stop. spews a lot about councils taking responsibility for their services and be more accountable locally in one breath while in the other gives a diktat telling from the top down how regularly services should be run and also asking for budget audits as to what services are being provided/slimmed down or cut in the worst micromanaged, nanny state way possible.

As it is, over here I've three bins, general waste goes into the black bit, paper & plastics go into a blue bin and composting waste like food scraps and grass cuttings go into the brown bin. Black and blue bins are emptied on alternate weeks and brown bins are emptied every three weeks. No problems with it.

OK, at first glance it seems daft to take money off people just to give it back again;

 

Yes, yes the tax credit system is daft - plus it's expensive to manage, prone to error and quite often didn't actually work, with people not understanding the system and being screwed out of their rebates. It's exactly the sort of system that Labour used to love - one that purported to be progressive but was actually a big waste of money and a creator of unnecessary levels of bureaucracy. Spend money collecting tax, then spend more money giving it back. Brilliant.

 

Raising the lowest tax threshold, however, is incredibly simple to do and helps ALL tax payers. It's money in people's wage packets every month, not something possibly winging its way back to you when the pencil pushers get round to it.

 

Government needs to be fair, and it needs to be efficient.

Hard to disagree with that. The tax credit system is well meaning, but the more bureaucracy put in place to administer the more error prone and less efficient it becomes. It would be better to have a system whereby if some elements of spending outgoings on some services are above a percentage threshold of net household income, then a subsidy can be applied for to cover the cost above the threshold which can be attached to relevant benefits if necessary e.g. subsidy for childcare attached to child allowance. That may be accused as being similar to the tax credit system, but I would argue simply for a more streamlined approach and not to make things terribly complicated.

Simply raising a high tax threshold isn't necessarily positive though, in Ireland the threshold IIRC is €18k and they're talking of lowering it to increase the income tax net as over a third of workers don't pay any. Personally I'd limit the tax free threshold to around

If there is one thing I can give this thread credit for its that as a reminder for when you're low yourself there's someone in an even shittier low point than you.

when I was twelve a couple of really nice twins once convinced me to show my cock to them behind a prefab building at school. Peer pressure eh?

 

He's not telling us the 'really nice twins' were in fact Jedward

John & Edward Grimes would have only been one and a half at the time so I fucking well hope not!

I must have led a pretty timid life compared to most of you lot. The only things that come to mind for me is that when I was at university I managed to win a

Wanking into a pair of my mums soiled knickers.

Holy Fuck!

I would not want to think too much about what could top that.

In fairness it seems to be the UVF of 1912 there, kinda different to the latter day UVF

Nice try but that is as weak as piss. The latter UVF claim they are a direct descendant of the Ulster Volunteers in the 1910's hence why such links are portrayed on their banners, flags, murals etc. but I'd reckon it would be safe to say that if Carson & Craig saw what activities the modern day UVF have got up to they wouldn't want anything to do with them. The appearance of modern day UVF symbols are a dead give away. Today's UVF latch on to the British military as a parasite, seeing their activities during the troubles as being on a par with both World Wars, Falklands, Afghanistan etc. and even have their own service and parade on Remembrance Sunday. Thankfully the army and most unionists in Northern Ireland want nothing to do with these drug dealing, racketeering, intimidating criminals.

And just for the record, the UVF are listed as a designated terrorist organisation in not just the UK, but also in the USA.

Well, can't do much about posers can we?

 

Im not really sure what you're trying to achieve here, but aside from a few posers do you or anyone else actually have true, concrete, factual & provable evidence of links to terrorism or even suspected terrorism?

 

Because I don't think you do-hoo!

Reported links between the EDL and the UVF, I would have thought.

When you're in a hole, stop digging.

:) :) :)

Edit: Some interesting photos from an EDL demonstration (also picketed by UAF) last year in Newcastle Upon Tyne.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29876326@N07/...0254817/detail/

Well, if the EDL are so dangerous and potentially terroristic,

I never said the EDL were - I was on about whom they associate with. Or have you let slip something?...

then you'd think they'd at least do, well something.

