Money will be tight

[Borchester]

Review the average commuting distance endured by workers since say 1962 and you'll soon see.

In my childhood and early adulthood the nature of work was such that most workers lived within 30 minutes walking distance of their place of work which is why the severe winters were not remotely the problem they are today. People lived within sight of work.

The rise of the long distance (car > 1 hr, train > 2 hr each way) commuter has been astronomic since the building of the M25. Butost of that is down to the insane cost of housing forcing people into commuter ghost towns

One thing I gave never wanted to do was live in sight of my job. I had enough of that when I was in the Merchant Navy and my cabin was on top of the engine room.

As said before, most of my working life I have tried to maintain a few a few sidelines so that I could tell the guy or guyess at the main job to go F@@@ themselves as the mood took me.

[johnofgwent]

Thatcher? I'm not usually stuck for words, but you've stumped me there.

Review the average commuting distance endured by workers since say 1962 and you'll soon see.

In my childhood and early adulthood the nature of work was such that most workers lived within 30 minutes walking distance of their place of work which is why the severe winters were not remotely the problem they are today. People lived within sight of work.

The rise of the long distance (car > 1 hr, train > 2 hr each way) commuter has been astronomic since the building of the M25. Butost of that is down to the insane cost of housing forcing people into commuter ghost towns 

[Borchester]

We live to our means. So we make sure that the rent/mortgage, gas, electric, water and council tax is covered, the live off what you have left. Sky TV, TV, memberships etc.. scrap them. Mobile phone, go onto the lowest tariff or scrap it. Do as many jobs as you can, My dad had a full time night shit job and three part time jobs when we were kids. We wear jumpers, if not two and tweak the heating down. You grow food where you can.

In a way, just do what we did in the 60's and 70's. The youth of today are spoilt and expect the government to pay their bills. Work near to home and walk. Walk to the shops, scrap the car and get the bus.

I have always tried to live within my means but the means keep changing.

I have always had a few side lines such as books, tutoring, property and the like to act as some sort of buffer. I would be happy to dump all my problems on the government, but I don't think that they are prepared to spend as much time worrying about me and mine as I am,

One way and another I think I will survive.

Dunno about everyone else.

[Benson]

The flaw in that argument being there are no jobs you can walk to any more, unless you live in central london n. Thatcher put paid to that.

Thatcher? I'm not usually stuck for words, but you've stumped me there.

[johnofgwent]

We live to our means. So we make sure that the rent/mortgage, gas, electric, water and council tax is covered, the live off what you have left. Sky TV, TV, memberships etc.. scrap them. Mobile phone, go onto the lowest tariff or scrap it. Do as many jobs as you can, My dad had a full time night shit job and three part time jobs when we were kids. We wear jumpers, if not two and tweak the heating down. You grow food where you can.

In a way, just do what we did in the 60's and 70's. The youth of today are spoilt and expect the government to pay their bills. Work near to home and walk. Walk to the shops, scrap the car and get the bus.

The flaw in that argument being there are no jobs you can walk to any more, unless you live in central london n. Thatcher put paid to that.

[Benson]

Some of us have lived through something similar before yet with the concentration on Boris and the shenanigans in Whitehall it is in danger of slipping under the radar until it suddenly hits us all for six. The young are going to be very worried and there is no hiding the fact that it is going to be tough for very many. It's global and out off our hands so say. What can be done?

We live to our means. So we make sure that the rent/mortgage, gas, electric, water and council tax is covered, the live off what you have left. Sky TV, TV, memberships etc.. scrap them. Mobile phone, go onto the lowest tariff or scrap it. Do as many jobs as you can, My dad had a full time night shit job and three part time jobs when we were kids. We wear jumpers, if not two and tweak the heating down. You grow food where you can.

In a way, just do what we did in the 60's and 70's. The youth of today are spoilt and expect the government to pay their bills. Work near to home and walk. Walk to the shops, scrap the car and get the bus.

[Borchester]

For **** sake. So this conflict is "random", and all this has absolutely feck all to do with the fact that at the same time the West has become dependent on foreign energy imports, its debt has surpassed any historical precedent and inflation is close to getting out of control?

