The grumpy thread

[Tayne]

.

[eddyramrod]

RIP Norman Wisdom. Even well into his 80's he drove a Nissan 200sx.

 

+1: RIP Sir Norman.

[ashmicro]

+1 more. What a great chap.

[Cavcraft]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11473192

 

+3.

 

Very funny bloke, loved his films. What a shame he passed away.

[Station]

RIP Norman Wisdom. Even well into his 80's he drove a Nissan 200sx.

 

Is that true?! Can't imagine him going sideways round a roundabout, with 20" pink alloys and unpainted, white fibre glass bumpers. While screaming 'Mr Grimsdale'.

[whitevanman]

Ihe balloted the workforce directly and on both occatsions the results went his way rather than the union's way. The workforce knew which was the 'right' way to vote. The problem was not the workers being able to join a union - just gobshites in the union rep positions.

 

I think that says it better than I managed

[Station]

Has anyone seen BBC News about the child benefit being cut. Some daft old bint, explaining to why her middle class family needs child benefit:

 

"We shop at Primark, we still have OLD CARS."

 

CarS! And OLD! They're probably about five years flipping old!! FFS, carSSSSSSS!

[Quintus]

Ultimately unions are a good thing, because without them it's likely that all manner of employers would try and shaft people left, right and centre.

 

They key thing is what they're like on a local level and unfortunately I haven't been too impressed by the reps where I work, to the point where I've questioned why I'm a member. I wrote to my local rep last year with an issue (the only time I ever have) and felt their response was rather dismissive, so then wrote to the union head office in an attempt to take things further/get a second opinion. A few weeks pass and I receive a reply from the local rep saying 'so-and-so at head office has received your letter and will respond soon'. This was almost exactly one year ago and I've never received a response.

 

RIP Norman Wisdom. Apart from the last few years or so he remained remarkably sprightly for his age. There'll be a lot of very sad fans in Albania.

[pogweasel]

The child benefit thing is a bit piss-boiling and totally arse-about face.

2 parents each earning £43,999 a year, full benefits.

1 parent looking after offspring, 1 parent working earning £44,000 a year, you can jog on, you're getting nothing.

I think my 'bonus' next year will be quite carefully calculated to take account of this bastarding twattery.

[Marshall]

RIP Norman Wisdom. I wasnt aware he had died.

 

Regards Unions - Im sure they are a good idea in principle and when they work.

I too have poor experience of them but I guess it depends on what type of industry you work in really.

 

When I worked for a call centre one of the Union reps was the most interfering, work shy and genuinely semi-literate people I have ever met.

One day she was doing her 'hour off the phone for union work' ( ) when she turned to me and, without a word of a lie, said: "Eh,eh - Ow do ya spell disciplinary?"

It was straight out of League of Gentlemen! Brightened my day though!

 

Im sure some do great work in their given fields but it depends on the calibre of the selected few and where I worked Im afraid the general calibre wasnt that high to start with.

[ashmicro]

The Child Benefit (and related benefits) issue needs to be sorted. Some Belfast slapper was on tv at teatime whining" I can't look after my waynes (children) if they cut Child Baaaannefit or Income Support" For one, if you're on IS, you're hardly going to be on £44k are you? She was worried about what may be to come.

 

Keep your legs closed you feckless whore. I don't have any kids because until now I was not in a position to have given a child a good life, supported by me and whoever my significant other may be.

 

I OBJECT to paying for the mistakes of fucking [literally] chavs.

 

I have served my country, in The Queen's Uniform.

 

I have served my community in a Police Uniform.

 

Over to you, wasters. The gravy train has left, and it is not coming back.

[Rocket88]

As the greatest drain on the earth's resources is people, I don't know why they just don't take the bull by the horns, and stipulate that you only get child benefit for your first two offspring.

[dieselnutjob]

It's not about "wasters" and handouts. I don't think anyone who is a high rate tax payer is likely to be a waster.

I admit it, I'm quite well off. But here's the thing.

Last year I paid something like 18 grand in tax.

I am supporting a wife who's health isn't great and three children.