I'm intrigued. Go on...

As for the other clowns, what do you want me to say? Other than they're dickheads.

Probably that the claim that the EDL has no association with terrorism is as trustworthy as a nine bob note.

Seems the pics were fakes

 

And from what I've heard the police and counter terrorism officers believe they are photoshopped efforts too & it doesn't appear any investigation will be forthcoming

 

(Had to use Firefox's private browsing mode for that link)

Nothing in that report on the EDL website that said that the photo I posted was a fake, nor the batch they came from, only saying that there were fakes circulating. Also such photos are rarely followed up by police action (at least nowadays in Northern Ireland) because it is difficult if not impossible to get a successful conviction in court.

Anyway, without a gun in sight...

I'm actually a little surprised the EDL hasn't got involved with this somehow yet. Or maybe because not many travellers are Muslamics and that many adult male travellers are quite capable of taking care of themselves?

 

Or maybe because there is no reason at all to get involved in this?

Hmm, that response tells me one of three things. (A) You are not as knowledgeable about the EDL's activities as you think you are, (B) You are not aware of whom the most prominent figureheads of the EDL associate with, or

But "anarchists" and dicks like them I'm not fond of.

"Anarchists" are quite a broad spectrum. You'd need to elaborate beyond that.

I'm actually a little surprised the EDL hasn't got involved with this somehow yet. Or maybe because not many travellers are Muslamics and that many adult male travellers are quite capable of taking care of themselves?

 

Or maybe because there is no reason at all to get involved in this?

Hmm, that response tells me one of three things. (A) You are not as knowledgeable about the EDL's activities as you think you are, (B) You are not aware of whom the most prominent figureheads of the EDL associate with, or

I'm actually a little surprised the EDL hasn't got involved with this somehow yet. Or maybe because not many travellers are Muslamics and that many adult male travellers are quite capable of taking care of themselves?

Out of interest, how does one become a member of the EDL? Is it a case of paying a membership fee and filling out forms? Or do you just turn up to a march/protest?

I'd say around 70% of them joined the EDL by accident as they thought they were signing up for a new electricity and gas supplier.

Plaid Cymru wants Wales to be independent

 

These idiots are as bigoted as the BNP. this all boils down to the fact that they want to isolate Wales from England, and to hell with economic common sense or indeed the notion of a UNITED Kingdom.

 

I am Welsh. I am British. I don't expect to have to choose.

 

Morons.

I don't see or recall Plaid Cymru calling for repatriation of certain people living in Wales depending on their beliefs or skin colour to another country? As far as I know, PC are simply a party that primarily seeks self-determination for Wales and from the report has determined that this would be best done by Wales being an independent country. Nothing that I see there much different to the SNP in Scotland, or the various tiny "Independent NI state" parties and groups that occasionally appear, not to mention Mebyon Kernow in Cornwall. They simply have a difference of opinion to yourself of the constitutional status-quo of the UK within a peaceful, democratic, parliamentary process. To compare PC to the BNP is pretty insulting.

BTW - Anyone else not own a single product by Apple? Or is it just me?

No, not just you.

BBC News presenter Babita Sharma...

RTE Sports presenter Joanne Cantwell...

Haven't seen Del Rio but I'm sure when Eddie Guerrero used to have his lowrider entrance they used to credit the company in the on-screen graphic? Hope I'm not imagining that.

Having something like that in Del Rio's case would surely be a gimmick killer though, given how Cole & Lawler talk about how expensive the cars are?

Does Del Rio get his cars from local executive hire companies each week depending where RAW is based?

According to Power Slam a few months ago where a similar question was asked, the answer is yes, they are. In return, the WWE promote the company in some way, I'm not sure how though. And I wonder if they took out insurance for the car used at Wrestlemania against Edge?

I'm just surprised they didn't use the defence that their accounts were fraped