Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

"Selling" is a really great way to become wealthy. Because it isn't a method of making money that has natural restrictions on it - particularly restrictions related to time.

Knowing 'what to sell' and 'who to sell it to' and 'how to sell it to them' are the difficult bits.

Know any more?

Here's one:

The Government was last night accused of double standards over arms sales to Russia after it emerged that officials have approved a massive increase in weaponry to be sold to the country to more than £130m.

MPs warn today that at least 251 export licences for the sale of controlled goods - ranging from sniper rifles to night sights - remain in place despite a call from Prime Minister David Cameron for other countries, in particular France, to halt lucrative arms deals with Moscow.

Downing Street insisted that any arms licences granted for equipment to the Russian military had been suspended in the wake of the MH17 disaster after Mr Cameron singled out French President Francois Hollande’s refusal to call off a £1bn deal to sell Moscow two helicopter carriers.

The increasingly acrimonious war of words between London and Paris over sales of military hardware to Moscow deepened last night when the head of Mr Hollande’s Socialist ruling party called Mr Cameron a “hypocrite”.

A pro-Russian militiaman has said his forces shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, according to a report in an Italian newspaper.

When the disaster happened the rebel was told by his superiors that they had hit a Ukrainian military craft. “‘We hit a plane from Kiev,’ our commanders told us. We thought we’d be fighting Ukrainian pilots landing in parachutes but instead we came across the corpses of civilians, the remains of bodies, along with suitcases and bags,” he told Corriere della Sera newspaper.

The paramilitary was from the Oplot fighting unit. He was speaking at the Torez railway station where the bodies were being kept in five refrigerated wagons. The militiaman would not reveal his name or rank, but the newspaper’s website published his photograph with the story.

The account of the rebel, a 31-year-old miner from the Torez area, contradicts claims that pro-Russian rebels were not behind the shooting. “On Thursday, our commanders gave us orders to get on the truck with lots of arms and ammunition,” he said. “Maybe 10 minutes earlier, we’d heard a big explosion in the sky. We’d ‘hit a plane of the fascists from Kiev’, they told us. They added that we should be on our guard because at least some of the crew had jumped with parachutes; white objects were seen. Maybe we’d have to fight and capture them.”

But he said his fear turned to horror on arriving at the scene. “With my soldiers I tried to spot parachutes on the ground and the trees. I saw shreds of clothing in a clearing. I approached and saw the body of a little girl, not more than five years old. It was terrible.”

From: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/malaysia-airlines-mh17-crash-prorussian-rebel-admits-to-shooting-down-plane-9622075.html

Our own con hero Captain Marvel

last week cynic commented on my post about these rotten take aways
well they have been selling sub standard meat and other produce from china
not fit for human consumption . any one allowing their children to eat food from mc .sub. and others must hate their children the yankee companies only think of profit not your health . other take aways should also be avoided if you think any thing of your life and body . they are filthy places and now it is in the open .
and yes I did post about this issue before the press . I have my contacts they would never eat the shite .if you want good food go to the supermarket and cook it your self and save loads of money .

Did his new friends give Captain Marvel £120,000 for his lost campaign?

They must have money to squander and dirty hands to swap the notes with.

The stench increases!

fred love your cartoon spot on

cnbc yesterday NIGHTINGALE SAID ALL POLITIANS ARE DISHONEST LIARS AND YOU CAN NEVER BELIEVE THE LIARS LIVE ON CNBC .

Don’t believe Oxfam’s (IMHO) ‘lies’

By David Craig, on July 23rd, 2014








By my reckoning, about 50% or less of the money given to Oxfam is actually used for real charitable work. That’s pathetic. And it’s not anywhere near Oxfam’s claim of using 74.3% for charitable purposes.

Then there’s one other not so small problem – most experts and UN special studies suggest that around 80% of aid given to Third World countries disappears due to corruption and incompetence.

All in all, you’re probably wasting your money if you give it to Oxfam and you’re probably wasting your time if you’re one of the 22,000 volunteers who help out at Oxfam. If you want to give to charity or help charity, why not choose a small local charity or hospice where you can see what your money is being used for? But as for huge, bloated, bureaucratic, self-serving Oxfam – waste of time, waste of money?



Full article here: http://www.snouts-in-the-trough.com/

maxK . THE BEST POST EVER BEEN PUT ON THIS THREAD THANK YOU

that is exactly why i am very particular as to which charities i support

it also says the same about the uk giving money to other countries it never gets to the people just makes the leaders rich . all foreign aid should stop

HAMAS, terrorists firing rockets from hospitals bloody cowards

international and inter-country aid is much more complex and subtle than the usual Help the Children or Oxfam stuff ..... don't confuse the two nor the aims and agenda of each

you can believe me or not . I give around 20k a year to my local charities mostly to youngsters leaving school and hospice

An enlightening post about Oxfam. I also believe the senior staff also travel round the world using 'First Class' too. I suppose they do such good work, they are so vitally important and so utterly indispensable. True 'VIPs' or maybe even 'VVIPs', eh? One might well believe too, that they would definitely be given front row seats when receiving guest invitations and the like.