I live in London so I have to pay a London mortgage and all the other expense that goes with living in London.

I work hard and have to spend another 3 hours a day commuting.

Why do I have to pay 18 grand when I am already supporting five people on one income?

I accept that taxes have to be paid, but am I really the right person to carry this load when the guy at the desk next to me only has to support himself and will now pay the same tax?

Why do other people get to be totally supported by the state whilst four of the five people in my house have no income and get nothing?

Are these people under my roof and what they do so utterly worthless to society?

If I loose my job or get ill what will the state do for me? Nothing until I get repossessed and evicted.

Child benefit and married man's allowance before that were not a handout, they were a tax reduction.

Now I just feel that I am being royally shafted by the state.

And I feel that I am the only one being shafted (okay and another million similar families).

I wouldn't mind if it was the same for everyone, but it isn't and it isn't fair.

If you live in London on one income £44k is nothing. It really, really is not a high income for a family. These are not the people with "broad shoulders" as Cameron put it this morning.

[M'coli]

Why do I have to pay 18 grand when I am already supporting five people on one income?

Who else is going to pay it?

I accept that taxes have to be paid, but am I really the right person to carry this load when the guy at the desk next to me only has to support himself and will now pay the same tax?

What's the problem with one person on a single income earning the same salary and paying the same tax as someone with a family?

[dieselnutjob]

when you are old would you rather have my kids run the country or a Sharia state?

[Mr H Sceptre]

^ I'd like James May to run the country.

[M'coli]

when you are old would you rather have my kids run the country or a Sharia state?

Neither...

[dieselnutjob]

who's gonna do it then?

[M'coli]

Corporations, big business and vested interests. Plus ça change, plus ç'est la même chose.

 

I still don't understand the frustration that people with families express towards those who are single.

[dieselnutjob]

I have no frustration with single people.

I have frustration with paying such a lot of tax to support other people when I am already supporting five.

[whitevanman]

/\ Sorry but to me the difference between you and the guy on the next desk paying the same tax as you is very simple. you chose to get married and have children, he has not (yet), I do feel for you as I had the exact same scenario a few years ago, but I chose the lifestyle I had and where I lived.I therfor have to pay the price that goes with the choice...personally I'd just have Child benifit for the first child and nothing after that.

[M'coli]

No problems, dieselnutjob. We know there are scroungers, tax dodgers, tax avoiders (legally tax avoiding) and dole cheats etc that we all end up paying for, but who should pay for the services that we ourselves use? The free healthcare, the free schooling for the next generation, stuff like that? Should it not be us, the ones who use it? Or should it be someone else?

 

What annoys me is the media reporting of middle-class people who ask the plaintive question "We're hard working parents earning a good wage and trying to provide for our offspring - why should WE have to pay? Why are we being penalised for working hard?" Well, who else is going to pay for it? Anyone but them, that's the answer their looking for. I suppose it doesn't help that the people interviewed are quite possibly in the same financial circumstances or social groups of the researchers for the programmes conducting the interviews.

 

As whitevanman has implicated, those who have chosen to get married and have children have to take responsibility for their own actions in doing so.

[Tayne]

.

[dieselnutjob]

I don't agree.

The tax that I pay myself more than covers the services that my family uses. Especially when you factor in fuel duty, VAT and council tax.

As Cameron said this morning higher earners have to have broad shoulders. Things is my shoulders already have a wife and three kids on them.

[dollywobbler]

There's going to be pain. Fact. Easy credit has battered Joe Public and also the government. We're in a right bloody mess and it's going to hurt to get out of it.

 

I'm actually quite surprised, because taking from the better off to help the not very well off isn't really a Tory policy at all.

 

I don't ever look at the taxes I pay and think "am I getting value for money for what I actually use?" I've never visited a hospital for a treatment (as an adult), I don't receive any benefits or tax relief, I've never visited the Millennium Tent - all things I've paid for.

[M'coli]

I don't agree.

The tax that I pay myself more than covers the services that my family uses. Especially when you factor in fuel duty, VAT and council tax.

As Cameron said this morning higher earners have to have broad shoulders. Things is my shoulders already have a wife and three kids on them.

