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Off Topic News & Current affairs (merged)

Discussion in 'Charlton' started by ForestHillBilly, Feb 6, 2020.

  1. The Penguin

    The Penguin Well-Known Member

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    I can't remember a time when the country wasn't going to the dogs. It's some thing I used to enjoy until they closed Catford Dog track, which was 10 minutes walk from home.
     
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  2. Ken Shabby

    Ken Shabby Well-Known Member

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    To be honest, it's been a description of the UK going way back when - a quick look at Fawlty Towers will let you hear Major saying it. Having said that, the last sixteen months have been dreadful - there's been little to cheer everyone up for a long time. While my view from afar is that the UK is getting worse, a lot of that might well be the boredom of lockdown and not being able to visit - trust me, when you've been away for a year or two, sitting in a pub in South London with your mates and then catching the train to the Valley is a great feeling. You guys are now like me and been unable to do it, but with a bit of luck (and a compulsory vaccine law for all :biggrin:) maybe we can look forward to a full Valley and a decent squad, and some good football to cheer us up. Sometimes, it's just perspective that gets us all down.
     
    #1302
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  3. The Penguin

    The Penguin Well-Known Member

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    Politically there's plenty wrong, but if you can put that to one side, Britain has many wonderful assets. The wide variety of music we produce, the natural beauty (The Scilly Isles for one. where I'm off to next week), warm beer, Kent. The trick is to avoid the assholes.
     
    #1303
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  4. Smudger603

    Smudger603 Well-Known Member

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    Unfortunately it’s the assholes that run the country <laugh>
     
    #1304
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  5. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    We never really recovered from the Credit Crunch, and we had 12 years to get over that before COVID19 came along.

    I'm absolutely convinced there will be another pandemic within 5 to 8 years.
    Next time around we need to stop pussying around and CLOSE OUR BORDERS before it gets here.

    But we won't.
    Our worthless politicians are unfit to lead us.
    My faith in democracy isn't what it once was.
     
    #1305
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  6. Ken Shabby

    Ken Shabby Well-Known Member

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    Just to follow up the Penguin, the UK has miles of fantastic scenery. Kent is till a marvellous place to walk in the country, or along the coast, and after a trip to Suffolf a couple of years back, I'm itching to return. The Malvern hills are a paradise, especially on a foggy day, and the Lake District is wonderfull, especially if you like crowds and bottle necks <laugh>. I lived in Newcastle for a few years and the road to Edinburgh through the Borders was a fantastic experience.
    Man, I want a holiday in the UK.
     
    #1306
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  7. The Penguin

    The Penguin Well-Known Member

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    I've also had walking holidays with HF Holidays in the Yorkshire Dales, Lulworth Cove and the Shropshire Hills, and hope to do the Peak District soon. (Also Morocco and Malta). But The Outer Hebridean island of Harris is the most beautiful place in the world. Photographs of the beaches were used to advertise holidays inBarbados before they got caught. The light is something else, the water looks turquoise, even on a cloudy day.
     
    #1307
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  8. Ken Shabby

    Ken Shabby Well-Known Member

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    I've got a mate who is there this week, and he's been flooding facebook with the most incredible photos. The hills have a rugged look that speaks of Northern Europe rather than Barbados, but the beaches look fantastic.

    Bet the water is a bit nippy though.
     
    #1308
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  9. The Penguin

    The Penguin Well-Known Member

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    We hired a car for a week there. They left it in the car park with the keys in it, and I did the same when we'd finished with it. None of this business of going round with a fine tooth-comb trying to rip you off for a tiny scratch. It really is a stunning place. Arran is another favourite, a sort of Highlands in miniature.
    BTW, you'll be happy to know that we've got toads in the wildlife pond for the first time, although it looks like the newts may have eaten the toadspawn.<sorry>
     
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  10. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    An explosion of knife crime in the last few days, including two men having a machete fight in full daylight in Greenwich Park.
    Totally disgusting.

    It tempts me to say the Police should be armed.
    Men running around in public parks (or any other public place) waving machetes should be put down.

    The cause (so it's being said) is at least partly the warm weather.
    Sadly, gangsters and maniacs like a sunny day as much as anyone else.
     
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  11. ForestHillBilly

    ForestHillBilly Well-Known Member

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    The Government doesn't give a toss about the fishermen, or the farmers, or the nurses, and now they don't give a toss about kids education.
     
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  12. The Penguin

    The Penguin Well-Known Member

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    .............and yet again a set of opinion polls shows an increase in their popularity. We really do get the politicians we deserve.
     
