Guilt Free Railing 16

[WouldBeGood]

The festive special!

As always, all railing welcome, along with good things or humorous asides. No resilience wankery. This is the safe place to let out anything that’s doing your head in.

Yes, we were planning to get a small place in Greece once DH can tap into his pension (8 years) and it doesn't seem likely now.

And for what exactly? Still nobody can tell me. It makes me utterly fucking fume.

Yep, I’ve tried loads to ask brexiteers for the benefits but still in the dark.

@BlameItOnTheBlackStar

I have no idea any more. I used to think I'd quite like to move to Ireland. Similar but different enough maybe, and still part of Europe. That's not an option now though, plus they're as bad as us when it comes to the trans debate.

I always dream fondly of Ireland too as we have family connections but unfortunately we probably couldn't afford to live there as taxation is very high and there's no nhs so you pay to go to Dr and need private health insurance. sigh

@WouldBeGood

Yep, I’ve tried loads to ask brexiteers for the benefits but still in the dark.

@WouldBeGood But we "TOOK BACK CONTROL" of what

The biggest issue in the UK is the mess that is the Labour Party, they are verging on unelectable.
TBH labour is probably where my heart is, but given they can't decide what a woman is they are unelectable.
Lack of a strong labour party, is showing both in Holyrood and Westminster.

Where are they in speaking out about the damage that's being done to Scotlands economy.
Its not just the nightclubs in the next 3 weeks. Its the thousands who'd planned their Hogmanay in Edinburgh. It's the lack of confidence that anything that's planned will actually happen.

We are in the post Christmas lull, the holiday heads are on, "where's our next holiday?" For many the answer is a very simple "Anywhere but Scotland or Wales more chance of things being open elsewhere"

Where's Labour talking out about the people who are loosing business, not just the club owners, it's the brewers and the taxi industry too.

Um, the colour of our passports I think.

We just had to get DD a new one and it looks shit. So they even fucked up the one thing they were actually excited about.

That's a good point @Lockdownbear I don't remember the last time Anas Sarwar piped up about anything.

Man I'm a grumpy cow today. I came into the office, letting my assistant work from home, and she just keeps texting me questions. Like, I brought you in so I had time to do my own job, please try to figure some stuff out on your own!

How do I feel about immigration.

I'll stick my neck out, cheap Eastern European labour has probably helped to suppress wages in low paid sectors of the workplace.

Care homes would have had to increase wages years ago if they didn't have a supply of cheap labour.
Construction would have been forced to take on and train more apprentices if you couldn't get ready trained people from overseas.
Same with truckers.

How on earth are so many people in the UK relying on Food Banks, they just weren't a thing in the 80s or 90s.
Where did it all go wrong?

Sort for my rant. But I just don't see how immigration helps when we're have so many untrained, unemployed and trapped in a benefits system

Omg the times has a headline ..Jason leitch says we should prepare for a terrifying wave of omicron which will leave more people fighting for their lives in intensive care

The Scottish government know they are losing the room, they know people are fed up with the constant restrictions and closures especially as it makes no difference..a virus will do.what it does

So they decide fear is the answer..ramp up the fear..use emotive language..create scary headlines. Scare people into complying with our guidance

It's just so wrong..how dare he mess with people's head like this. Fear to get compliance is bullying and that's not the job of a government

Jason Leitich....should go and entertain himself.

Well this is the actual quote - he didn't really say people should prepare for a terrifying wave!

Leitch said the worst was yet to come and it was too soon to be certain of the impact such a high number of cases would have on hospital admissions.

“Modelling suggests that we won’t see the big numbers for two to three weeks yet. That seems terrifying having announced 10,000 and 11,000,” he told the BBC.

(Cases) are not rising at the rate they rose with Delta, which is excellent news and confirms, maybe, the data we saw a few days ago before Christmas about this being a milder disease, but milder does not mean mild.

“We should not overreact, but nor should we under-react, because if you have four times as many cases, even with a quarter of the severity, you are going to end up with the same number of people needing [to be] ventilated and the same number dying.

@frasersmummy I can't see the Times article as it's behind a paywall but other papers are reporting he said "The modelling suggests that we won't see the big numbers and that seems terrifying having nine to 10 and 11,000, you won't see the big numbers for two to three weeks yet." Which isn't quite the same thing. I'm not a Leitch fan but it does seem that the Times might have taken one word he said, misquoted it and dramatised it.

Cross-post with @BlameItOnTheBlackStar!

Case numbers are not terrifying unless they're translating into high death numbers. They might... but they're not currently. So why does our government want us to be terrified? It doesn't feel like how a government should behave.

my issue with the Leitch quote above is that he is conveniently forgetting that over half the population have now been triple vaccinated and the vaccines have been shown to provide protection against severe illness in many cases - obviously not all. Likewise there are better treatments now. He is not presenting all the facts

I would like them to sound like a top doctor who gives you bad news but in a reassuring way which suggests they’re on top of, and will ensure the best possible outcome.

I was raised in the late 60's/70s. We didn't have food banks but we did go hungry quite a bit despite both my parents working.

I think the fact that there are food banks is good, I also think the fact that we need them is terrible.

A society does best when it raises people up. There is definitely more that we could all be doing to give people better opportunities in life. We can't compete on a level playing field with countries that are prepared to exploit their populations to mass produce goods and ship them across the world. Imo we either need to develop self sufficiency (not insular, just being able to produce what we need) or become a centre of excellence and quality and desirability in terms of the goods we produce. Upskilling our youth and getting people who have never worked out working and contributing would help enormously. Give people an opportunity to gain skills and confidence would also help mental health. But I'm not a politician or an economist.

Sorry guys the times article is behind a paywall so I only saw the headline

I should have done more checking..but it just goes to show that lurid headlines invoke fear and panic

So my rant moves from the govt to the media..maybe time for me to go watch a Christmas rom com.or something..

Upskilling our youth and getting people who have never worked out working and contributing would help enormously. Give people an opportunity to gain skills and confidence would also help mental health. But I'm not a politician or an economist

It makes perfect sense.

@BlameItOnTheBlackStar I recently had to get a new passport too, not only do they look cheap and awful but weirdly the picture inside does too surely nothing to do with it being ten years since the last one was taken

To be fair I think it's a pretty measured and sensible response from Leitch. The media are so unhelpful.

I have no time for anything Leitch says

I've no idea what the answers are either @ElephantOfRisk

I know that when I was the age my kids are now my mum had three jobs, and my dad worked overtime at nights and weekends, so we were home alone maybe three nights a week. Did a washing, did the dishes, peeled the potatoes for tea, etc.

I'd never do that to my kids now, culturally that's not acceptable parenting any more, although my family life was totally normal.

Saying that - my parents three-bed semi cost them £37k, and my four-bed semi cost £274k, that's quite a stark reminder of how much pressure families are under now just to have a family home.

@WouldBeGood

I have no time for anything Leitch says

I feel that way about BJ. He could say the earth was round and I'd honestly start to ponder whether the flat earthers maybe had a point.

@WouldBeGood

I have no time for anything Leitch says

Me either, he's another smug odious gobshite.