Meanwhile of course, lets concentrate on the "real" issues, like can a woman have a f*cking penis. No wonder the Russians thought they could walk into Ukraine. Because the West would be too busy blowing its own f*cking penis. Just as well the Ukrainians are made of stronger stuff than the average European or they'd be in Berlin by now

Pretty much.

The Ukraine invasion started because, like most of such tragedies, the Russian President lacked the mother wit to keep out. Keep in mind that Putin is 70 years old, but still thinks that riding around on a horse flashing his bosoms and murdering defenceless animals makes him look manly, instead of, as all right thinking folk believe, a total C@@@.

There is no brilliant plan behind the Ukraine war, just the usual fuckwittery that causes most wars.

It is odd that people have suddenly started worrying about the National Debt. It did not seem to worry them when the government were paying folk to sit on their arses because they had a bit of a cold, but there you are. Overall Rishi appears to have handled the nation's finances pretty well and I could see him as a challenger to Bojo if it were not that he had all the charisma of a wet haddock.

I can understand Deppity's concern over a tsunami of Ukraine transsexuals flooding into the UK. It is not as though we are short on our own, but at least it will give the NHS something to do. God knows it has done F@@@ all else for the last two years.

[cromwell]

I'm not saying its all the fault of Covid. But the response to Covid was a total f*cking disaster, and you cannot deny that. It was born out of a liberal dogma that has lost all sense of reality. We should NEVER have shut down our economies like that. How else can we explain how a naive teenage girl with a face like a dog chewing bricks was taken more seriously than the leaders of our countries?

But the fact is, Greta Thunberg is a SYMPTOM of the Wests malaise, Cromwell, not a cause of it. Attention seeking shits like her get that attention precisely because virtue signalling and hand wringing is more fashionable than facing the brutal truth - which is that ****s like Putin who are bright (or ruthless) enough to see where the tea leaves have fallen WILL take advantage of a soft society than looks and acts weak. And if he fails, there will be another lunatic along to f**k up our party, and another, and another, long before any iceberg melts on the whole pathetic little parade

Well it wasn't just the western world was it? the whole world more or less took the same stance on covid,still do look at China and Shanghai now and they're certainly not hand wringing liberals by any stretch are they.

The predictions of a pandemic were around a long time before,pandemics have happened before.....I don't doubt one will come along man made or not and wreck the place.

People have woken up to the perils of people like rasputin.

[DeppityDawg]

Yes for any sake,the west has become reliant on energy imports because Greta told them all to behave.....and they said yes miss.

Net zero ditching oil and going heat pumps,wind power,electric cars was all planned long before covid as was the lack of any real thoughts of the perils of not securing utilities and power and the possibility now real of hostages to ill fortune.

If you think all this is the result of covid you're wrong.

I'm not saying its all the fault of Covid. But the response to Covid was a total f*cking disaster, and you cannot deny that. It was born out of a liberal dogma that has lost all sense of reality. We should NEVER have shut down our economies like that. How else can we explain how a naive teenage girl with a face like a dog chewing bricks was taken more seriously than the leaders of our countries? 

But the fact is, Greta Thunberg is a SYMPTOM of the Wests malaise, Cromwell, not a cause of it. Attention seeking shits like her get that attention precisely because virtue signalling and hand wringing is more fashionable than facing the brutal truth - which is that ****s like Putin who are bright (or ruthless) enough to see where the tea leaves have fallen WILL take advantage of a soft society than looks and acts weak. And if he fails, there will be another lunatic along to F@@@ up our party, and another, and another, long before any iceberg melts on the whole pathetic little parade

[T00ts]

Isn't it more that we are in a perfect storm? Covid, war, a weak set of governments +++. Don't we have leaders in the world who looked around over the last few years and saw an opportunity? While the global eye was off the ball wrapped up in urgent problems they must have seen it as a golden opportunity to try and create their new world order. They may still succeed of course. 

After all, that woman sage who in the past has correctly foretold all sorts of things apparently prophesied Putin as leader of the world. Perhaps he believes her prediction and by some accounts he's on borrowed time so perhaps saw that he needed to get on with it. I feel quite sure that Russia has quietly worked the game to get us reliant on them for fuels for years just as China is working to monopolise countries all over the world. A coalition of the two is just what we need with North Korea making up a dreaded triumvirate. Oh whoopee!

