You Can Help To Save Abbey Road Studios!

Let us hope that the Election in the next few months will see most of the current mob ... erh ... de-commissioned, shall we say?

The next lot will be crack-pots as well, but hopefully not so venally concerned with controlling every aspect of our personal lives, while feather bedding their own.

I accept that politicians will always featherbed themselves, but please leave me [and everyone else] out of their control freakery, and I hate being treated as thick by such people.

Mr Tory and Mr Whig, please note!

ATB from George

quote:

Originally posted by GFFJ:
Let us hope that the Election in the next few months will see most of the current mob de-commissioned, shall we say.

The next lot will be crack-pots as well, but hopefully not so venally concerned with controlling every aspect of our personal lives, while feather bedding their own.

I accept that politicians will always featherbed themselves, but please leave me [and everyone else] out of their control freakery, and I hate being treated as thick by such people.

Mr Tory and Mr Whig, please note!

ATB from George

Seldom have I seen such a succinct statement of the country's ills.

Unfortunately It's difficult to see a way out. Once this abhorent prediliction has taken hold (and has it not!) the whole vile attitude appears to become institutionalised and impossible to shift.

I beleive it will make zero difference who is named 'in charge' come next tickbox time. The damage is irreversable. The UK is dead but doesn't, quite, know it.

More wodka.

Regards, Paul.

The Prime Minister gets paid less than the unelected chief executives of many councils and a great deal less than people of similar standing in the private sector. Only a small minority of MPs broke the rules they were given for claiming expenses. The so-called expenses scandal was a huge media-led non-issue and it was surprising and depressing to see so many intelligent people getting worked up about it. If you want to see political corruption go to Italy or Japan. Our lot are pretty well behaved as far as that goes. It's their policies we should be worried about.

Dear Paul,

The best Wodka [well its very nice and about the best] comes from Poland. Somehow I intend to retire to Poland.

I am 49 this year, so have only another 15 to 20 years left in UK, unless it finally reaches a point where I would be better off working there! It is marginal now, so sooner perhaps, and I have got some very good contacts accumulating!

ATB from George

quote:

It's their policies we should be worried about.

Quite.

quote:

The Prime Minister gets paid less than...

But given the monkeys in Westminster, would you want them paid more?

quote:

Originally posted by mongo:
The damage is irreversable.

Yes, I've been saying for a while that this country will probably never recover from the damage inflicted on it by an alarmingly small handful of crackpots at the helm of the Labour Party and the BBC. History will record a rather strange take on democracy, I suspect.

quote:

Originally posted by David Scott?:
The Prime Minister gets paid less than the unelected chief executives of many councils and a great deal less than people of similar standing in the private sector. Only a small minority of MPs broke the rules they were given for claiming expenses. The so-called expenses scandal was a huge media-led non-issue and it was surprising and depressing to see so many intelligent people getting worked up about it. If you want to see political corruption go to Italy or Japan. Our lot are pretty well behaved as far as that goes. It's their policies we should be worried about.

Hi David.

I agree that the corruption is relatively small beer. That does not however make it any more palatable. That, and the nauseating lack of a collective spine, when forced to confront it is simply intolerable; any kind of vertabrae would have been a most welcome change.

However what (I think George?) and certainly myself find most objectionable is their total lack of any policies.

Except one.

That is the overiding need to interfere in the micro details of other peoples lives. It is an obsessive, near manic, desire to control that is so repulsive. They also seem unable to conceive the notion that people by and large are quite capable of running their own affairs.

As has been said, if the government was a private business most would have been fired.

But I'd go further and state explicitly that I beleive their individual and collective compulsion to interfere renders them fit only for long term therapy.

quote:

That is the overiding need to interfere in the micro details of other peoples lives. It is an obsessive, near manic, desire to control that is so repulsive.

I think if you were ever unfortunate enough to live under a government that remotely fits this description, you would realise how - relatively - lucky you had been to live under the one we have now.

I'm not a labour apologist, but I don't think this kind of exaggeration helps. I think, in politics, it's very dangerous to get yourself worked up to the point where you fall into thinking any change would necessarily be an improvement.

Plus I really don't get this expenses thing at all. All but a very few MPs were acting within the rules and claiming only what they were encouraged to claim. Many of them have had to pay money back in any case. Am I the only one here who sees a problem with this? By all means change the system, but don't castigate people for abiding by it when it was in place.

I'm not saying Brown should be paid more. Nobody forced him to take the job. But I suspect that if featherbedding was top of his list he'd have chosen a different career. I also think that anyone who doesn't realise that, Brown, Blair,Thatcher and even Major were all exceptional individuals is living in a simple fantasy world which leaves them vulnerable to the whim of their chosen tabloid.

I say this as someone who hated Thatcher and everything she stood for and never trusted Blair. Major and Brown I quite like. Takes all sorts, eh?

Well. mummy knows best. Eh?

Mongo,

If you mean 'politicians know what's good for you', then I can't really see how you would get that from my post. If you read it more carefully you might see it differently, but there's no reason why you should do that if you don't want to.

If you were meaning to insult me then feel free. I really don't mind. Arrogant, pompous, opinionated and windbag are all good words. Knock yourself out.

I 'ad that George Martin in the back of me cab once.

David

Hi again David.

No Insult intended mate, I'm not that subtle.

