The Official "Ramblings of a daft old bugger" Thread

[Martin]

Thought you might...

Those of us in the waiting room for a bus pass need to stick together amidst all these testosterone riddled, young, thrusting chargers.

 

[steve]

I'm not a smoker and never have been, i like not having to inhale others smoke, but this anti smoking overkill/witch hunt has got me worried about what other personal freedoms will be disappearing next.

We have already lost most of our offroad riding /driving privileges.

Many towns are alcohol free on their streets.

Will everything that could possibly cause damage to your heath/enviroment be going the same way.

Personal stereos that can only go so loud as to not endanger your hearing?

"dangerous / extreme" sports banned?

If you let them take someone elses freedoms (ie smoking)how do you put the case for keeping your own (ie motorcycling) ????????

Stand up for a smoker today
if they are still alive a few years from now they might just help you protect your hobbies/addictions/ personal freedoms

 

[Ozric-Al]

Personal stereos that can only go so loud as to not endanger your hearing?

Already happened chap. Fortunately, my Sony NWA has a published unlock code.

"Doctor said to give up Keee-Babs. I said 'No, no-no'"

 

[patrick]

I can remember being able to ride a motorcycle without a helmet, god I must be old

They used to say....
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me.

 

[patrick]

Personal freedoms eh? Well, lets just see where we stand today. Under the Regulation of investigatory powers act 2000 the government has the right to monitor all internet traffic for the purposes of national security prevention/detection of crime, in the interests of the uk's economic well being, in the interests of public safety, for protecting public health, and for any reason the Secretary of State deems fit.

Doesnt seem to bad until you realise that "in the interests of the uk's economic well being," can actually include YOU if you have bought anything over the net from a foriegn country, or that the phrase "in the interests of public safety," could mean YOU if you have used the net to organise car cruises or convoys and surely the bit thats says " and for any reason the Secretary of State deems fit." doesnt need any explanation at all.

The state can thus gather information such as what websites you visit and when, who you email, who emails you, what newsgroups you read, all the phone numbers you call, what software you've downloaded, what documents you've downloaded, where and when you log on to a machine and from where you logged on, etc. Essentially any government department or any police officer can demand this information, as long as it is deemed to be required under the grounds listed above.

And dont, dont, dont even get me started on I.D cards which The government says wont be compulsary, unless of course you want to travel abroad in which case the average cost would be about £93 combined with a passport.

 

[Rab]

I've just read this and suddenly feel quite a bit older.
I even went to see Edwin Starr live in concert... he was bril.

Rab.
"This is a LOCAL website for LOCAL people we'll not have any trouble here"

 

[patrick]

OY, WHO THE BLOODY HELL TAUGHT YOU TO DRIVE?


Well, I am sure we have all thought that onec or twice, so I figured we might as well find out just who passed all the idiots we see on the road

I started to learn to drive in the army. The instuctors were all nco's which as anybody who was in the army will tell you are like mini gods. The one I had used to carry a stick, and if you hit the wiper stalk and turned them on while turning a corner or something, he used to rap you across the knuckles with his stick. Also, if you were practising hill starts and you were a smoker, he used to put your cigarette packet behind the front wheel, so if you rolled backwards at all, you crushed your fags,lol.

Needless to say, I didnt pass.

Fast forward a few years and I was stationed in germany and the banks used to fall over themselves leanding you money and so I bought my first car (a vw jetta) whilst still unable to drive (a friend collected it for me). This time an nco was always looking for a babysitter, so I agreed to babysit in return for free lessons. Things went fine until the test, when the tester was a sergent major who was qualified to pass you and issue a full driving licence. The trouble was, I had trained for the GERMAN test, which didnt include reversing round corners, so when he did the ENGLISH test, I cocked that bit up and failed.

He told me to try again in a few weeks, but then I had to go on an exercise, then when I came back, he had to go on an exercise and by this time my leave was due and I had already booked the ferry!!! The upshot was, I drove from germany, through Holland and into France (just like the german army years before,lol) and after landing at hull, I then drove down to wales to collect some relatives before returning to manchester for my sone baptism and then doing the whole journey in reverse, all of this without a licence!!!!!!

Needless to say, when I returned to germany and got a test again, I flew past and the instructor said "see, you just needed a bit of experience"

I now hold a car, bike, hgv2 and psv2 licence.

 

[Stuart]

Patrick,

I'm a smoker too. Have been since I was 13. I'm damned if I'll quit now the bloody do-gooders and PC brigade tell me to. I enjoy smoking.

What they fail to comprehend is that should everyone live to be 90 no-one will be able to pay for pensions etc.
I've just watched my step-mother die in a Nursing Home. The place was good, but I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Old age gets you if nothing else does first.

The hypocracy surrounding smoking is astonishing.
Smokers pay huge sums to the Nations' exchequer so should they need medical attention they've paid for it many times over.
Palliative care is all I require!

