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Syria
Sept 10, 2015 18:50:23 GMT
Post by starlilolill on Sept 10, 2015 18:50:23 GMT
BBC 6 o'clock news - Mustard gas and Chlorine Gas being used against civilians. Wouldn't we all want to escape under those circumstances?
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Syria
Sept 10, 2015 19:09:50 GMT
Post by ARENA on Sept 10, 2015 19:09:50 GMT
Too true. You can thank the Bush family and their cronies for this.
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Syria
Sept 10, 2015 20:44:16 GMT
Post by starlilolill on Sept 10, 2015 20:44:16 GMT
It seems that every country we stick our nose into ends up a 'basket case' and we end up as a target. Not a nice feeling!
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Syria
Sept 11, 2015 10:24:43 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2015 10:24:43 GMT
It seems that every country we stick our nose into ends up a 'basket case' and we end up as a target. Not a nice feeling! Hmmm. I wold not necessarily agree with that. As for the Mustard and Chlorine gas issues I am reminded of a conversation I had many years ago. I was invited to Porton Down to a sort of closed open day for reasons I won't go into. At lunch I was sat on a table with among others an army padre who banged on about how what we had seen was awful and inhumane. I sat quietly for a while and then said: If you think that under some circumstances it is right for one human being to kill another, and your uniform seems to indicate that is true, then I can't see it makes a lot of difference how you do it. My starting point is that killing other human beings for whatever reason is wrong. Lunch was a bit quiet after that. Yes my resolve has been tested many times, but I genuinely believe that organised war is wrong, and I would never pick up a gun and shoot someone I did not know and did not have any argument with because a politician of any colour told me I should, or that it was my duty to do so. Syria is a total mess, and in my view will only be resolved when the opposing forces run out of money, because money buys the weapons ammunition and all else besides. It is in our power to ring fence them, starve them of everything they need without getting involved militarily and bring that about quite quickly. Very professional armies have been defeated in the past because they ran out of supplies. The German army got as far as the end of the tram tracks in Moscow and were defeated by a very inferior Russian army because their lines of communication were disrupted, and too long.
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Syria
Sept 11, 2015 11:43:48 GMT
Post by starlilolill on Sept 11, 2015 11:43:48 GMT
Syria is all but destroyed - Putin will continue to fund Assad - ISIS will be able to obtain weapons as long as they can extort money that is!
We go into countries for totally selfish reasons IMHO. There are countries all over the world that could do with a bit of help now and again, no oil, no minerals that we would like to get our hands on so no help offered!
We dish out foreign aid to corrupt regimes in the hope of getting some of their oil etc in return. The people of those countries don't see the benefits of the 'aid' it goes into the pockets of the powers that be. That 'aid' isn't government money, it is tax payers money - that is you and me, money well spent I can live with, money going to corrupt regimes I resent.
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Syria
Sept 11, 2015 12:40:10 GMT
Post by jimshoo on Sept 11, 2015 12:40:10 GMT
We need to stop voting for bankers and their sons!
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Syria
Sept 11, 2015 13:06:08 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 11, 2015 13:06:08 GMT
We need to stop voting for bankers and their sons! Why should the fact that a person is a banker, or a bankers son, or a miner or a miners son either qualify him or disqualify him from holding high office?
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Syria
Sept 11, 2015 15:45:13 GMT
Post by starlilolill on Sept 11, 2015 15:45:13 GMT
We need to stop voting for bankers and their sons! Why should the fact that a person is a banker, or a bankers son, or a miner or a miners son either qualify him or disqualify him from holding high office? I could be wrong (not for the first time) but I think what jimshoo was saying that people should hold high office on merit not on what/who they are. Perhaps it is back to the 'class issue' in our society - it still exists and shouldn't!
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Syria
Sept 12, 2015 13:38:15 GMT
Post by Arfurmo on Sept 12, 2015 13:38:15 GMT
Too true. You can thank the Bush family and their cronies for this. In what way?
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Syria
Sept 14, 2015 9:06:56 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2015 9:06:56 GMT
Why should the fact that a person is a banker, or a bankers son, or a miner or a miners son either qualify him or disqualify him from holding high office? I could be wrong (not for the first time) but I think what jimshoo was saying that people should hold high office on merit not on what/who they are. Perhaps it is back to the 'class issue' in our society - it still exists and shouldn't! As for the 'class' issue. I don't think there is one, other than envy by some people seeing someone achieve, and putting all that down to the silver spoon syndrome, and not to the fact they might have ability and the determination to work hard and achieve. .
