Monuments to Stupidity

[mathare]

and who can forget that the national team are De Facto World Champions.

But Turkey are current Unofficial Football World Championship title holders (competition started in 1967), and also holders of Nasazzi's Baton, the equivalent championship traced from the first world cup won by Uruguay.

Admittedly Scotland top the rankings for UFWC matches as champions, days as champion and title matches won but they lost their title in March of this year.

[Win2Win]

They were charging me £15.99 for a 4.8kg turkey in Morrisons last week....after I argued they had them priced up wrong (should be £13.99), she let me have it 1/2 price......

[Onlyforfun]

57- The false debate about whether Rugby is better than Football framed in terms of "graciousness in defeat", "attitude of supporters", "violence" etc.

Sorry, but there can only be 1 winner - football. Let's face it, the potential for artistry is unlimited in football whereas rugby is an unnatural game where the ball cannot be passed forwards. During the rugby world cup I can't remember being wowed by any exhilirating rugby except in the hugely 1-sided matches. The drama of Englands progression was all in the closeness of the scores, certainly not in the way they played.

In addition, Rugby is the sport least likely to produce surprise victories. In football Brazil or Real Madrid can have a bad day and draw with or even lose to a minnow that for 1 night only play above themselves due to the high currency of a goal. Compare with rugby where the scoring zone is 50 yards wide (even then England usually fail to cross it).

And scrums? Who could come up with a worse way of getting teh ball back in play, where the most basic rules are routinely flouted.

But to the killer fact, what rugby moment could ever surpass the creative genius of Brazils goal in the 1970 World Cup final, certainly no rugby WC final has produced such a display.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hrje...rlos%20alberto

As for the rubbish about better behaved fans, give me a break, just because they don't fight each other (not a lot of that at football matches these days either) doesn't mean they are well-behaved. I've seen more fights in Cardiff or Edinburgh after a 6 nations match than after any Old Firm derby of recent years.

Anyway, I like the animosity of football, it gives the sport a proper edge, after all, if you don't hate the other side, what is the point of beating them?

[Onlyforfun]

58- What ever happened to "Citizens Juries". What were they, what were they for, who was on them, what would they debate? Nobody seems to know, but the 5 so far have cost an aggregate £520,000 +!!!

[Win2Win]

We don't get paid for having a mass debate on here........

[Onlyforfun]

I gave up reading the papers for a while except financials and sport, but the radio got me this morning:

60 - Gordon Brown says thatif the drinks industry don't take steps to cut under age binge drinking he will. Good luck Gordo!

61- Further to HMRC's loss of everyones personal details (including the names and ages and addresses of all children), I received 2 letters from them yesterday. Letter number 1 informed me that I don't need to fill out a tax return this year, letter 2 telling me that I do! There was also an unpaid A4 envelope that is almost certainly the paper tax return, buggered if I'm paying £1.24 for that!

[Win2Win]

60.a - Same number of kids drink underage today as in my days back in the early 80's (research by myself with many kids I know). Just that Labour have the figures, Tories couldn't be bothered keeping any.

61.a - Tight :D

[Onlyforfun]

62 - How amusing it was to watch Brown squirm yesterday over the funding row. Usually he disappears in a crisis. He must be cursing Blairs decision to have these press conferences.

I'm amazed how he is even making Major's Government look competent in comparison.

PMQ's should be fun today.

Same number of kids drink underage today as in my days back in the early 80's (research by myself with many kids I know). Just that Labour have the figures, Tories couldn't be bothered keeping any.

What's that got to do with anything. Whats the point of keeping score on underage drinking as by your own admission, it has always gone on, and always will. I await with eagerness the Great Puritan's detailed plans to reverse tens of thousands of years of human nature. After all, he failed miserably with gold, believing, like many who should know better (Niall Ferguson springs to mind), that it was merely a "barbarous relic". What vanity allows these people to believe they can overturn the entire previous human experience?

[Win2Win]

[Onlyforfun]

63 - Got the grovelling letter from HMRC apologising for losing our details today...

...In an envelope heavily marked HMRC, containing name, address, child benefit number and NI number. Should just have put a label on it saying "all you need to steal an ID inside". :splapme

[samantha1303]

Looking at the last couple of days -
Football is far superior to rugby, always has been always will be.
Under age drinking, well it has always happened and always will, and the upper classes are the main culprits, just ask Harry

[Win2Win]

...In an envelope heavily marked HMRC, containing name, address, child benefit number and NI number. Should just have put a label on it saying "all you need to steal an ID inside". :splapme

I've been getting them, letters from the MOD marked MOD, and from the benefits office, again clearly marked, since the 80's containing the same info.....so must have been the Tories that started that culture then. I can copy the envelopes if you wish for proof, still have them. :)

[Onlyforfun]

64- You've got to love this one. In the old days when you reached 100 year s old the Queen sent you a telegram to say congratulations. Not a big deal, something like 100,000 in her reign.