I don't like fox-hunting, but I'm loathe to go down the road of banning things.
I'm a libertine. Live and let live.

We become more like a Totalitarian State every day.
If they want to ban something that does real harm why not "Fundamentalist Religions". There's more poison there than all the cigarettes on earth.

If I can't smoke near children etc how come they get to spread their poison to kids?

I'd have more respect for them if they tackled real issues.
How come Palestinians have no Passports and have been refugees in their own country since 1948?

The so called smoking issue just takes peoples minds off the really important stuff going on.

This country is a joke. Ban this. Ban that. But don't upset the religious nut-cases and their primitive belief systems. After all, the most powerful man on earth, Bush, hears voices, speaks in tongues and has a hotline straight to his creator (leastways he thinks he does).
Blair gives our money to "faith schools" that teach rubbish and segregate children.

We invade countries that we created and now are plotting to find another Saddam to stop Iran taking over Iraq by "democracy".

All this and much more but what do they actually do? Ban smoking.

It's hard to find words to express the contempt I have for our politicians.
It's no wonder people take more drugs than ever ( especially alcohol).

Smoking helps me deal with the stress of life.
It may harm others some say....so might driving your car, so might your mobile, etc etc. ad nauseum.

As has been said more elequently....first one thing, then more and more will be banned as the bastards see they can get away with it.
I find it depressing that the young (largely) don't see it as freedom being curtailed, or just don't care.

Stuart.

 

[patrick]

I couldnt agree more. I have never made any secret on my age (its 53) and so I can remember my dad talking about churchill and his finest hour speech, I myself can remember enoch powell and his rivers of blood speech.I am not saying he was right, but what I am saying is that those type of people belived passionately about their country and about their people.Tony blair is about to retire and he has five houses, just what the hell does he know or care about my life my hopes, my dreams and all the common people like me?

In the dim and distant past great britian ruled three quarters of the world and if you look at some of the countries we helped develop,like Canada, Australia, ect we must have done something right.Sure in some of the countries like India, south africa ect we ruled more by fear but just look at the state of them now, are they really any better off? Yes they can claim they are independant but just what does that mean? It certainly doesnt mean self sufficent.

However, as our power waned, we just seem to spend our whole time apologising for past actions and even apologising for our mere existance. Freedom of speech has gone out of the window, whichever group makes the loudest noise seems to win the day, and I can honestly see the day when the average hard working man who is struggling to raise a family become the minority in this country. We (the public) get bills of thousands and thousands of pounds for legal aid in some of the most stupid court cases ever, but because its "religious minorieties doing it, nobody dare raise their voice. All bikers have to wear crash helmets that carry an aproved safety rating, unless your relgion say you must wear a turban. No weapons are allowed on planes, unless your religious group says you can carry a knife. All schoolkids must wear a uniform, unless you can claim it opresses you, but dont dear try and wear a cross.

My generation where brought up NOT to belive that we were better than anyone else, but to belive that nobody was better than us and there is a very subtle differance. We basically said, here we are, this is what we stand for, if you dont like it, leave us alone. This generation though seems to belive that we must accomadate every faction under the sun, mostly at the expense of ourselves, and thats just something that is wrong.

 

[patrick]

Anybody know the name "Brian Haw"? He was the single solitary figure who used to protest outside parliment when tony blair used to drive past in his amour plated convoy. Well, he did use to protest until the goverment brought in a law saying you couldnt hold a protest within 1km of the parliment.

And it gets worse

http://www.spy.org.uk/parliamentprotest/2005/12/maya_evans_convicted_under_sec.html

Across the world, Britain still stands for a certain idea of liberty, a particular concept of the relationship between the citizen and the state. The tragedy is not so much that this reputation is being lost, but that we are collaborating in its destruction.

 

[patrick]

......I find it depressing that the young (largely) don't see it as freedom being curtailed, or just don't care.......

When I was a young un, anybody over 30 was not worth listening to (what did they know) and anyone over 60 was a positive aincent relic. I think todays youth are largely after instant gratification and are just simply not bothered about what may or may not happen in 2 or 5 or 10 years time. Its only as you get more mature and look at the world with experience that you realise that what starts of small can rapidly gain its own momemtum and a little tweak here and there, a little tightening of the laws (for our own protection of course) can soon leave us powerless.

 

[Stuart]

Patrick,

it's obvious you and I share many views....one of my irritations has just been illustrated on the news.
A Labour politician dared to suggest that people who'd lived in an area their whole lives should get priority for Council Housing.
Keith Vaz and cohorts shot her down, suggesting racism and other such nonsense.
My own daughter has got nowhere with Council Housing, whilst next door to me are assylum seekers in a house that even has a dish washer....I don't own one...I'm the dish washer in my house.
My point is that it means nothing to be English, it's actually a disadvantage.
Whereas the French, Germans, Italians all give priority to their own, then allocate what's left for assylum seekers.
Why is it the rest of Europe look after their own first (without criticism) but we don't?