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Syria
Sept 14, 2015 12:02:39 GMT
Post by starlilolill on Sept 14, 2015 12:02:39 GMT
Which planet are you on jonjel? To say there is no class issue in the UK is like saying the sun won't rise tomorrow!
Ability is everything to my mind - to be appointed to a position because of who/what you are is disgraceful in this day and age.
It has nothing at all to do with envy - if you achieve in life because of hard work and merit I say good on you. My father was 'a self made man' - I hate that expression but it is one that most people understand. He was born to an unmarried mum at the end of WW1 who worked hard all her days. She couldn't afford to allow him to stay on at school after he was 14 even though he had been the dux in school. He was bright, he worked hard and he achieved without anyone giving him a helping hand with a silver spoon! That is the sort of person we should be using as a role model!
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Syria
Sept 14, 2015 13:18:00 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2015 13:18:00 GMT
Which planet are you on jonjel? To say there is no class issue in the UK is like saying the sun won't rise tomorrow! Ability is everything to my mind - to be appointed to a position because of who/what you are is disgraceful in this day and age. It has nothing at all to do with envy - if you achieve in life because of hard work and merit I say good on you. My father was 'a self made man' - I hate that expression but it is one that most people understand. He was born to an unmarried mum at the end of WW1 who worked hard all her days. She couldn't afford to allow him to stay on at school after he was 14 even though he had been the dux in school. He was bright, he worked hard and he achieved without anyone giving him a helping hand with a silver spoon! That is the sort of person we should be using as a role model! I don't know what the fight is starlilolill. I totally agree with you. I am not saying YOU envy anyone, I am saying that the 'snot fair' brigade bewailing their own lot often cite 'class' as the barrier to getting on. The barrier is frequently the inability to get stuck in.
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Syria
Sept 14, 2015 14:49:08 GMT
Post by starlilolill on Sept 14, 2015 14:49:08 GMT
I have a feeling that class is going to become a major issue under the present regime. The gap is widening year on year.
When I was at school we always knew the ones who were bright, shall we say. We also knew that there would be jobs for ALL. I came from a small market town that had a foundry and a factory making woolen garments. There were two builders in the town who took on apprentices, proper apprentices. In the next small town 7 miles away there was a factory making radiators. In the major town 18 miles away there was Uniroyal and ICI. They have all gone. When you have a job to go to on leaving school you can hold your head up high - now you have to go to university, get a degree in 'anything' and there are still no jobs to go to at the end of it.
Manufacturing has all but disappeared in the UK - the jobs for those who didn't go on to college have disappeared. Sad days.
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Syria
Sept 14, 2015 15:21:47 GMT
Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2015 15:21:47 GMT
Starolil. Same with me, and we were I think lucky in that no-one needed to be out of work. And yes, the bosses son frequently took over the business even if he was a absolute numpty. The firm would still prosper. Not so now, I think people are far more astute. I don't necessarily agree that with the demise of 'heavy' industry it is harder. There were plenty of people employed in factories who were quite bright. And those jobs are now in shops or service industries, transport and entertainment. We actually employ more people (measured in millions) than we ever have. So the jobs are there, just not in the 'traditional' industries. After all the wagon wheel builders found other things to do, and so did the farm labourers where it has dropped from about 1 per acre to I per 250 acres..
As an employer I am not impressed by people with degrees. I used to be but I fear they have been grossly devalued other than in a very few subjects. I was horrified a few years ago when a friend asked me to help his son with a physics question. It was absolutely basic. And afterwards I discovered this was his mock A level, the sort of thing I did in the third form. And I am horrified by some job applicants that come through the door with 'C' grade GCSE's. I recall asking one, who had maths, if he liked maths. His favourite subject apparently. I then asked him what was 12 x 12. He said he was not sure, but would work it out if I gave him pen and paper. I was intrigued so handed him a pad. He wrote down 12, 12 times in a column and added them up. And got the answer wrong!
There is still work out there for those that are prepared to work. But many set their aspirations far too high. They leave University with a Desmond in some strange subject and expect the job offers at 30 or 40 grand to come flooding through the door.
I really do think the 'class' system is pretty well dead. People by and large don't get jobs because of the school they went to. Yes, a high proportion of people at Oxford Cambridge and other top universities went to private schools, but with maybe 12 to a class and dad being more that interested in how his son or daughter is spending his money, then no wonder they get results
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Syria
Sept 14, 2015 15:33:05 GMT
Post by starlilolill on Sept 14, 2015 15:33:05 GMT
As an employer jonjel I bet you don't use zero hours contracts!
Many of the so called jobs aren't really jobs at all - we would have called it 'casual labour'.
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