But now?

First, someone has to write to Buck Palace requesting a card. Then the Palace have to fill out forms and send them to the Dept of Work and Pensions who then send someone round to check the persons birth certificate and ask them if they want to receive a card. This is so that they don't waste money sending a card (say £1.50 inc. p&p)!

What a farce and they have the cheek to bang on about "efficiency".

Brown

[Win2Win]

Thank God we have the Tories who gave us wonders like the Poll Tax

[Jonny2621]

Thank God we have the Tories who gave us wonders like the Poll Tax

I liked that, saved me a fortune at the time as I lived alone in a high rated area

The family next door with 3 adults, two of them earning a wage and 4 teenagers, all of whom left 12 bags of rubbish out compared to my one every week, had 5 cars, as well as 4 kids at local schools using local buses and amenities, had to pay a few quid more

Seemed fair enough to me

[Onlyforfun]

Has there ever been perfect Government, and after 10 years+ it is about time the current lot stopped blaming anything that is going wrong on the previos lot.

[Win2Win]

...and it's about time everyone stopped blaming the goverment for everything as well and took some responsibility themselves.

[Jonny2621]

...and it's about time everyone stopped blaming the goverment for everything as well and took some responsibility themselves.

I didn't invade Iraq, make a pigs ear of it by cow towing to the Americans and bring Islamic terrorism to the streets of Britain
I didn't spend many billions that the country couldn't afford, thus racking up a massive national debt that we can't sustain going forward
I didn't keep increasing personal taxes, most by stealth, depending solely on rising house prices to keep money in people's pockets until we get to the brink of recession
I didn't allow hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to enter the country and some of them to even get cleared for security jobs
I didn't see years ago that prisons were getting full but didn't bother to build any more
I didn't allow hundreds of foreign criminals back onto the streets instead of deporting them
I didn't 'lose' the private details of millions of citizens by just bunging them in the post
I didn't shut hundreds of local police stations and then look bemused when communities are ravaged by youth crime and anti-social behaviour

I don't think I am to blame for these things. What responsibility are we supposed to take ? If it isn't the government who we blame for the things they have done is there a mischevious group of GOBLINS that I don't know about ??? :splapme

[Win2Win]

House being flooded is NOT the governments fault. If you buy a home it is up to the buyer to check for water problems.
The people also had 24hrs notice & ignored, yet some parts of the media are blaming the government for not enough notice!!!
Uninsured during floods, fire, etc, also the governments fault by some parts of the media, so they gave in and have been paying the uninsured to help them, sod all to those who paid the policy.
Repossessions are not the governments fault, that is between the lender & the buyer.
Loss of data, happened during the Tory years as it is the same civil servants who run the places, who haven't changed the way they do things since the dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
Hospital problems......That is the hospital managers fault, not the governments, the majority of hospitals are in profit.
Illegal immigrants working in security. When was the last terrorist attack in this country by an illegal immigrant? Erm How many British/European citizens have been involved in terrorist acts? 1000's
The illegal immigrant was at least working and paying his taxes, unless the smackhead bums who live here.
...shall I go on....:)

[Jonny2621]

I don't think you addressed the specific points I made; the cockups I listed are all the work of the Government, this Government, like most of them, regardless of their political leaning, it is filled with useless politicians who have never worked in the real world just in think-tanks (a misnomer if ever there was one), unions or the Labour Party

The institutions that have failed, the Child Support Agency, the Inland Revenue, Customs and Excise and many more are set up and managed by the government. If they don't work properly it is the government that fails to run them properly not Joe Public, sorry

Dont you just love politics ? :D

[Win2Win]

Who said I was addressing your points?
I made a comment, you gave your suggestions on your side, I never said if I agreed or not, I made my own suggestions about the government being blamed for things they are not responsible for.

Kid gets stabbed. Dies. Schools fault....which is run by local authority...which makes it the governments fault.....nothing to do with the parents then?

It is getting like America, every single subject turns into politics.

Remeber when I was in Nevada just after the shootings in that Uni, and at the memorial serive some 18 year old giving a talk about how wonderful the dead people where....then turned it into a political speech :splapme For God's sake love....get out...get p1ssed....take drugs...have sex....HAVE A LIFE!!!

Watch Fox News & enjoy :D

[Win2Win]

The institutions that have failed, the Child Support Agency, the Inland Revenue, Customs and Excise and many more are set up and managed by the government. If they don't work properly it is the government that fails to run them properly not Joe Public, sorry

Oh....and it's the civil cervants, etc that RUN those....not the government.....see what I mean?

