BS: Britons shall be slaves?

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: theleveller
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 04:48 AM

Ah well, they say small things please small minds.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,sensible chap
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 04:52 AM

Yes...well..you have just proved that mr.leveller.....aint you?

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 05:06 AM

The Jobcentreplus site has many questionnable 'jobs' on offer. My husband took up one last week. (Minimum wage, £6.08ph, part-time only to avoid various obligations on their part) It was a very shady 'hotel' (more like a dosshouse) Given a bottle of neat bleach and told to wipe out toilets with his bare hands using the handtowel in each room. Filthy place, demoralised and very young staff. The 'manager' looked like an extremely dodgy used-car salesman. My husband rang me and I came and fetched him away. These people know that the jobless will take almost anything, and they are, in one word, Exploitative. I feel that Poundland (and others) see the present economic climate as a jolly good way to get workers for nothing (or next to nothing). My heart went out to the poor little lass and a grubby lad (both coughing) who continued to trudge round with their bleach bottle and a clapped-out vacuum cleaner. We've gone back to Dickens in his blacking factory!

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 05:08 AM

"Why is it fair when polish wokers come in their droves to do jobs work that these leeches on society refuse to get out of bed to do.?"

OK, I give in! What's a "polish woker"? A worker who polishes woks ... possibly? Presumably, all the Chinese restaurants are experiencing a dire shortage of wok polishers (sorry - polish wokers!) and are having to bring them in from abroad. Surely enough British worker/shirkers could be found to do this for nothing?

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 05:15 AM

Judging by the standards of written language in some've the posts, I'd hazard a guess that given proper investment & commitment by govt. there's real potential for workers in remedial literacy skills

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 05:31 AM

If you set yourself up as a judge of the language of posts, Mr Happy ~~

"Some of the posts".

"Some've the posts" is meaningless.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 05:46 AM

MtheGM,

Clearly, your English language skills are incomplete.

'Some've' is an accepted abbreviation for 'Some of' in the same way that 'I've' 'I'll' 'We'll' are accepted forms of written or spoken word

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 05:54 AM

Oh! By whom? Provide me with a respectable precedent, please.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 06:09 AM

Sorry, Mr Happy, but 'some've' is not an accepted abbreviation. The apostrophe should be replacing a deleted letter or letters. 'Some of' , no matter which letters one deletes, cannot end up as 'some've'.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 06:29 AM

OK, show me where it's not acceptable - btw you've succeeded in accomplishing thread drift!

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 07:09 AM

It is not acceptable in a post beginning "Judging by the standards of written language"; it is an error of written language, whatever you may say, Mr H.

Thread drift is scarcely unprecedented on this forum, is it? And it's you who have 'accomplished' it, not we, by persisting in arguing with Eliza and me over a matter in which we knew better. You still haven't furnished a respectable example of what you claim, inaccurately, to be a correct and accepted usage.

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 07:14 AM

You shouldn't polish a wok. Isn't there an old Chinese saying something like 'the blacker the wok, the better the cook'?

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 07:34 AM

I have not yet been able to find an authoritative source to justify my abbreviation.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 07:47 AM

Nor will you.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 08:03 AM

Why is there never an old Chinese around when you want one?

I think that there's a problem if you're trying to depict the colloquialisms and regional variations common in spoken English in writing. My English is, of course, impiccable.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,petecockermouth
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 08:18 AM

i think i'm fairly good with punctuation and grammar an' that - used to teach the stuff. but i have learned it doesn't matter much as long as the meaning is clear. i choose not to bother with capitals -just lazy- but can a bit superior when apostrophes are misused. i think we are free to do what we want -if it annoys a few pedants, so what. incidentally, franglais is good fun a temps en temps. as texting is so ennuing i rarely ecrivez anything else sur mon phone. fin

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 09:49 AM

well it seems "sensible ever been had chap" [ 1 or 2 individuals ???]
has wanked himself off
into a frothy dribble mouthed state of ecstasy throughout all this.

From his first posts, this was quite obviously a 'troll porn' thread
for the poor sad little socially inadequate chap
to get his hairy palms greased up for.......

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,CS
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 09:58 AM

This: 'Gaining valuable skills and experience' my arse! There's nothing that Poundland could teach you that would take more than half an hour.

And this: "The workfare regime provides free workers to capitalists. Every such worker prevents another worker having a paying job."

How come needful charities didn't get brought on board this scheme, arguably everyone could have benefited?

Lots of experience and skills to be provided for them as actually need it (geology graduates probably not being among them) as well as the rewards to the community of course; from administration, gardening, cooking, shop work, writing articles, counselling/befriending, to repair work, decorating, canvassing etc. you name it!

