The new news 24 thread

[dave21478]

Ten years to the day since I moved here to live full time.

 

Arrived here in 2006 with my entire life packed into the boot of a 406 estate.

Here it is the next morning.

 

[vulgalour]

While it's true that some unemployed people are feckless lumps, it is not true of all.  I've done the whole getting any job to get money in thing and it doesn't pay to do it.  You are, amazingly, better off on benefits than in many low level minimum wage jobs.  Before anyone says it, that's not because benefits are too high either, far from it, on benefits you just about scrape by and if you're careful you can own a car but fat chance of having any sort of normal social life or nice things.  The problem is that wages are too low and have been for some time, wages have not risen in line with the cost of living, hence the Living Wage (which is somewhere around the £7.50-8.00 mark) which allows you to not only get reliably to work to earn your wage but also afford you a decent standard of living.

 

On benefits you do not have a cushy time of it, much as people like to believe this to be so.  Benefits are unpleasant, and the attitudes of those that still believe people on benefits are lazy sponges makes it even more so.  Nobody brags about being on benefits, more often than not people are ASHAMED of it.  People should not feel ashamed to be receiving help from the state (or anywhere else) when they need it, and they should not be made to feel less worthy as a result.

 

I've been on and off of benefits my entire working life.  With a single temporary agency job exception, I have always been better off financially on benefits than I ever have in work.  Socially, you end up stigmatised, marginalised and treated like scum.  So what's the choice?  Have enough money to be warm and fed but treated like crap or have no money at all, be in constant debt but rest assured your fellow human beings consider you to be worth their attention?

 

For those of us at the bottom of the pile life is tough.  You get what you can and make the best of things.  I've got it better than many people, but worse than many others and I only have it as good as I do because I'm self-employed with benefits topping my income up almost to a reasonable level.  To be as well off financially as I am now in work I need a job paying me a bare minimum of £200 per week before taxes so that I can cover all the expenses of travel and the various subsidies I currently receive.  I still wouldn't have a social life, I'd still struggle to make ends meet and I'd be in a job doing something I had no passion for spending my day with people I couldn't stand.

 

Tell you what, those of you that like to complain so much about the druggies and scumbags on benefits being feckless and lazy, how about you go out and find a 30+ year old single guy a job in anything that will deliver £200 per week before tax reliably that isn't a zero hour contract and doesn't involve a minimum 30 mile commute in the north east of england during sociable hours.  I bet you can't do it.

 

The employment market sucks.  Instead of complaining about those that are being trampled on how about you get off your arse and do something about it yourself?  How about you seek answers, help people that ask for help and do something about the system that is treating the very poorest the most unfairly?  If you're not willing to put that effort in then shut the fuck up.

[plasticvandan]

I briefly touched on it earlier,but reason I don't own a car is I can't afford to run one.I earn just under the newly introduced min/living wage of 7.20 an hr,40 hrs a week.

I'm married,and due to Mrs having little one and being a full time carer,she gets some benefits.

After paying rent,utilities,food etc etc I'm left with £140 a month,out of which my fuel,motoring costs,lunch for work etc has to come out of.My last car,the polo,I worked out cost a minimum of £166 a month,that's just tax,insurance,mot and fuel too do 120 miles a week to work and back.so you can see why I sold it.

[Lacquer Peel]

Last time I was at the job centre they suggested I move for better jobs. How the fuck do you move when you have no money?

[Lacquer Peel]

I really do, I'm nearly 24 stone. DEAD SOON.

[captain_70s]

When I was last at the Job Centre they just said "yeah there aren't really any jobs". Super helpful,. They also suggested I could commute to Aberdeen, presumably in the car I'd buy once I'd won the fucking lottery...

 

In other news, bust out the graphics tablet for the first time in yonks today. Drawing shite, naturally.

 

[vulgalour]

Your pictures always genuinely make me smile.

[Pillock]

I couldn't be on benefits.

 

I find that a typical working day involves heading off about 7am, and returning about 6pm. In that time I will probably buy a meal deal somewhere for £3.

On a day off, or one of my days where I can just mooch around as long as I answer the phone, I'll typically have a Starbucks somewhere, have something nicer for lunch, perhaps get a message from my wife asking me to pick something up for the house. Might spend a tenner or more. It's expensive not working. Plus I'll probably drink the night before if I'm not working, so there's more cost. If I was out of work, I'd be drinking 7 days a week and soon be owing money to people who will take kneecaps as part payment.

[Ghosty]

1156 posts,and I don't even own a car!

 

Likewise, and I have over twice as many, almost 2.5k...

[Skizzer]

Non-news: I'm on a train but I'm not going to collect a car. Feels very wrong.

[seth]

I hadn't chopped up any Borgward for such a long time that yesterday I decided that it was about time I did some again.

 

[dollywobbler]

That's not just a quick tickle with a welder sort of a job is it?

[seth]

That's not just a quick tickle with a welder sort of a job is it?

