Renaissance Robot posted:

Now that I am finally gainfully employed for more than 16 hours per week, I am happy to say: gently caress you poors, I've got mine. I shall be writing Mr Cameron directly in the morning to request immediate cessation of all benefits of any kind to anyone with less income than myself.

ThomasPaine posted:

fake edit: unironically though I'm completely baffled by how stupid people are. What, he wants people in lower paid jobs to pay more tax because...they're obviously in those jobs out of not trying to get a better one hard enough? Way to buy hook, line, and sinker into the government narrative. The guy's a bartender too, so he's hardly John Galt. I honestly find it so deeply sad that neo-liberalism/Thatcherism has worked the divide and conquer angle so successfully, the working classes don't need to be kept in check because they're quite happy to tear each other apart and keep themselves weak. Or maybe he only thinks that because he's an ignorant tool who doesn't actually know what the hell he's talking about. I'll go with that one.

ThomasPaine posted:

This guy on my news feed gets it, loving dirty scroungers.

fake edit: unironically though I'm completely baffled by how stupid people are. What, he wants people in lower paid jobs to pay more tax because...they're obviously in those jobs out of not trying to get a better one hard enough? Way to buy hook, line, and sinker into the government narrative. The guy's a bartender too, so he's hardly John Galt. I honestly find it so deeply sad that neo-liberalism/Thatcherism has worked the divide and conquer angle so successfully, the working classes don't need to be kept in check because they're quite happy to tear each other apart and keep themselves weak. Or maybe he only thinks that because he's an ignorant tool who doesn't actually know what the hell he's talking about. I'll go with that one.

ThomasPaine posted:

Renaissance Robot posted:

I agree completely, there is no point in working hard.

ThomasPaine posted:

This guy on my news feed gets it, loving dirty scroungers.

Crane Fist posted:

Depends what you're working hard at. For example, if you're working hard at dethroning and murdering Micheal Gove, you should continue to labour mightily

AVeryLargeRadish posted:

I don't have the time to go through all those links in the OP but I'm glad to see things are looking up for you guys.

Mr. Flunchy posted:

This cheered me up today.



Edit: (sorry, dunno why my img tags aren't working)

namesake posted:

Thanks! Just remember that Britain PLC is always open and ready for business, our national infrastructure is available at low low prices and our incredibly efficient labour policies mean those that other countries might deem too ill or disabled to work are keen and ready to work for youuuuuu!

Carrier posted:

It's coming home.

Pissflaps posted:

It is. It's coming home.

SIMON WALTERS, MAIL ON SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR posted:

Newark by-election: Tory candidate Robert Jenrick says that just because he has three homes 'it doesn't mean I don't know about life on the breadline'

Tory Newark by-election candidate Robert Jenrick rejects claims that he has covered up his and his wife’s £5 million property portfolio and £500,000-a-year joint earnings to try to win the Newark seat. Mr Jenrick presents himself as a ‘father, local man, son of a secretary and small businessman and state primary school-educated’ candidate.

In fact, he and American wife Michal own not one, but two, £2 million homes in London and a £1 million country pile built by an 18th Century slave-trader. Their Newark ‘home’ is a rented house obtained when he was picked as a candidate six months ago. And his Party CV omits to say he went to a £13,000-a-year private secondary school. Together with his director’s job at Christie’s auction house, it is just the type of posh Tory boy image Cameron and co can’t shrug off.

Mr Jenrick, who looks even younger than his 32 years, sticks rigidly to his Tory HQ autocue when asked about national issues. During our interview at a cafeteria in Tuxford, near Newark, he is finally stirred when I ask whether, in his keenness to come across as a regular guy, he has misled voters. To win the candidacy, he promised he would move his family lock, stock and barrel to Newark. A 250-mile round-trip to Westminster if he becomes MP – quite a commute for a self-proclaimed family man with two young daughters.

How many nights has the family actually spent in their Newark ‘home?’ ‘Er, it has grown over time.’ He won’t say. His election leaflets are also silent about the couple’s £2 million flat in Marylebone, London. It went up in value by £300,000 last year, more than twice the average price of a home in Newark. Last October, the couple splashed out an extra £2.5 million on a house in fashionable Vincent Square, Westminster, less than a mile from Parliament, which they plan to move into soon.

