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Bibliogryphon

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Posts posted by Bibliogryphon

  1. Posted

    When he first came on he was quite witty,albeit in an aggressive manner but I thought he was putting on an act. However the increasingly xenophobic rants against Islam became uncomfortable reading but I do worry about him, this forum may have been a release for him. I hope he is OK.

     

    I am not suggesting for one minute that the mods acted incorrectly and that the comments he made were acceptable - they were not, it is just I wonder what was going on in his head.

  2. Posted

    One thing that the Leave camp did was blur the borders between Free Movement of People from the European Union, Illegal immigration, the Migrant crisis and immigration from the rest of the world.

     

    This has been evidenced by the verbal and sometimes physical attack on people of Asian origin that have occurred since Friday.

     

    There was also the Shrodingers migrant conundrum Claiming benefits and stealing your job at the same time.

     

    I did wonder (slightly shamefully) that those people who are just a little bit racist if actually given the choice would prefer migration from a still largely white Judeo-Christian European Union or lots of non-white immigrants from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.

     

    However if anyone had said that during the campaign they would have been howled down.

     

    We have an ageing population which means a smaller workforce to support them. We have already seen an increase in the pensionable age but we need migrants to pick our crops, wait our tables, work in the care sector. There are things that need to be done but Labour talked about these at the last election: Stop companies only advertising jobs overseas, clamp down on employers who are willing to use illegal workers for below the minimum wage.

     

    There was a sad case a couple of years ago where an elderly woman was found dead in her house because she had starved to death, the woman who the agency employed as a carer was actually an illegal immigrant, she would visit on a daily basis to feed and dress the woman, immigration caught up with the carer and deported her but the agency did not actually tell the local authority of the situation (presumably to protect the rest of their contract) and didn't have anyone else to cover the contract and probably didn't realise that the carer was the only person that woman saw on a daily basis.

     

    It wasn't right what the agency was doing but that woman and her family are the victims of a political struggle.

     

    My Father moved into a care home last December it is a lovely home and he is very happy there but the staff are a mixture of races will they still be able to draw on the pool of people to keep fully staffed in the future.

     

    There has been a narrative from employers that the struggle to get British people to do those jobs whilst they have there own agenda there is a little bit of evidence that this is the case but those who are unemployed now might have to realise that they may have to work a lot harder in future, ironically to look after the generation that took them out of the EU.

  3. Posted

    Fortunately I drafted a new list on the train yesterday

     

    1920 Fanny Waterman/Michael Anderson

    1921 Jane Freeman/ Gordon Murray

    1922 Kay Starr/Rex Richards

    1923 Dina Merill/ Franco Zeffarelli

    1924 Vivean Gray/Brian Rix

    1925 Ysanne Churchman/Richard Baker

    1926 Cicely Berry/Leonard Fenton

    1927 Babs Chinnery/Dick Bruna

    1928 Kate Wilhelm/Edward Albee

    1929 Patricia Routledge/David Fisher

     

    Had to switch out Jean Barker because someone else got to her first but I think all of the others are unclaimed.

     

    Just had to edit this to replace Barbara Hale with Kay Starr.

  5. Posted

    Sad last days of Woy Hodgson.

    Watching him at that stadium dying on his arse is not a pretty sight.

     

    I am not a football expert but when they finished second in the group and the luck of the draw got us Iceland I thought maybe that was quite cunning.

     

    There are only 300,000 of them, how can the manage to field 12 decent players. What is wrong with us?

     

    Its not over yet though......

  6. Posted

    The problem with the Remain campaign (with hindsight) was that they relied too much on what the experts say might happen if we leave. To which the Leave campaign could say "you don't KNOW that you are just saying these things to deny the poor working man his democratic say, what they should have done was focus on what the EU does in terms of farming, safety of goods, free trade, working rights, standardisation, the environment, regeneration of deprived areas, cultural exchange, opportunities to work in other member states, EHIC, collective actions on sanctions, justice, security etc. This would then have got some people perhaps off the Leave narrative that was fed through the Sun and Mail of them, coming here taking our jobs oh and next week the entire population of Turkey are going to move into the street next door to your Nan and they will launch a terrorist attack on your local Pizza Hut.

     

    There is a reason I am not in politics.

    • Like 1

  7. Posted

    This week celebs who are near death include Loretta Lynn, Burt Reynolds, Aretha Franklin and the astonishing news that Drew Barrymore is fat, so fat they are describing her weight as deadly(but they probably only means if she sits on you).

  9. Posted

     

    At Wimbledon eyeing up the boys balls ball boys. Still at least he's looking at something instead of his phone!

     

    b5d6ba90-064f-4341-ae2e-c613b3df9240.jpg

     

     

    Not looking too bad for a bloke 75, especially since he talked about the toll on his health of the recent investigation

    I think you misheard him. He was probably talking about the toll on his wealth.