[presto]

i just found out today that a mate of mine is getting deported on 27th december.

he is a kosovan albanian - who came here when the war broke out and his parents were arrested (and village burnt down) not to mention a lot of killings.

he came here as a kid and went into foster care, and basically grew up here. got a job, paid for uni education, rents a huse etc....

because he has been here so long he is allowed citizenship, he applyed and got it year's ago. up untill then he had a long term visa or something and had a NI card.

though for some reason a few month's back - the home office people came to his place of work and said that he wasn't allowed to work. and had to claim benefits.

apparently there was a 'glitch' which nobody knows what in his citizenship / passport application and he is being deported.

[Jonny2621]

Oh....and it's the civil cervants, etc that RUN those....not the government.....see what I mean?

No, if my business fails, its my fault as I set the objectives and operational guidelines and employ the staff. I cant see every bit of paper but if we go tits up its my fault, period

Im going now :D

[Jonny2621]

i just found out today that a mate of mine is getting deported on 27th december.

he is a kosovan albanian - who came here when the war broke out and his parents were arrested (and village burnt down) not to mention a lot of killings.

he came here as a kid and went into foster care, and basically grew up here. got a job, paid for uni education, rents a huse etc....

because he has been here so long he is allowed citizenship, he applyed and got it year's ago. up untill then he had a long term visa or something and had a NI card.

though for some reason a few month's back - the home office people came to his place of work and said that he wasn't allowed to work. and had to claim benefits.

apparently there was a 'glitch' which nobody knows what in his citizenship / passport application and he is being deported.

Sounds just like a govt department, let thousands of feckless illegal immigrants in, including a few terrorists for good measure, but deport a hard working individual who was a genuine refugee but got off his backside to make something of himself

Welcome to Britain 2007

Oh....I was going wasn't I ? :D

[tophatter]

Telegrams are so yesterday!

I want her/his majesty to send me one of those funny email cards when I reach 100. :)

[Win2Win]

...and yet if we don't deport illegal immigrants....the government gets the blame for them being here....they deport them.....and they get the blame Lose - Lose situation.

How come italy can put them on a coach & chuck them out the country the same day?

Mind you, at least we deport them in the plane loads these days, under the Tories they hardly threw anyone back out.

[Win2Win]

No, if my business fails, its my fault as I set the objectives and operational guidelines and employ the staff. I cant see every bit of paper but if we go tits up its my fault, period

Im going now :D

But things like the DHS, etc, are RUN by management, not the GOVERNMENT, and if they fail it is the MANAGERS fault.

[Onlyforfun]

But things like the DHS, etc, are RUN by management, not the GOVERNMENT, and if they fail it is the MANAGERS fault.

The person at the top of an organisation ultimately has responsibility for what happens within it.

The specific problem with this Government (and I in no way am saying that previous govts have not had faults) is that it is big into micro-management of schools, hospitals, local authorities, charities, business, not to mention how much we drink, smoke, drive and eat etc etc etc.

If they introduce rule after target after key-stage after policy without any thought to implementation or even making them remotely understandable by anyone not versed in New Speak, then they have to take responsibility for the cock-ups.

Personally, I am all for more personal freedom and responsibility. In particular, if I want to pay for private healthcare and education for my children it should be tax deductable.

Reliance on a "free" NHS encourages unhealthy behaviour and prevents meaningful improvement in services.

If I want my kids to be taught English, maths and sciences at school I should be free to shop around for a school that teaches them rather than put up with the 1 size fits all media studies agenda.

Ludicrously, there is to be an official curriculum for nursery schools for under 5's starting Sept 08. So I want to send my kids to a Montessori pre-school that I pay for and now HMG is telling me that they will damn well learn what the Govt wants them to learn. So I will let the Govt pay for it from January.

If you want to see a truly scary website that is typical of the bull this lot are getting up to look no further than:

http://www.everychildmatters.gov.uk/

I challenge you to find any practical information on how "multi-agency targetted signposting" will help children "enjoy and achieve, make a positive contribution and achieve economic well-being"

If they want me to calculate my own taxes then I should get a tax break, say £100 rather than a £200 fine for not filling out a self-assessment form for 2003 when they never sent me anything to tell me they wanted me to!

[Win2Win]

The person at the top of an organisation ultimately has responsibility for what happens within it.

So as the government allow me to run a business in there country, under there laws, in there tax system, Mr Brown is responsible if I go bust or lose data? NOPE!! I am. Same as the MANGERS of the hospitals are responsible for any problems within that specific hospital, not Mr Fliipin Brown. :splapme

You're all turning into Yanks