What annoyed you today?

[Tripod]

That Newbie thing that keeps flashing at me........doesn't it know I was here not long after Mick started this site up. Ok so I don't always look in and partake but then again I helped in the beginning so there.

I'm an old member and silver with it. Lol   What a right moaner......

I reckon I should have an honery olergy  of sorts.

[ABERS]

I can take all the broken promises, you don't expect anything else. It's being taken for a prat that is the annoying thing and then if you hold an opinion contrary to them you are branded either a racist, a homophobe or regarded as just a dinosaur.

The latest uproar about childcare is a case in point. In our day (I'm 77) you looked after your own children, not farm them off for strangers to look after, only 'posh' people sent them off to boarding school to get them out of the way. You did without all the little luxuries until they no longer needed your support.

BAH Humbug

[Andrew]

I can take all the broken promises, you don't expect anything else. It's being taken for a prat that is the annoying thing and then if you hold an opinion contrary to them you are branded either a racist, a homophobe or regarded as just a dinosaur.

The latest uproar about childcare is a case in point. In our day (I'm 77) you looked after your own children, not farm them off for strangers to look after, only 'posh' people sent them off to boarding school to get them out of the way. You did without all the little luxuries until they no longer needed your support.

BAH Humbug

Sadly, I'm of an age when the move started from looking after your own kids to farming them out. It was brought about by that savious of the country and destryer of communities - Mrs Thatcher.

I know this because I bought my house & got married just after the Falklands War - and that was the last time we done anything on my wages alone. When we came to sell and move one, we found that both of us were needed to work to earn enough to make the move. Thankfully the former Mrs B came from a railway background and railway family, and was able to get a job on the platform at the local station. We were able to work our shifts to cover - but we really were the lucky ones.

Thank you Mrs T for creating a country that became so materially greedy that we stopped to appreciate each other, ceased to join in as part of a community and were all determined to be the ones that all the others aspired to catch up to. We ceertainly sold our kids futures out for that philosophy  Oh - and our pensions 

[Hinfrance]

You're right Andrew.

It was so much better before Thatcher - hyperinflation, constant strikes, nothing working, made in Britain meant Brummagen junk, ice inside your windows in the morning because no one could afford the coal or central heating, meat once a week if you were lucky. Oh yes, those were the days all right.

And, point of order, it was Gordon Brown who single handedly shredded the UK pensions system when he was chancellor.

[Jediboy]

I'm of an age where parents use child care, and a lot of it.
However, my wife and I almost exclusively do all our childcare ourselves, and it's hard work. We both work full time, I work shifts including nights and quite often after a nightshift have our youngest whilst the older 2 are at school. Grandparents help out occasionally though.
We take the view that we decided to have children, so we will look after them.
But I can understand why some parents use so much childcare, if they work to support their families. But it's not for us.

[donoreo]

I do not think you can blame Thatcher for the childcare stuff.  It was happening everywhere.  Expenses got ahead of income all over.  My mother went back to work when I was 8 because they needed the second income. 

However, moderator warning, we need to keep this from getting too political.  It is one thing to complain about politicians in general and complaining about specific ones. 

[ABERS]

You're right Andrew.

It was so much better before Thatcher - hyperinflation, constant strikes, nothing working, made in Britain meant Brummagen junk, ice inside your windows in the morning because no one could afford the coal or central heating, meat once a week if you were lucky. Oh yes, those were the days all right.

And, point of order, it was Gordon Brown who single handedly shredded the UK pensions system when he was chancellor.

A selective memory is a strange thing. I remember the seventies and eighties as two decades of fun, great community spirit and a happy and close family life. Yes we had some difficulties with strikes and unrest, not too sure we went without meat. We lived in a predominately working class town where the people understood what was going on and how people needed to fend for themselves, but not at the expense of others.

I also remember the poll tax riots and the miners' strike both a result of Thatcher's vindictive policies aided and abetted by the mad monk Keith Joseph.

Today the children of Thatcher's children are totally oblivious of all what has gone before, they just have been inculcated with the self-first ethos.

I see the moderator from Canada has stuck his nose in.

[Hinfrance]

Don't get me wrong Alan, I enjoyed my time starting out in 70s. All that candle light during the frequent power cuts was certainly romantically beneficial . . . but life for me and mine got better as time went on, not worse. For sure the Iron Lady lost it by the end. I agree with Ben Elton when he said "you may hate Thatcher, but at least you know where she stands". I'm not that sure I have known where all the ones after her have actually stood, if anywhere, especially lately.

I think that it's probably time to move on to some other less contentious annoyances. 

[donoreo]

I see the moderator from Canada has stuck his nose in.

Unbiased observer   I just wanted to make sure things do not break down into an argument as often things involving politics do. 

[Reinardina]

That Newbie thing that keeps flashing at me........doesn't it know I was here not long after Mick started this site up. Ok so I don't always look in and partake but then again I helped in the beginning so there.

I'm an old member and silver with it. Lol   What a right moaner......

I reckon I should have an honery olergy  of sorts.

Sadly, seniority is measured in the number of posts you add to the forums.
Quality does not come into it, you can blab along, saying nothing in particular, but you have to do it often.

Just saying 'I agree,' or even 'Ha ha' will do the trick.

[Oldboy]

I see the moderator from Canada has stuck his nose in.

Unbiased observer   I just wanted to make sure things do not break down into an argument as often things involving politics do.

Quite correct donoreo. 

[Graham]

   Andanotherthing! I've actually met the one they call "Abers" and, ok, it was a couple of years ago, and he did steal some coffee for me, but trust me, he aint 77!

[donoreo]

That Newbie thing that keeps flashing at me........doesn't it know I was here not long after Mick started this site up. Ok so I don't always look in and partake but then again I helped in the beginning so there.

I'm an old member and silver with it. Lol   What a right moaner......

I reckon I should have an honery olergy  of sorts.

Sadly, seniority is measured in the number of posts you add to the forums.
Quality does not come into it, you can blab along, saying nothing in particular, but you have to do it often.

Just saying 'I agree,' or even 'Ha ha' will do the trick.

It says I am a hero.  I may be one to my daughters but not sure on here  

[donoreo]

   Andanotherthing! I've actually met the one they call "Abers" and, ok, it was a couple of years ago, and he did steal some coffee for me, but trust me, he aint 77!

Not a day over 76? 

[ABERS]

   Andanotherthing! I've actually met the one they call "Abers" and, ok, it was a couple of years ago, and he did steal some coffee for me, but trust me, he aint 77!

Yes I remember it well, but I'd just been to the massage parlour, that always put a flush in my cheeks and a spring in my step!