  10. Posted

    Rover don't take Kettering as any sort of barometer. MP is rabidly Eurosceptic there is a little triumverate in Kettering, Corby & Wellingborough. The result here was 61:39. In Corby 64:36.

  11. Posted

     

     

     

    New Tory leader by 2nd September.

     

    It is really strange thinking that the prospect of Theresa May as Prime Minister has gone from a bad to a good thing.

    My very outside bet is on David Davis.

    Almost made PM ahead of Cameron, well respected, articulate and a Brexiter, something May wasn't and isn't.

     

     

    Isn't he seen as a bit of a grand standing maverick after his principled resignation to fight a by-election on his own?

     

    Some people are talking about Dominic Rahb

     

    That he may be, not a terrible thing in the light of the wishy washy shit Politicians we have out there at the moment.

     

     

    He might struggle to get through the knockout rounds which are voted for by MPs. Might have missed his chance.

  12. Posted

     

    New Tory leader by 2nd September.

     

    It is really strange thinking that the prospect of Theresa May as Prime Minister has gone from a bad to a good thing.

    My very outside bet is on David Davis.

    Almost made PM ahead of Cameron, well respected, articulate and a Brexiter, something May wasn't and isn't.

     

     

    Isn't he seen as a bit of a grand standing maverick after his principled resignation to fight a by-election on his own?

     

    Some people are talking about Dominic Rahb

  14. Posted

     

     

     

    How so many people in the UK think democracy is great, until things don't go their way.

     

    To be fair general elections and local council elections have never been truly democratic so an actually democratic vote is a shock to the system for many.

     

     

    There is an Isaac Asimov short story where the democratic system has evolved so that one person goes into a booth with a computer and asks him lots of questions and then decides who should be running the country. Probably an early idea on his way to Psychohistory but at the GE I did one of those policy questionaires and found that I was voting closest to my policy beliefs. Isn't it the electorates duty to educate themselves enough to make an informed decision.

     

    That may well be the case in principle. But on the subject of Europe, where was this information? I had a damn good look around, all I found was an interminable supply of polemic from each side. Practically zero in the way of unbiased facts.

     

     

    http://europa.eu/index_en.htm

  15. Posted

    Lib Dems are gearing up for a General Election which they will campaign on the platform of rejoining (not leaving) the EU. This could be interesting because they could essentially become the opposite of UKIP a single issue pro-European party. Like UKIP it may gain them some friends in particular constituencies.

     

    If Corbyn goes this might be more significant.

  17. Posted

     

    How so many people in the UK think democracy is great, until things don't go their way.

     

    To be fair general elections and local council elections have never been truly democratic so an actually democratic vote is a shock to the system for many.

     

     

    There is an Isaac Asimov short story where the democratic system has evolved so that one person goes into a booth with a computer and asks him lots of questions and then decides who should be running the country. Probably an early idea on his way to Psychohistory but at the GE I did one of those policy questionaires and found that I was voting closest to my policy beliefs. Isn't it the electorates duty to educate themselves enough to make an informed decision.

  19. Posted

     

    Boris as leader is by no means a certainty. When William Hague resigned straight after the 2001 election everyone thought Michael Portillo was a shoe-in. Instead we got Ian Duncan-Smith

     

    And in 2016, people expect Boris to be a shoe-in. Instead we'll get Ian Duncan-Smith.

     

    I so hope this daft joke doesn't become unexpectedly true.

     

     

    I doubt he will put himself through that again but Liam Fox has been mentioned and then there is Priti Patel, Andrea Leadsom and Sajid Javid to consider. Keep an eye on the also rans.I think the centrists should put someone up for balance.

  21. Posted

    Boris as leader is by no means a certainty. When William Hague resigned straight after the 2001 election everyone thought Michael Portillo was a shoe-in. Instead we got Ian Duncan-Smith

  25. Posted

     

     

     

    Northern Ireland may hold a vote on the re-unification of Ireland or N. Ireland independence from the United Kingdom by 2020[/

    [*]Londoners are calling for an independent London city-state, that would rejoin the European Union and function like Singapore (imho go for it).

    Northern Ireland joining Ireland is an excellent thing why are you speaking about it negatively.
    Not sure you'll be saying the went the Ulster loyalists suddenly find their arsenals.
    they are on the wrong side of History. I am on the right side and with that Ireland must unite.

     

     

    I think that a United Ireland would be preferable to going back having Check points along the border but there is a significant part of the population of Northern Ireland who feel that Uniting with the Republic might place them in danger or at least lose their cultural heritage as part of Britain.

     

    Does anyone else think that Canadian's and Australian's might be considering now would be a good time to dust off their republican arguments?

    • Like 1
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