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Rant Airports, Customs, the litigious culture infesting england...

Discussion in 'General' started by kingred, 19 Jun 2008.

  1. kingred

    kingred Surfacing sucks!

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    How did it get like this?

    My first few interesting experiences with the nanny state in full swing, after just 6 months of being away.

    1). Customs a few weeks ago, Having spent an hour before my flight back to france from england (conducting interviews) looking for parcel tape to make my longboard secure for flying, managed to check in ok, however i was searched at customs for my roll of parcel tape, it was confiscated with the excuse of "you could do something with it". Also the amount of police checks GOING OUT OF THE UK, well guys the problem ideally would BE FLYING FROM ANOTHER COUNTRY, NO ONE IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD DO IT TAKING OFF FROM UK SOIL, MAINLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALL LEFT BECAUSE OF THE MILLION POUNDS A DAY WE AHVE TO PAY IN TAX, ON THE TAX, ON THE TAX FFFFFFFFfffffff

    2). Air line companies. Flying back yesturday, they retro-respectively applied new policies (charging for air-port check-in) then demanding £6.00 before letting me on my flight. This vexed me as i generally dont travel with money, and their machines didnt work with my card, untill the very nice ladies at the currency exchange lent me £6.00. they will be getting flowers this week.

    3). People constantly complaining, and yet doing nothing about it. It seems like whatever our undemocratically elected government decides to do we just roll over and take it in the ass, what the hell is wrong with you people? what happened to the eternal resistance that the english are famed for? we are being shown up by our brothers the french, who for the past month have been staging strikes for the goverment trying to move the age of retirement from 60 to 62.

    Please please dont let this idiocy last any longer, for i fear that everyone of worth will either :-

    1). move
    2). set-up their own country in corn-wall
    3). start going insane with the amount of anti-terror laws..

    [​IMG]
     
  2. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    As much as I agree with a lot of what you've written, what gives you the impression that our current government wasn't elected in the traditional democratic manner as we implement it in the UK?
     
  3. kingred

    kingred Surfacing sucks!

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    Gordon brown inheriting the title, making changes to his cabinet and refusing the hold a general election.

    Also the current mantra of our law enforcement which intimidates and scares folks into paying fines.

    People should not fear their government. Their Government SHOULD fear its people.
    as an elected body meant to be representing the masses, it should start thinking about the greater good, rather than performance targets trying to look effective.
     
  4. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    I think you may be getting confused between UK and US 'democracy' here.

    In the US, you vote for a particular individual to become president. Once he's president, no-one else gets to take over without a new vote for a new president. The only exception is if the vice-president takes over due to illness or assassination, but you voted for him alongside the main president so that's OK.

    In the UK, you vote for a particular party to take control of the government. That party will assign one of its members to become the prime minister. If that prime minister steps down, the party is free to assign absolutely anyone from its ranks to the role without an election taking place - you voted for the party as a whole, not an individual member thereof.

    Thus, by UK standards, Gordon Brown's PMship was carried out exactly according to the rules of democracy.

    Hey, I don't like him any more than you do - but to say his appointment was 'undemocratic' shows a basic misunderstanding of UK politics.
     
  5. Ryu_ookami

    Ryu_ookami I write therefore I suffer.

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    ok tell me when and where the riot starts and I'm there.

    we not only need a new goverment we need the legal right to hunt and shoot chav and any other thieveing scum we can think of.

    Hey I just had an idea

    we could make chav hunting the national sport we release a chav into a deserted city give him 5 minutes then start hunting him down with IF sensors and sniper scopes whoever kills one the fastest becomes national champ and a hero for our children to look up to. We could make it like UT :)
     
  6. Khensu

    Khensu likes to touch your special places

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    I completely agree with #3. I have been wondering for months (as a foreigner) how some English people I meet can talk about their "nationalism", yet at the same time they let themselves be sodomised over and over and over again. Britain, to me, is that scene from Metropolis (1927... probably not too popular nowadays) - workers marching into work in line, and leaving work in line. That's all we do here - work to hopefully support ourselves and our families.... whilst the government take and take and we get absolutely nothing in return.