On top of that they bought Grade I listed Eye Manor in Herefordshire for £1.1 million in 2009. Mr Jenrick says he is ‘almost sure’ they will sell it and move to Newark if he becomes MP. It is to be hoped this interview is not the first Mrs Jenrick, a top commercial lawyer whose professional name is Michal Berkner, eight years Mr Jenrick’s senior, has heard of that. Despite appearances, he says he was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and cites his education at 500-year-old independent school Wolverhampton Grammar as proof. ‘There was no way my parents could afford to send me to private school. My grandma Dorothy paid the fees.’ Then why no mention of any of it in his Tory CV? What does he know about life on the breadline? ‘That’s not fair. None of it was inherited or handed on a plate to us. My wife and I have both worked jolly hard,’ he insists. ‘I don’t need to have a disabled daughter to know what it’s like.

‘I don’t need to have lost a child in Afghanistan to meet somebody who has and have empathy and support them.’ He could easily have carried on enjoying ‘earning money and having nice homes’ but sacrificed it all in a bid to become an MP. Come off it, he can afford to because his wife earns approaching half-a-million a year with US law firm Skadden and can pay all the bills. ‘I’m not going to apologise for that. I’m proud of her,’ Mr Jenrick says.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

But what are they going to do about the muslims?????????

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad posted:

But what are they going to do about the muslims?????????

Darth Walrus posted:

What's the deal with grammar schools, anyway? I'm not familiar with them or why so many right-wing folks idolise them.

Darth Walrus posted:

What's the deal with grammar schools, anyway? I'm not familiar with them or why so many right-wing folks idolise them.

notaspy posted:

Partly down to nostalgia and partly down to actually working.

Aged 11 you'd do a test, if you were smart off to grammar school you went, if not too normal school for you.

As with all things this had it pros and cons the big one being if you didn't make it to grammar school you were effectively a 3rd class citizen (or so he perception went).

quote:

‘There was no way my parents could afford to send me to private school. My grandma Dorothy paid the fees.’

cucka posted:

cucka posted:

Has there ever been a general questions thread in DD?

I know this sounds weird, but I couldn't figure where to ask a question about a general thread. The idea for it is from the subforum PSP. They have a general question thread. This might seem irrelevant, but it actually works really well because it tends to focus on Japan for an asian influence, the main American influence, and a heavy dose of Mexico influence.

I could easily see this template applying to DD. Or is it DND and we're ignoring the actual title? Regardless, open question threads are fun. I did do one in TFF (I think? It was forever ago) and people liked it.

But I think it would be a good way to avoid derails. If someone wants to talk about something random and pose a random question, making a questions thread to do it in might help if the idea picks up steam.

PSP thread that has been running since August 2009. Could be a good way to contain the random off dialog. Could take ideas from threads, and then post to the question, or hell, extended discussion thread, and keep the main threads clean. Little enforcement and it could become a very helpful feature.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3180956&pagenumber=1

This is the PSP general question thread. As I said, it's been running for nearly 5 years now. I think D(n)D could use a similar vessel. Personally, I have utter confidence that any project like this is way beyond anything I can do, so if someone likes the idea and wants to give it a try, feel free. If not, feel free to ignore me. But I legit think it's a good idea, if it hasn't been done. If it's been done, just ignore me, but I didn't see anything relevant with a cursory glance.

Hell, if you wanna go full circle, call it Derail and Discussion, and after a certain point, you just move the conversation there quoting the person's last post in the other thread. They hyperlink afterall, might as well use it.

I dunno. Debate and Discuss whether the Debate Disco should have a Derail and Discussion thread for extending discussions? Maybe even make them regional to keep Kyiv chat from clogging the discourse of drunk americans wondering if their politicans are gonna sell them out or outright kill them once they come to power.

SybilVimes posted:

Don't forget you could buy a grammar school place if your kid wasn't able* to pass 11+ and you had the cash

e: * The number of 'pass' results was based on the number of places, and thus you could buy your way in which would also guarantee to push a poor out of the bottom of the placement

SybilVimes posted:

The argument against the modern system is usually a cover for the real argument - that by integrating all 3 classes into the school system, Johnny Middle-classer has to mingle with the likes of Ralf Thicko and Mohammed Dontspeakenglish, which means that class attention is reduced and thus Johnny and his friend Tarquin (whose parents paid for, and he's a very good influence on Johnny) can't concentrate on their studies.