The "Down with this sort of thing" picket. There is a burger van and you can wear your donkey jacket and fingerless gloves

[KatieMiddleton]

Fed up of the cuts? Fed up of the mislead bigotry? This is your sanctuary. Unwind. Vent. Pop over to the frothers thread if you feel like getting organised and doing some proactive stuff or just chill out with a cup of builders tea in a polystyrene cup.

Welcome.

I know I know. I just find it icky. I make a mean G&T mind and I always have gin (Henricks) and chilled tonic (Fever Tree) in. Always. I have no vodka, the only brandy's for setting light to the Christmas pudding and the sherry and marsala are for cooking.

My mother taught me to make a proper G&T when I was about 6.

I like wine

LOL Pinot I'm going to rob that - except in my case it's buckfast

I feel a good deal happier. Odd.

You're a champagne socialist Hully!

Champagne for all, I say.
Well. I'm not hrdline on that. people can make their own choices about alcoholic beverages. But moderate amounts of life's pleasures for all.

Dont know if anyone has mentioned this yet but did anyone see the comedian Mark Steel on Question Time last night. I have a little crush on him now lol. He was fabulous.

He's mine, goddammit

I've stated in his house, you know. His then-wife gave me real evils. She was nice though, if a little scary. I think he's remarried now, and I don't know him any more.

*stayed. I'm sure I stated something, but it wasn't a crush on him, no siree. I invoked all my revolutionary discipline, but I may have giggled adoringly a bit too much. He certainly did

I hate Gin as well Katie - but I don't like juniper so - there you are.

I do like sloe gin.

Had a friend over tonight for eats, she's a teacher and although she earns a decent wage is absolutely shitting it as she can't afford mortgage/council tax/food/gas/blah blah blah since her wanker H left her a month ago.

Just wonder where we're all going to end up TBH - if even those with decent wages can't afford to live.

Hey darling, how you doing?

I'm illing slightly, Shirl. But the brazier here is helping. Tell us all about the wicked ruling class and their meeja whoring this week then?

Illing again? my poor girl.

There is nothing to tell - honestly it was as I thought it would be - you know when the camera did those shots of the crowds at the O2? I was part of those crowds.

The warm-up fella was TERRIBLE! He's come on during the ad breaks - I have never missed adverts so much. He'd say stuff like "There's some gorgeous women in the audience - there's some shockingly ugly ones too - you know who you are ladies"

So I was sort of HATING him quite a lot and then I tweeted that he was SHIT and 2 seconds later (the ad break before Little Mix came on - and they were BRILLIANT BTW, as much as I hate all that shite, they were really very, VERY good live) the stage filled with dry ice ready for Little Mix and he started walking off stage and he STACKED IT. Literally went down like a sack of shite. FACE IN FLOOR.

HA HA! wanker.

That was the highlight. Oh and leaving at 9 and the security on the door incredulous that we were going and didn't want to come back in.

You gave him the evil eye then? Good for you

So, if I did get DLA for DD and DS2, I would have to 'choose' which one was disabled?

hmmmmm...do I choose the one who has leaky heart valves that will be replaced in open heart surgery in a touch over 2 years time, who also has Autism, and is partially deaf, and has Hypermobility Syndrome and epilepsy. Or do I choose the one who has EDS type II, Hypermobility Syndrome, Hypotonia, Autism and severe chronic asthma that has nearly killed him more times that I want to count?

Oh, hang on - I'd also have to choose between either of them being disabled or if I am disabled by my uncontrolled epilepsy, IBS and EDS type II.

Such an easy choice to make...

Not that MAKING that choice is going to make any one of us any LESS disabled. .

Oh - and I love the bombing on those threads. I may well just take up that option, it seems far les personally distressing when faced with a bunch of cunts who have NO IDEA WTF THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT. And don't even WANT to know WTF they're talking about.

Give a benefits cap supporter enough rope, and they'll hang themselves...

I'm about to post a quote from MrsHeffley here (sorry). But I just want to giggle at the fact that she has, inadvertantly proved HERSELF to be wrong for supporting the benefits cap...

'Sorry £35K is way too low to stop CB.For many people on that bracket it's the difference between heating and not.I'm no expert but I would have thought £60 K would be better.Far more likely to not be a serious impact on all families and they wouldn't need to pay to means test it.'. A quote from MrsHeffley on pg4.

Sooooooo...she is saying that stopping CB for someone on a pre-tax income of £35k is too low. Which is the equivalent of them stopping CB for someone getting the maximum, £26k in Universal Credit without CB, due to their rent...

Anyone watching BBC breakfast? CSA woman crying out for a slap and a body swap into the real world where she is a loan parent with a feckless ex.

Harriet, don't think I could bear it.

Honestly, don't they realise that in the main the CSA is the last resort for people whose Xs don't WANT to pay.

I've never had a penny from my X but haven't bothered with the CSA precisely because they are unfit for purpose. They chase the PAYE types, often holding on to the money for far too long and causing hostility between parents, and completely ignore those trying to wiggle out of payment. They are particularly useless with the self-employed (my X falls into this category).

I am far from unusual. Given that about half of NRPs paying through the CSA are paying £0 or £5 per week, I think we can expect numbers using the CSA to plummet in the future - what would be the point in paying for a service that is actually going to end up costing you money? Which is of course exactly what they intend. They dress it up as government staying out of people's personal lives, but it's a cynical attempt to save money by abandoning children.

Presenters were supportive of claimants though & the woman didn't do a good job of selling her position.

In some statements, sunshine, they don't even dress it up. There is, somewhere, an interview where someone in government (can't remember who - possibly IDS) admitted that quite a few people would no longer get support for their dc, but that was OK because it wasn't 'cost-effective' for their maintenance to be collected. Wish I could find the link!

Sunshine- no link yet; at rumour stage (peson who told me was one who told me about the last cuts though); I am praying this is a crap rumour as it means ds1 has to go live with Nan or lose his therapy.

I wouldn;t use as fact yet, but keep an eye IYSWIM

I personally liked the GP claiming her patirnets ahd been signed off onto DLA (er yes whatever!) with corns

hahahahahahaha

you don;t get signed off with corns you numbskull, you sure you're a GP? And if it's old stylee IB (ESA woudl never accept corns) then you signed them off halfwit

And even for old stylee IB, GP's were only able to sign off for 6 months.

There were possibly exceptions for cancer, but certainly for the rest of us it was chop chop down the DWP medical testing centre.

And since DLA only becomes applicable after 3 months, and for conditions expected to last more than 6 months more... (Again, exceptions for some rapidly terminal illnesses.)

Yep, numbskull not telling the truth.

Oh yeah, and although the DWP have long done their own assessment, the GP has always had to to send in a form as well - so can effectively veto any award unless the patient can produce consultant reports or scans, etc. Or has a condition visible sitting in an interview, like amputation.

I first got test by the DWP medical testing centre in around 2003 - pre-Freud, pre-ESA, pre-computer-questionnaire.

tested