I merely mean to imply that this gov't is out of touch with the real world and has no direction other than round and round.

The nannying is so obvious imo that it's acutely embarrassing to see adults behave like this. The lack of any real drive or clarity forces them to be as absurd as they are.

As for the exceptional individual bit; Thatcher, undoubtedly. Major. well.... Blair, perhaps talented in some respects, in others, simply deluded. And as for Brown, as a public faced leader he's not even a joke.

History may well have something interesting to say about Major, likely to about Blair, certainly regarding Thatcher, but Brown? A footnote as the early twenty first century's least effective most bumbling idiot. It's really the very best he can hope for.

Regards, Paul.

Hi Paul,

On reflection I thought it wasn't an insult, but it was too late to edit the post.

I'm not trying to persuade you to vote for Brown, but describing him as "a bumbling idiot" is just silly. Fashionable, but silly. I think politics is too important for us to think in such lazy cliches.

To me the most depressing thing about contemporary politics is that no-one attempts to rise above the infantile yah-boo agendas set by the tabloids. That's been the aspect of the whole new Labour era that's upset me most.

Hi David. I haven't read a tabloid since my twenties. As for 'bumbling idiot', it really is the best he deserves. It may not have the impact of talented political putdown but is he worth the effort?

Imo, not in the slightest. He is a man who either actually beleived he could make a difference (lol) or was deluded. Either way like I said, a joke. Sorry if you think I'm superficial, but this is the result of enthusiasm destroyed by years of blatant non-competance.

quote:

Originally posted by mongo:
He is a man who either actually beleived he could make a difference (lol) or was deluded.

He has made more of a difference than any politician in living memory IMHO - negative. He will be remembered for the financial ruin he has wreaked on this country going back to his chancellorship and his exposure as a completely incompetent leader as PM. He has created a culture of handouts for the needy (which I support) and the even bigger lazy.

We, who decide to remain in the UK, will all be paying for the financial disaster he has created for a long, long time to come.

The worry is if he gets back in, which I hope he can possibly not but stranger things have happened.

Completely agree.

I should have written 'positive' difference.

My bad.

Paul.

Paul,

I'm not saying you're superficial. It's just that in the course of my increasing disillusionment with politics, I've come to value accuracy and honesty more than anything else. For what it's worth I don't think Brown's been a particularly successful prime minister - though I think the odds were stacked against him from the beginning - and I see where the thing about his paternalism comes from, but he's clearly a very smart man and I don't see what good it does to deny this, or exaggerate his shortcomings.

"the financial disaster he has created"

Unlike everyone else I know, I don't pretend to understand economics, but I think this assumes that governments are much more powerful than is actually the case. As I child I once got the blame when some bookshelves fell over when I was standing near them, so I sympathise with Brown over this one. Wasn't the credit crunch international? Are you suggesting that British economic policies were really that influential?

quote:

Originally posted by David Scott?:
"the financial disaster he has created"

Unlike everyone else I know, I don't pretend to understand economics, but I think this assumes that governments are much more powerful than is actually the case. As I child I once got the blame when some bookshelves fell over when I was standing near them, so I sympathise with Brown over this one. Wasn't the credit crunch international? Are you suggesting that British economic policies were really that influential?

It is much much more than credit crunch - the credit crunch has been the thing that has exposed our inherent weaknesses and Browns mis management of the economy. It goes all the way back to when he started killing off pension schemes, increasing tax burdens through the back door, creating huge amounts of unnecessary public sector "overhead", selling off assets and creating his own style of boom and bust - we are close to a big bust right now as we were not prepared for the bad times as Brown was out using his Visa card. We are now stretched beyond belief.

It is one of the main reasons, we are at the bottom of the pile now in terms of our ability to get out of this mess. Watch the struggle the country will go through in the next few years versus the competition. All IMHO of course. Anyway, I am off back to listening to music in the music room.

Lontano,

I said I didn't pretend to understand economics, so I won't.

I once had the pleasure of visiting Studio 2. It brought tears to my eyes just to be there. Anyone else feel that way ?

PS. In a hundred years time no one will know anything about Blair, Brown, Major and Thatcher.

Gladstone, Asquith, Lloyd-George, ...

I would bet that people with an interest in the decline of the UK will well remember some of the people you mention.

ATB from George

Redmires, your sentiment is a good one and incongruously on topic - although I'm not sure that you are right about Thatcher and Blair. What I take from the recent debate is that North Peckham Estate should be listed (zero architectural merit but something (in)famous happened there) and we should insist that someone else pays for our sentimental attachment to Abbey Road - and berate anyone who has the money to pay for it. Come on guys!

quote:

You can keep your Millwall i would rather have ABBEY ROAD.any day.

When given a choice do both.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Some one nicked the Henry M art work from Peckham.
They do care there.
You can keep your Millwall i would rather have ABBEY ROAD.any day.
Stu

Be good to save Abbey Rd it's part of our history. Think I would feel the same if The Angle of the North were stolen for scrap.

quote:

Originally posted by northernlad:

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Some one nicked the Henry M art work from Peckham.
They do care there.
You can keep your Millwall i would rather have ABBEY ROAD.any day.
Stu

Be good to save Abbey Rd it's part of our history. Think I would feel the same if The Angle of the North were stolen for scrap.

I thought it was scrap?