    #1312
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  13. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    Another charmer about to be released into society...

    (caution - only click link if you're not easily offended)
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-57384393

    And of course he'll need a new identity, job, house, unlimited protection etc. etc.
    A million quid should cover it, at least for a few years.
    Who says crime doesn't pay?

    Anybody feel like chipping in? Don't worry, you already have, through the tax you pay.
    The same tax that paid for his comfy accommodation for the last 35 years.
    I've been paying for this guy all my working life.

    If this person was really a reformed character, guilt at what he's done would drive him to suicide.
    Instead he's going to be free soon, sentence served and debt to society paid according to the Justice system.
    Free to murder some more people if he feels like it.
     
    #1313
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  14. Ubedizzy

    Ubedizzy Well-Known Member

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    Makes you fuc*ing sick doesn't it. This cu*t should have been tortured to death years ago. I hate to think how the relatives and friends of his victims must be feeling at this news.
     
    #1314
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  15. Ken Shabby

    Ken Shabby Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I have two daughters so imagine this vermin coming out after murdering one. Not one for a death penalty or torturing people to death, but this guy should stay inside until his funeral. The safety of the public comes first.
     
    #1315
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  16. Ubedizzy

    Ubedizzy Well-Known Member

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    Still, at least there was some good news today. The Speaker has prevented the out of touch, pious group of MP's from reversing the governments decision to cut the foreign dictators fund, sorry I mean overseas aid budget from 0.7% to 0.5% of national income. Good on him.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57389289

    Still, no doubt this undemocratic, cloud-cuckoo-land bunch will find a way round it and be able to appeal or use the courts to try to thwart the undoubted will of the people. Where have we seen that recently I wonder ?

    Only another 0.5% to cut and we'll be where we should be......................
     
    #1316
    Last edited: Jun 7, 2021
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  17. Ubedizzy

    Ubedizzy Well-Known Member

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    Very noble and civilised Shabby. Personally if they're ever short of an executioner I'll happily fill in.

    And I don't even get why its a decision based on his risk to the public now. That's irrelevant. There needs to be a punishment for what he's done not what he might do in the future. That gets far too difficult and dangerous to try to predict. He's raped and killed two young girls. That's it, their lives have gone, they ain't coming back. I'm afraid life in prison with all the comfort that brings is far too good for him.
     
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  18. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    I think it would help if there was a 'standard' level of aid (as a proportion of GDP) agreed by the UN or the G20 maybe.

    I hear that 0.7% is pretty high by International standards.
    So any other country thinking of criticising us had better not be throwing their stones from glass houses.

    Nobody wants to see children starving to death or unable to drink clean water, or go to school, or get basic medicines.
    But money alone is not the answer.
    And let's see a full and open disclosure of how much of that money (£billions) does end up buying tanks or guns or going into Swiss bank accounts.
    If nothing else, that should lead to the aid programme being cleaned up and made more effective.
    Then it would have more popularity and credibility with the taxpayers who fund it.
     
    #1318
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  19. Ubedizzy

    Ubedizzy Well-Known Member

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    Agree Lardi, but it will never happen. We already have international commitments for example for defence spending, but other countries just ignore them and rely on the likes of us and the US to spend our taxpayers money instead. We foolishly just carry on paying. It's the same with foreign aid and as for publishing accurate lists of exactly where our money is being spent - now I know you are really 'aving a laugh.
     
    #1319
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  20. lardiman

    lardiman The truth is out there
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    On the subject of these England cricketers being suspended because of racist (or otherwise offensive) social media messages in the past;

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/57393217

    In the case of the first guy, I understand that the messages he posted as an 18/19 year old are not just mildly offensive.
    They have been descibed as 'vile'.
    So I assume they are pretty out of order.

    If that is true, then I agree with him being suspended pending further investigations.
    I thought his televised apology was pretty insincere.
    He read a prepared statement. Didn't look like it came from the heart. More like he was sorry for himself that he's been caught.
    What was he afraid of - saying something off the cuff that might land him in more trouble?

    Internet trolls spouting disgusting abuse are supposedly Public Enemy No. 1 right now.
    But when we identify one, is it really OK that he just says "sorry, I was an idiot" and all's forgiven?

    The message must be sent - if you post abuse of this nature when you're young, you'll have to own it at some point later.
    It will catch up with you and you'll suffer consequences of your own moronic behaviour.


    Saying sorry isn't going to get you off the hook.
     
    #1320

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