And yet this government would rather see claimants wresting dull menial jobs from already low-paid workers at Poundland..

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 10:22 AM

Back in the early / mid 80s
the Tories actually came up with quite a useful and intelligent scheme
to manipulate unemployment statistics in their favour.

"The Community Programme" or some such similar name.

Basic details I can remember..........

Clever dick unemployed students and arty musician types like me
were put in this programme
where you got paid about 10 quid more per week than basic sup benefit,
didn't need to sign on,
got a few extra perks, etc,
provided you committed to genuinely work set hours on a valid local 'community' project.

The downside was that the more politicised amongst us were aware
we were being used to replace
what should have been properly paid and unionised local authority workers.

But we were at liberty to work fairly autonomously with quite decent project budgets
that were great for setting up radical lefty community arts spaces, photography darkrooms,
music band rehearsal facilities, theatre groups,
etc type projects..

Great experience and life style when you were in your early 20s
and lived a very active alternative arty lifestyle in an inner city.

It was a year or 2 before the tories realised their mistake,
funding a breeding ground for youthful cukltural subversion & dissent,
and promptly shut down the projects and funding.
and put us back on regular sup ben regime

Anyone else remember this scheme ???

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 10:59 AM

What a beautiful piece of vers libre, pfr.

And what creative vocabulary ~~ I particularly warmed to the clunkiness of cukltural!

And what masterly enjambement at

"we were being used to replace
what should have been properly paid and unionised local authority workers."

Has any poetry magazine or anthologist shown any interest?

~M~

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 11:05 AM

thanks for the flattery MtheGM..



I did pass English "O" level with a "B" grade back in 1975
It's all been downhill since then.

BTW, never in my life seen or heard the word "enjambement"..


I'm off to look it up - hope it's not too smutty....

oh ok, hope it is...

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 11:11 AM

... and I shouldn't really take full credit for " cukltural"

put it down to clumsy typing skills and my stubborn refusal to ger my eyes tested
for close up reading lenses...

Optician's fees are too good money that could be spent on guitar fuzz boxes.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 11:12 AM

World English Dictionary

Enjambement

— n
        prosody the running over of a sentence from one line of verse into the next

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,sensible chap
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 11:30 AM

yaWwwwwwwwwwwwn..........

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,sensible chap
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 11:34 AM

excuse me you boring farts...... I have knob to Polish

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 11:37 AM

Quite so, sensible. Is there, though, anything more yawn-inducing than those perverse boobies who proliferate round here, who post on threads with nothing to contribute, but for no other purpose than to denounce them as boring? So go & polish your wotsit, and I hope it keeps fine for you both...

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 11:57 AM

Why has he a Polish whatsit? Should it be returned to the Poles?

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 12:15 PM

""'Some've' is an accepted abbreviation for 'Some of' in the same way that 'I've' 'I'll' 'We'll' are accepted forms of written or spoken word""

Sorry to spoil your day Happy, but you have actually shot down your own argument with a single bullet, "I've"!

It is an abbreviation for "I have"and so is "some've"
an abbreviation for "some have".

As in "Some've died in battle, and some've died in bed!", it is mostly used in poems, though I have heard it on many occasions in colloquial speech.

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 12:19 PM

""excuse me you boring farts...... I have knob to Polish""

Onanism is nothing to boast about senseless guest.

Still, whatever turns you on!......Go on, go polish your knob, and enjoy!

Don T.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Mr Happy
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 12:23 PM

.......as in the way some folk spell 'should've' as 'should of'?

Perhaps I should begin a new thread about literacy?

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 12:38 PM

well you could,

but I'd guess too many of us are reasonably content enough
with our careless misuse of written English
to be bothered much with it on such a sunny day..

And why spoil the pleasures of correcting our dumb mistakes
which is a priority for a few more learned pedants & snidey snobs.


MtheGM is however excepted from my sarcasm
as he is the same age as my mum and I genuinely respect him
and enjoy his educated posts.

Mum brought us up to aspire to MtheGM's standards as a gent & scholar.

Shame I'm letting her down so badly, but there you go...


At least I am educated enough
to've resisted becoming a despicable resentful mean spirited tory lacky wage slave.......

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 04:37 PM

"That's how democracy works - the majority view is the one that prevails."