    I have been told "If you don't like it, leave" - well, I would, but unfortunately I cannot afford it. I simply don't have the money. 96% of what I earn goes on rent, food, and tax... Part of the 4% goes on taking the girlfriend "out" - to a cheap museum or a cheap restaurant or whatever, so she can have the fun she wants at her age. I'm just happy she's kind of supportive of my idea to leave for the continent.

    Ergh.


    Anyway, about customs: a few years ago I had to explain to a customs officer why I "carried" a certain type of socks in my luggage. How the hell do you explain that?

    Customs: "Why do you have these socks? It's too hot to wear these socks."
    Me: "Uhm... well... uhmmm.... I wear boots and they are comfy with them?"
    Customs: "But it's too hot."

    :| I was not impressed. After going through my music and other personal possessions (including underwear) she was trying to use my packed socks as "proof" that I was a neo-nazi. A man can't shave his head anymore, it seems - I find that incredibly racist.

    Also, this post is brough to you by Alkenoff vodka and the Londis shop (on the estate) providing it. I went to buy it, after days of not having a single f'ing drink (which, if you are familiar with some of my post, is a big thing) because I couldn't sleep. I couldn't sleep because in my mind I kept running figures, and kept calculating how "farked" I would be by the end of the year if the current "inflation" trend continues.

    I have an easy solution to inflation: all politicians give up 1/4 of their wages to the public. I bet my sexy arse that that will sort it out... *******s!
     
  7. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    They already do. Most major politicians (i.e. any of the ones you'll see on TV) earn enough to pay income tax at the highest rate, which is currently 40%. Except, strangely, the prime minister himself - who pays no tax on his earnings.
     
  8. whisperwolf

    whisperwolf What's a Dremel?

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    Actually I see it more that UK politics have a basic misunderstanding of Democracy. We don't have a Democracy in this country we have a semi-democratic representational system. What ever way we look at it, although Gordon Brown might be PM according to the letter of the law of our system, but the British Public have not been given the chance to show they do or do not support him. The person who leads this country has not given the public a chance to say who they believe should be running it. To my mind you might vote for a party in the UK, but that vote is dependent on the party at that time including its leadership. a change to the leadership and cabinet of that party can change its focus and priorities completely and an election should be called.
     
  9. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    But they support his party - and his party, who it must be remembered are the people responsible for putting him in Number 10, believe that he is the best representative of their particular beliefs and ideals - the beliefs and ideals that caused people to vote for the party in the first place. If he's not representative of the party, then I suggest that people shouldn't have voted for a party stupid/corrupt enough to put someone they didn't trust in a position of power. The PM should, ideally, be nothing more than a figurehead or chairman, there to carry out the wishes of the democratically elected party.
    Yes, he has. The public said they wanted Labour to run the country - and Labour they have. If they didn't want Labour, then they shouldn't have ticked the "Labour" box.
    But the 'change to the leadership and cabinet' simply involved shuffling some members of the party out and some members of the party in - the party you voted for is still in overall control.

    It's democracy at its finest. The fact that it doesn't work, and can easily be gamed by sneaky politicians, is neither here nor there - it's democratic.

    Look at it from the other perspective. In the US, they vote for a particular leader - which, if I understand your post correctly, is the way you'd like to see UK flavour democracy run. While this means that a major change to the presidency requires a new vote by the people, the flipside is that a large percentage of the US population simply vote for the person they find most appealing. This means that when Mr. NiceChap gets voted in as president, whichever political party put him forward rides along on his coat-tails and gets a whole wodge of power whether the voting public wanted that or not. Voting due to charisma rather than politics, basically.

    Sure, our system doesn't work - but given that half the population of the world are of below average intelligence, I posit that their system doesn't work in an even more fundamental way.
     
  10. whisperwolf

    whisperwolf What's a Dremel?