So are you saying that you should pay less tax than the single guy next to you, despite the fact that the services he uses will proportionately cost about 1/5th of what your family uses?

[trigger]

I just had a phone call from some indian lady calling from BT, She rings me up telling me that there's a problem with my computer and I'm to go on it and look my error list.

 

So i turn it on, wait for it to load up, then i had to type in some eventsv code or something into the RUN bar and read through my system log errors, She said I've download some bad files that's causing my computer to run slow and I need to buy some special card of them for £79 that will fix all this?!.

 

She seems to know all my details and even how old my computer is, I'm a bit pissed off really, That must mean that BT know everything that i visit and do on my computer, I told her to piss off in the end and she wouldn't take no as an answer, I bet she sends me a virus that kills my computer now.

 

Anyone else ever had a call like this before?, I'm tempted to just fuck off BT now and just go to Virgin like i was going too.

[wuvvum]

I don't agree.

The tax that I pay myself more than covers the services that my family uses. Especially when you factor in fuel duty, VAT and council tax.

As Cameron said this morning higher earners have to have broad shoulders. Things is my shoulders already have a wife and three kids on them.

So are you saying that you should pay less tax than the single guy next to you, despite the fact that the services he uses will proportionately cost about 1/5th of what your family uses?

 

A lot less than 1/5 I would reckon. Kids' education is by far and away more expensive than any services an adult is likely to use (unless that adult has a serious illness). As a single bloke, the only services I make use of are street lighting and bin collection - and those are paid for out of my council tax - and the roads, which are supposedly paid for by car tax. I get absolutely nothing concrete for the income tax I pay - I haven't been to a doctor or a hospital since 1998, and I get no benefits or allowances of any kind. But that's just the way it is. I don't sit there grumbling to myself about how I'm paying more than my fair share because there's no point.

[Cavcraft]

No problems, dieselnutjob. We know there are scroungers, tax dodgers, tax avoiders (legally tax avoiding) and dole cheats etc that we all end up paying for, but who should pay for the services that we ourselves use? The free healthcare, the free schooling for the next generation, stuff like that? Should it not be us, the ones who use it? Or should it be someone else?

 

What annoys me is the media reporting of middle-class people who ask the plaintive question "We're hard working parents earning a good wage and trying to provide for our offspring - why should WE have to pay? Why are we being penalised for working hard?" Well, who else is going to pay for it? Anyone but them, that's the answer their looking for. I suppose it doesn't help that the people interviewed are quite possibly in the same financial circumstances or social groups of the researchers for the programmes conducting the interviews.

 

As whitevanman has implicated, those who have chosen to get married and have children have to take responsibility for their own actions in doing so.

/\

 

What he said.

We struggle on our joint income but I wouldn't ever accept someone who is single with no kids paying more (or less) tax. You have kids you are there to look after them emotionally and financially for as long as you're alive imho.

We have two kids, it's our job to provide for them and we aren't complaining about single people paying the same amount of tax.

In fact, bloody good luck to them, their lifestyle, their choice.

[retrogeezer]

I just had a phone call from some indian lady calling from BT, She rings me up telling me that there's a problem with my computer and I'm to go on it and look my error list.

 

So i turn it on, wait for it to load up, then i had to type in some eventsv code or something into the RUN bar and read through my system log errors, She said I've download some bad files that's causing my computer to run slow and I need to buy some special card of them for £79 that will fix all this?!.

 

She seems to know all my details and even how old my computer is, I'm a bit pissed off really, That must mean that BT know everything that i visit and do on my computer, I told her to piss off in the end and she wouldn't take no as an answer, I bet she sends me a virus that kills my computer now.

 

Anyone else ever had a call like this before?, I'm tempted to just fuck off BT now and just go to Virgin like i was going too.

 

 

sounds like another scam to me...are you sure she was from BT?? I mean, I could just randomly ring you and say I was from BT.

 

Anyway, I certainly would not have done anything she asked and fail to see how a 'special card' will stop you downloading bad files. Thats what firewalls and anti virus software is for.