[cromwell]

For **** sake. So this conflict is "random", and all this has absolutely feck all to do with the fact that at the same time the West has become dependent on foreign energy imports, its debt has surpassed any historical precedent and inflation is close to getting out of control?

Meanwhile of course, lets concentrate on the "real" issues, like can a woman have a f*cking penis. No wonder the Russians thought they could walk into Ukraine. Because the West would be too busy blowing its own f*cking penis. Just as well the Ukrainians are made of stronger stuff than the average European or they'd be in Berlin by now

Yes for any sake,the west has become reliant on energy imports because Greta told them all to behave.....and they said yes miss.

Net zero ditching oil and going heat pumps,wind power,electric cars was all planned long before covid as was the lack of any real thoughts of the perils of not securing utilities and power and the possibility now real of hostages to ill fortune.

If you think all this is the result of covid you're wrong.

[DeppityDawg]

I've seen estimates that covid will cost the world close to or maybe more than WW2.

Can't see that the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the rising cost of gas and oil is down to covid they'd have happened anyway,hopefully we will fare better than postwar .....the death toll then was massive and Europe was a wasteland.

However an economic boom and miracle happened in the fifties we can only hope given the infrastructure stilling place it won't lasttoolong.

For **** sake. So this conflict is "random", and all this has absolutely feck all to do with the fact that at the same time the West has become dependent on foreign energy imports, its debt has surpassed any historical precedent and inflation is close to getting out of control?

Meanwhile of course, lets concentrate on the "real" issues, like can a woman have a f*cking penis. No wonder the Russians thought they could walk into Ukraine. Because the West would be too busy blowing its own f*cking penis. Just as well the Ukrainians are made of stronger stuff than the average European or they'd be in Berlin by now

[cromwell]

Well, we've already had the massive petrol/diesel and food price increases and inflation of 6 or so % and rising. And now, according to the DM anyway, it'll comes home to roost today. Energy price cap lifted. National Insurance contributions raised, mortgage rates going up because of interest rate rises, road tax, water, insurance costs etc etc. Not forgetting of course, that Russia and Ukraine between them produce more wheat than anyone else, and they are now in the middle of a war.

Course, like was said ages and ages ago, it won't be us old fogies with our mortgages paid off and our pensions who will suffer most.

All we need now, is for an investigation into the "science" and "models" the government claimed they were being led by back at the beginning of 2020.

Its coming

I've seen estimates that covid will cost the world close to or maybe more than WW2.

Can't see that the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the rising cost of gas and oil is down to covid they'd have happened anyway,hopefully we will fare better than postwar .....the death toll then was massive and Europe was a wasteland.

However an economic boom and miracle happened in the fifties we can only hope given the infrastructure still in place it won't last too long.

[DeppityDawg]

Well, we've already had the massive petrol/diesel and food price increases and inflation of 6 or so % and rising. And now, according to the DM anyway, it'll comes home to roost today. Energy price cap lifted. National Insurance contributions raised, mortgage rates going up because of interest rate rises, road tax, water, insurance costs etc etc. Not forgetting of course, that Russia and Ukraine between them produce more wheat than anyone else, and they are now in the middle of a war. 

Course, like was said ages and ages ago, it won't be us old fogies with our mortgages paid off and our pensions who will suffer most.

All we need now, is for an investigation into the "science" and "models" the government claimed they were being led by back at the beginning of 2020. 

Its coming

[Borchester]

We only stopped paying for WW2 in the nineteen nineties,govts make decisions and a bill has to be paid.

That is true, but I dare say we only finished paying for the Seven Years War in time to send the lads off to the Crimea.

As said before, I have always been of the opinion that the best approach to the flu would have been to give everyone a bottle of brandy and told them to go to bed for a few days.

But even that would not make a lot of odds.Servicing the National Debt only cost about 8p out of every pound paid in tax, so it is hardly insupportable, quite apart from the fact that the only person who every made a decent stab at eliminating the National Debt was Nicolae Ceaușescu, and look what happen to him poor sod