The Brexit Arms. Please drink ( & post ) responsibly.

[surferjet]

Ive been out of the loop for a while, should I google Will Self or will it give me the rage?

You'll get the rage, Wendy.

He's one of life's smug twats, with a completely misplaced, grandiose self opinion.

In other, completely unrelated news:
Tom Hardy to appear on CBeebies on New Year's Eve.

The "You're welcome" from CBeebies made me lol.
I have not been hostage to CBeebies for years now, but I may pop this on the Sky planner...

I heart Tom Hardy!

mango

He was in our local when i was on holiday

I am never going on holiday again

He may have timed it for when i am away...i am pretty irresistible

I imagine he did time it deliberately Rufus.
He'd obvs heard about your dubious charms and didn't want to be put in temptation's way.

He loves me too much, you see...

The problem with macdonalds moving their office here is that it is because they are being investigated over their tax affairs by the EU in Luxembourg. Do we really want to be attracting companies like that to the UK? They will be another Starbucks and Amazon. I read on the other thread that our post Brexit identity is a tax haven and arms dealer - is that desirable? It certainly isn't to me

From what I've read about Luxembourg it wasn't just McDonald's that were taking advantage of the tax avoidance.

Regardless, it's a major company that will generate lots of tax income to uk so I'm ok with that.

Arms dealing - well that's not something I am remotely enthusiastic about at all.

RUFUS where is your local
Painful.

Wil Self - urgh, awful I agree, I have actually worked in Macdonalds and back then it was a horrid experience, a cog in a wheel, micro management, no autonomy - Charlie Chaplin Modern Times etc BUT I worked there because I had too like many other people who work there, and one small good thing is, it will provide jobs for lower skilled people and there is a decent "ish" career progression.
However I do remember many many years ago on WS was on QT at the time, Mugabe was all over the news, the horrors of his regime etc and Will Self was asking, why on earth are we sending people from Zim, back to possible beating and even death( it was all over news), but allowing hundreds of thousands of people from the EU into the UK. It didn't make sense to him and it didn't make sense to me either.

One can imagine the pub chat between the likes of Will and Bob.

Marmite we have been at the forefront of arms dealing for a very very long time, and there are without a doubt immoral and improper goings on that need closer scrutiny.
I also doubt how many companies are above board, I see most big business as ruthless and something comes out of the wood work at some point.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25273024

Panorama has learnt that between 2007 and 2009, some of these investments, amounting to millions of pounds, appear to contradict several of its core aims.

Despite its mission statement claiming it is committed to helping "people affected by conflict", in 2009 the charity had £630,000 invested in shares in weapons firm BAE Systems

Comic Relief also had more than £300,000 invested in shares in the alcohol industry despite its mission statement saying it is "working to reduce alcohol misuse and minimise alcohol related harm"

mango

Dubious!!!! Dubious charms !!!!!!!!

elf

He was filming in the area

Apparently someone hoofed it down in her pjs...but he had already left

Saved my blood pressure and went to bed early to avoid QT and This Week. You lot are an absolute tonic with or without the Gin. WS makes me swiitch off!!!

One point of substance from upthread. Scotland is a bit ahead of the curve on NHS and Social Care and impact on services of NMW. I am not pretending that all is right and sorted in the land of Nessie and heather but we have two points in our favour:

• All public sector employers and those who contract with them already pay the Scottish Living Wage which is above NMW (The income inequality multiplier for Scotland is 6 rather than 9 for the UK)

• Scotland already has free personal care for the elderly

Housing policy is also further along to being sorted.

It is very frustrating watching QT etc etc week after week with much hand wringing about the state of the health service and the housing market without any politician, even the Scottish ones, seeking to draw comparisons and look at what is different and what we can all learn from each other.

Agree how, there's good stuff in various places, but the people (who are supposed to e) in charge of it all are more concerned with point scoring than actually doing their jobs.
Grrr.

Even Nige pointed out that there's lots of good stuff going on in other EU countries that we could learn from.

Rufus
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May need to switch off Daily Politics. More power to the "Really British" shop in Muswell Hill. I am 100% Scottish - never stops me doing my Christmas shopping in the Tartan mile and celebrating Scottishness. Disgusted at the "we're better than that" bigger Europeans of MH who object to promoting Britishness.

Polly Toynbee sqirming uncomfortably worth the price of admissions though

Well, I googled WS. His now tops the list of faces I'd never tire of slapping. I once cleaned for a living, no doubt he finds cleaners to be utterly below contempt.

What do you call it - when you sneer at poor fishermen and people who work in Maccy D's? Is this the new face - the post truth face of the liberal left? Yet there is Farage standing up for these people?

"I have actually worked in Macdonalds and back then it was a horrid experience, a cog in a wheel, micro management, no autonomy - Charlie Chaplin Modern Times etc"

Precisely Will Self's point. But if these sorts of jobs are the best Britain is going to be able to do post-Brexit, perhaps we should, as you say, welcome them.

BUT I worked there because I had too like many other people who work there, and one small good thing is, it will provide jobs for lower skilled people and there is a decent "ish" career progression

But as I said - there is this side to it as well. Do you think Will Appreciates this ^^? As well as shifts that I imagine would suit many people. Many places I have worked have been dire. Not just Macdonalds.

Will self and Bob Geldof champagne socialists of the worst order. Mocking the 'working man' whilst pretending to care. And marmite throwing more money at a badly run system won't improve it it just encourages the wastefulness so no I wouldn't just give more money.

He didn't mock the working man. Far from it.

I have cleaned, done bar work, worked in a nursing home and waitressed. All these jobs need doing, are hard work and deserve to be properly paid. If people are treated properly, respected and given the time and tools to do the jobs properly then I do not believe they will be a shortage of applicants.

I think we could all do with a few fewer has been pop stars and third rate writers seeking to high jack the political discourse.

Sorry I know I'm roaring to the choir but sometimes its good to vent. [tea] (calming chamomile)

Hijack the political discourse?

So just who is legitimately allowed to contribute to political discourse in this brave new world?

"But as I said - there is this side to it as well. Do you think Will Appreciates this ^^? "

Yes I do. That is why he was against Brexit for the colossal economic damage which is the most likely outcome of leaving the single market, despite his qualms about the EU itself. His point being that a few low-skilled, low wage Macjobs will be scant compensation.

Kaija, you seem to have also missed the point as Will Self did.

This isn't McDonald's opening a few more franchises - it's them moving their non US base of operations over to U.K.

Hence, not sneery old McDonald's jobs, but other jobs - and a shedload of tax receipts to boot.