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    I tend to see this as the main reason Democracy will never work for the benefit of the country and will continue to only support politicians.

    Actually I'd be happy if the UK switched to set terms of office for each election perhaps every three years, none of this being able to call an election when you think you'll win nonsense, if we had this I perhaps wouldn't mind who the leader was for each party. I’d also prefer there to be no parties and no parties lines to follow, so we can elect our mp's on their policies and beliefs and not the parties. This also stops mp's using the party they belong to as an excuse for voting choices. Of course this model would also mean you have hundreds of MP's never agreeing on the most basic of issues.
     
  11. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    Yes. Yes, indeedy. I'm glad I'm not the only one who wishes that Hollywood action heroes would quit making the world safe for democracy and concentrate on making democracy safe for the world.
    It also means that, instead of local elections followed by general elections, you'd have hundreds and hundreds of elections every single year in order to decide the Education Secretary, the Home Secretary, the Prime Minister, and every other post in government today. I don't know about you, but I barely have the spare time to learn the basics of the party I vote for - if I had to learn about the people competing for every single governmental post I'd need to quit work. And possibly produce a few thousand clones of myself.
     
  12. DXR_13KE

    DXR_13KE BananaModder

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    is it true that you guys only have 2 choices when you vote? "labour" and the "tories"?
     
  13. DougEdey

    DougEdey I pwn all your storage

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    No, there's lots of options, just those two almost always get power.
     
  14. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    No, we have New Labour - currently in power, and possessing a political leaning most similar to the Old Conservatives (Tories). We also have the Tories (Conservatives) who have taken on more of an Old Labour vibe since New Labour stole their schtick. Then there's the Liberal Democrats (Liberals), who are a middle-ground wet-blanket who never get any power. Then there's the fringe parties, ranging from the relatively inoffensive (The Green Party, for example) to the downright horrible (The British National Party, which grew out of the ashes of the British Fascist Party and is nothing more than a neo-nazi front and yet one which people seem to keep voting for.)
     
  15. liratheal

    liratheal Sharing is Caring

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    You wouldn't need any sensors. You could follow the sounds of "nah geez" or the rustling of god-awful track-suit bottoms.

    Possibly the sound of a mobile phone playing a really low quality version of the latest whatever track from whatever artist.

    On topic: With the Gordon Brown issue, when we voted Labour in, it wasn't at the time made clear that Gordon-Numpty-Brown would replace Tony Blair. So, yes, while we voted his party in, there is still a level of incompetance that we've not had a chance to say no to.

    What I mean is - Would you vote for Labour with Gordon heading it? He has all the charisma of a raw potato cube. He also, as it seems to be so far, has next to no ability to lead. The wrong side of 'no' too.
     
  16. M4RTIN

    M4RTIN What's a Dremel?

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    while i certainly dont like gordon brown i do feel he was appointed the pm position at an absolutely terrible time, because in essence he hasn't actually done much wrong, the economic slump and oil prices are a global issue, so maybe if he'd had another 6 months to a year he could have done a better job. though the fact he has got these problems to deal with i do feel he's made an absolute arse of himself, because he hasnt done anything especially right either
     
  17. DXR_13KE

    DXR_13KE BananaModder

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    thank you DougEdey and Gareth Halfacree.

    by the way, when is the next elections?
     
  18. cpemma

    cpemma Ecky thump

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    So you'd prefer Bruce Forsyth? Or maybe Dale Winton?

    Charismatic political leaders have a nasty habit of getting people killed. OK when there's a war on but if there isn't they're likely to start one. The safe pair of hands is safer if less glamorous.
     
  19. Ramble

    Ramble Ginger Nut

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    Next election is anytime between now and 2010. The PM decides when to have an election (but it was to be each five years at most).

    I'd consider voting for ol' Gordon, simply because David Cameron is such a tool I'd never vote for him.
     
  20. Major

    Major Guest

    It's fact that our Government is a big pile of ****, but not much you can do about it I am afraid.
     
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