The more power the likes of Vaz get the more horrible they become.
Whole areas of the country are now considered to be "Muslim areas" where they don't want Pubs or normal butchers shops etc. How long before they demand calls to prayer? Only a matter of time. They'll use church bells as their argument. Do without church bells before allowing calls to prayer.
Keep all superstitious nonsense where it belongs. In the minds of the simpletons.
Funny how they're stopping people smoking but happily allow people to poison the minds of children.
Look what segregated education did for Northern Ireland.
Someone said "Good people do good things. Bad people do bad things. To get good people to do bad things just add religion."

It's time the English woke up. We can't even be English on Govt' forms...you are told to put "British". Whereas Scots can be Scots, Welshmen Welsh etc etc.
Try saying English and they accuse you of racism. Pure nonsense.
I always take people as I find them, regardless of creed or colour. However I don't suffer fools gladly, nor do I like being treated as a fool.
People like Vaz throw names like racist at people in order to get their way. Say something often enough and people believe it.
Doesn't make it true but Vaz knows what works and uses it, as do his cohorts.
It's time Englishmen and women saw such people for exactly what they are....unscrupulous bigots liars and cheats. They want control, not freedom of thought and deed.

Beware of anyone that endorses Theocracies. Just think of Taliban rule. Great example of Theocracy.
Bertrand Russell states that as far as he knows, no religous text anywhere praises intelligence. Quite the reverse, they all demand blind obediance.

Look at America, we follow slavishly every idiotic thing they do.
Harold Wilson kept our generation out of Vietnam.
Blair gets us into Iraq.

Poor old Harold must be turning in his grave.

Oh the Horror.,....the Horror!

If only the young gave a ****.

 

[patrick]

A senior police officer has warned that the proliferation of CCTV cameras risks creating an "Orwellian" society.

Ian Readhead, Deputy Chief Constable of Hampshire Police, said he did not want to live in a country with surveillance on every street corner.

He questioned whether the expansion was justified in areas where there were relatively-low crime levels.

The Hampshire force area includes the small town of Stockbridge, where parish councillors have spent £10,000 installing CCTV.

"I'm really concerned about what happens to the product of these cameras, and what comes next," he told BBC One's Politics Show.

"If it's in our villages, are we really moving towards an Orwellian situation where cameras are at every street corner? And I really don't think that's the kind of country that I want to live in."

Mr Readhead also called for the use of speed cameras to be reviewed, and more consideration of why DNA was kept.

There are an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in the UK - one for every 14 people.

Information Commissioner Richard Thomas has raised concerns about Britain "sleepwalking into a surveillance society", with more cameras on the street and extensive monitoring of consumer behaviour.

 

[Anonymous]

jus a quick add to the info being given patrick.

Patrick--'Tony blair is about to retire and he has five houses, just what the hell does he know or care about my life my hopes, my dreams and all the common people like me?'


i am ukrainian, a cousin of mine came round the other week and told me a fact i found quite astonishing.
' of the 420 Mp's in ukraine 300 are millionaires'
now doesnt that make you wonder where there interests lie?

maxim

 

[patrick]

@maxim, obviously money knows no boundries

Lets face it, IF you were prime minister and IF you really gave a toss about your country then wouldnt you pick the finest brains in the country to work for you and to solve all your problems?

The new labour prime minister will now pick HIS friends from amongst HIS party, that will be there reward for following HIS lead and thats why presscott, reid and various others have already stated they will be standing down. If they did want the best for us, then they would have stood up and declared why thier ideas were still woth following.

Needless to say, the same will happen when and if a tory party takes charge.

 

[patrick]

One of my dreams was to retire abroad, and a while ago I looked up the entry limits for various countries for either retiring or working there.

Canada, you have to promise to learn to speak french due to the large number of french speaking canadians, you will be tested on it and you have to be able to do a job that no canadian can do or wants to do.

usa, three choices, marry a yank, be able to do a job no american can do or wants to do (this is why the beckhams bodyguards have been refused visa's) or "invest" a large amount of money into a wholly american owned company, basically a bribe.

australia, have a certain amount of "living" money, have a certain type of skill, be willing to undergo a strict medical exam to check you dont have certain illnesses including aids etc

britian, be able to swim from france or climb on a lorry

 

[Ozric-Al]

Whoooooaaaaaa there Paddy! What's happening?
This was supposed to be a light hearted look at the world through the eyes of our resident luny. Come on chap, lighten up. This just aint you.
C'mon mate, make us smile.

 

[patrick]

Jeremy Clarkson has got into a little trouble for saying something is a little Ginger Beer on air.

Apparently this has upset Gays.

I would have thought it would have upset the soft drink manufacturer more.

What is this country coming to?

 

[patrick]

If you think this is bad, just wait until I unveil my master peice about the fashion sense of todays youth

 

[Ozric-Al]

lol! C'mon man! Where's the funnies which made you a legend?