That's just not true. Even the minority of people who voted Tory voted for a party that swore blind not to do things it has done, and swore blind it would do things it hasn't done.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Aug 12 - 07:26 PM

And it takes less votes to elect a Labour MP than it takes to elect a Tory.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,petecockermouth
Date: 09 Aug 12 - 06:33 AM

the overwhelming majority of MPs on all sides of the house are pro-global capitalist tories (and/or Tories)there are millions of people who take a different view that is hardly ever expressed in parliament - well, one green MP maybe. i'm afraid until we disenfranchised folk organise ourselves properly and push for a real change then we britons will always be slavish.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 09 Aug 12 - 06:52 AM

Well, with luck it looks like Cable will scupper toryboy's gerrymander.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 09 Aug 12 - 09:40 AM

Sorry McGrath, I was thinking of a majority of people on this forum. Of course, politics stinks and you get stuck with them for the next five years. As we say round here 'they can make their gobs say owt'.

I just read in the latest Private Eye that David Blunkett gets 80k a year from A4e and News International, two firms under active investigation for shady work. And he's not even a bloody Tory.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 09 Aug 12 - 02:53 PM

Of course if it's in Private Eye it must be true.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Aug 12 - 03:08 PM

There you go, smartarse Register of Interests David Blunkett

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: sapper82
Date: 09 Aug 12 - 04:24 PM

Wasn't one of the fears of William Beveridge, when he wrote his report that led to the foundation of the Welfare State, that we could end up making life on benefits more attractive than working?

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,petecockermouth
Date: 09 Aug 12 - 07:13 PM

are you suggesting that could be right? either you have had some really awful jobs or you are lucky enough to have never been out of work. on benefits you can exist but it isn't much of a life.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 05:13 AM

I truly believe that many people on benefits work 'on the side', sell drugs, commit minor theft etc because they are forced to by the total inadequacy of benefits to cover even the necessities of life. Even with all the additional 'help' such as housing benefit, no council tax to pay etc I cannot for the life of me see how anyone can pay for heating during a winter of minus ten degrees (here in UK), get about on public transport to find work or even to access the computer in a library for the notorious JobcentrePlus. Bus fares are expensive and there are no concessions for them. Even miserably basic food is quite dear, and charity shop clothes cost more than they used to. It reminds me of the philosophy of the introduction of the 19th Century Union Workhouses. Relief for the poor should be so miserable and untenable that they are forced to find work as quickly as possible. But where is the work? I'd love to see a politician live (not for a week, as on a TV programme) but for six months on benefits.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 06:40 AM

The Beveridge Report was based on certain assumptions, one of which was full employment. It was the principle of less eligibility, as some seem to be suggesting here, that brought about the workhouse. At least there would be plenty of jobs created in building them!

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 07:00 AM

Only people who have never had the misery of trying to exist on benefits think it's more attractive than working.

Some years ago the then Tory MP Matthew Paris tried to exist on benefits for a TV programme, for one week, his conclusion at the end of the week was that it was impossible, but he wouldn't recommend paying them more, and that was after people in the North East who were genuinely existing on benefits treated him with kindness and compassion, what cunt he was.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,sensible chap
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 08:47 AM

so many brains...so little sence and humor...come on dudes.you wos more fun wen youa was abuseve

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 10:45 AM

I'll have some of what he's having...

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,punkfolkrocker
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 10:52 AM

but he's having a wank !!!????

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 12:16 PM

or perhaps a heart attack...

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 01:33 PM

We have some old thought patterns that we need to break. Public works, despite our ancestral memories of workhouses, do not have to be abusive or horrifying or insulting to peoples' dignity. There is nothing inherently wrong about working in a greenhouse, a small dairy, a parks department, a library, a nursing home. I would gladly work any of those places in exchange for money a bit above welfare or whatever. I think itis something that we must plan for and expect for our own selves..there are ways of supervision and monitoring to eliminate most abuses, which we have frankly not eliminated from the regular job market. There are not enough jobs now it seems, probably never were, but there are people who are inadequately nourished, there are elders receiving poor care, there are blighted areas in every city. We can put the two together, offer people a choice in an area they wish to work in, give them modest training and opportunities for more if they wish to get certified, and solve several problems at one blow, while not spending much more than we do..but getting some valuable return for it. I don't see the problem and would sign up right now myself for 2 hours a day, since I work 6 or 7 anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 03:25 PM

Well I just read this

Prisoners could work in call centres in job opportunity drive

and dashed over to Mudcat BS thinking there would be a thread on it. However, it does kind of fit into this one nicely, so I have added the link for comment.

I am all for those who have served their time and been rehabilitated being given a chance when they get out, but what I would fear is what information can be passed to call centre staff and which companies/agencies would use such call centres?

Time was they exploited the Indian market but this could see call centres coming back to the UK. At what cost? And to whom?

The world we know is getting scarier by the day and harder to live in for fear of those elected to protected us!

mp

Subject: RE: BS: Britons shall be slaves?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 10 Aug 12 - 03:35 PM

Slave of the Century