 

Its OK, That's just the spare rear floor I've been having to move every time I've done any work on the Oxford for the last x years.. Didn't want to just cut it up with a grinder as I don't know what I might use from it.  Nothing probably.  And if that's the case I'll probably rent a massive petrol grinder to vent my years of built up frustration of it being in the way.

[stuboy]

forgotten how frustrating it is not been able to drive and rely on others for lifts, or be stuck at home looking at walls, and especially when car needs fixing...grrr

[Matt]

Said goodbye to the silver Swift today. I wonder what'll happen next.

 

[rrsix]

forgotten how frustrating it is not been able to drive and rely on others for lifts, or be stuck at home looking at walls, and especially when car needs fixing...grrr

 

I feel your pain. Had a small op, 2 weeks off work best shite fettling weather we've had in ages, nothing physical  and can't "strain" for 6 weeks Now have added bonus of a sinus infection so can't see too well either.

[andrew e]

As I've been away and missed the Bub&Chompy shiteathon, I felt guilty so clicked the yellow autoshite PayPal button instead. Guilt eased!

[plasticvandan]

MZ Is in for its mot tomorrow.Damn capitalists and their rules! cant even get premix out of the pumps here!

[Cavcraft]

306 has refused to start for a bit so hasn't been used. I got one of those fancy new jump starters but they cut out after one minute and it takes forever to fire the Peugeot in the cold.
Anyhow, charged the battery up and after a couple of minutes of arsing about it fired up and smoked out most of Cheshire.
Ran it to the garage and put £7's worth of fancy (105ppl) petrol in, thrashing it there and back. Seems ok now, the tickover isn't lumpy and it's pulling much cleaner, so hopefully the 1/2 tank of veg already in it has thinned out enough now. Acid test will be in the morning if it's cold again.

[vulgalour]

Yay, my Ferguson hifi arrived!  But like the cars I buy, it's seen better days.  Noisy transformer and a stretched belt on the record deck.  Thankfully, also like my car these are cheap and easy items to resolve because it's old enough electrics to be servicable.

[stuboy]

Bored out of my effing brain... gfs sister has a clio, and intermittant starting problem, green flag were called out and green ant said most likely the corroded earth plug to solinoid starter motor, he said wiggle it and itll start.. well yes it was still intermitent, so she took it too a local garage who said was crankshaft sensor, so she paid £93 to supply and fit it, well 2 days later not starting again.. she said the garage we told wat green ant man said and poo pood it. So i got my missus to grab my tools and take me to manky clio... the plug wasnt an earth seem low tension on solonoid.. so i chopped. It off and replaced and shined up the connector.. so fingers crossed its sorted it..wernt easy leaning sans crutches

[dieselassist]

RRRRAAAARRR!!!.... discovered today my ex-farmer 2nd hand Disco steering box, is confirmed as a leaker;BALLZZ!!

 

... faffed about Saturday, on my back fitting n bled it up, after cheaning all the old p/s fluid off the chassis, n cow shit off the body of the box - took it for a test run/beer shop that evening; no leaks; yesterday; after a short afternoon run- all good no 'rainbow puddles underneath ' indicating a leak (pissing down rain yesterday)... so naturally enough it chose this morning; a Monday morning to start leaking like a feckin fountain from the input/top seal...

 

Had the old steering box in the back, so at lunctime, with 'very angry face' drilled a hole in its seal n pulled it out, n made my way to the engineerin place to get a seal; it'll be in, in the morning...

 

...about the only upside is, it isn't leaking from the bottom output shaft; meaning I don't have to hammer/hydraulic puller or whatever, off the pittman arm... old one was a leaker bottom n top....

[320touring]

BOLL TO TEH LAGUNALINE PLZTHNKSBYE

[anonymous user]

I hadn't chopped up any Borgward for such a long time that yesterday I decided that it was about time I did some again.

 

What you're really doing, but don't want to admit, is cutting it up into small enough pieces so that you can post all the bits to another location to save sending a whole car via shiply because it will be too expensive.

[Cleon-Fonte]

Laguna Expression? Surely 'Explosion' would be more apt?

[brickwall]

During routine maintenance I noticed the swivel ball wiper seal are pretty much shot. Weeping has now become  a slow dribble.

Time to order parts.

[twosmoke300]

Thicker grease in swivels reqd

[anonymous user]

During routine maintenance I noticed the swivel ball wiper seal are pretty much shot. Weeping has now become  a slow dribble.

Time to order parts.

another one for the double entendré thread

[anonymous user]

News 24 hours and 48 hours out of date. On Saturday I discovered I am now officially too fat and crippled to get out of the driver's seat of a Morgan, with the hood up. On Sunday I found that it is impossible to find anywhere local that would do a nice cooked breakfast "because it's mother's day lunch".

I did, however, manage to get one of the sliding rear cab windows on the Land Rover to slide, not the one I wanted to, but you can't have everything. This meant I could slide timber through into the cab, unfortunately the truck cab now stinks of Pledge as I used this to free up the runners.

[holbeck]

I seem to have bought an unplanned car.

 

Anyone want to buy an Audi 80?