Q. And why, other than for charitable purposes, should we travel round the world during this holiday season when we are enjoying such fantastic sunny weather here in the UK?

A. To get away from the jelly fish.

One metre jellyfish spotted off Largs
23 Jul 2014 09:30

NHS 24, is advising people to be prepared and to seek advice on dealing with marine life stings.


Picture by Peter Watkins

A report by the Marine Conservation Society this week has warned that jellyfish sightings off UK waters could reach a record high this year.

This metre long jellyfish above, was pictured off Largs bay and is believed to be a barrel jellyfish.

Scotland's national telehealth and telecare organisation, NHS 24, is advising people to be prepared and to seek advice on dealing with marine life stings.

NHS 24 Medical Director Professor George Crooks said: "Jellyfish are mushroom-shaped creatures that often float near the surface of the sea. Not all jellyfish sting but some of them have long, thin tentacles that trail underneath them. These tentacles are covered with small poisonous sacs which can produce a nasty sting if touched.

" If you are unfortunate enough to be stung, most jellyfish stings are mild and don't require treatment, or you can treat them yourself. Any remaining tentacles should be removed using tweezers or a clean stick (wear gloves if they're available). Applying an ice pack to the affected area will help reduce pain and inflammation.

"Remember that vinegar is no longer recommended for treating jellyfish stings because it may make things worse by activating unfired stinging cells. The use of other substances, such as alcohol and baking soda, should also be avoided. Applying shaving cream to the affected area will help prevent the spread of toxins.

"However, dial 999 if there are severe symptoms, such as difficulty breathing, chest pain, or if a large or sensitive area of the body such as the face or genitals has been stung."

Professor Crooks added “The best prevention is to try and avoid jellyfish. If you are walking along the beach, be careful not to touch jellyfish that have been washed onto the shore. They can still be poisonous so try to keep curious kids and dogs away from them.”

For further information on stings from marine creatures go to the Health Library at www.nhsinform.co.uk

See more at: http://www.largsandmillportnews.com/news/largs/articles/2014/07/23/504795-one-metre-jellyfish-spotted-off-largs/#sthash.RvfJUizA.dpuf

cynic - 23 Jul 2014 11:17 - 44218 of 44223

that is exactly why i am very particular as to which charities i support.................ends

rubbish your just a tight git.

It's a pity that DC (no, not dreamcatcher) isn't a bit more selective, but then again it's not his money so that's ok.
2517

The Feral Children of the Upper Classes

I was reading A Gay Mentalist’s blog a little while ago, and a term he used to describe the middle classes struck me. He called them ‘feral’. It’s not a word that usually applied to the upper ranks of society. Usually it’s given to the underclass and their children, the type of people, leading bleak lives of deprivation and pointless moral squalor. The type of people with no jobs, and no self-respect, whose chief and often only activities seem to be drunkenness, drug dealing, violence and sexual promiscuity. The type of people who provide the raw fodder for Jeremy Kyle, as they slouch onto his show to present their sordid tales of domestic abuse and accuse each other of stealing each other’s partners.

It does, however, also perfectly describe the attitude of the middle classes, and particularly the hysterical ranting of the middle market tabloids and the vicious, punitive attitude of the Tory front bench. ‘Feral’ implies savage, wild, extremely aggressive, vicious and untameable. You apply it to animals, like feral dogs infected with rabies, and vicious creatures like wolverines and pole-cats. It’s applied to creatures that most definitely stand outside the safe, decent and civilised, like the notorious ‘rat boy’, who got into the news a few years ago. This was a small boy, who already had racked up a long list of offences despite his extreme youth. He got his name because he used to disappear down the various service pipes lying about his estate to escape from the police.

The Murderous, Middle Class Persecution of the Poor, Disabled and Unemployed

Yet ‘savage’, ‘vicious’ also describes the Tory attitude to bullying the weakest members of society – the unemployed, the disabled, asylum seekers, everyone, who got on to the Tories’ wretched little list of people they want to persecute. The violence isn’t necessarily physical. They haven’t quite descended to the level of the Nazi party just yet in sending stormtroopers in to beat and murder benefit claimants, but it’s there nevertheless. Think of all the people Mike, Johnny Void, Kittysjones, Stilloaks, Glynismillward, Tom Pride, the Angry Yorkshireman, Untyneweare and so many others have blogged about, dying in hunger and squalor due to benefit sanctions. It’s the result of a vicious, murderous attitude to those they deem below them every bit as vicious and unrestrained as the type of gang hatreds you can see acted out on street corners in the sink estates. Fuelling it is a palpable sense of threat and status anxiety – that the working class and the unemployed are somehow a threat to middle class society and its precarious norms – every bit as vehement as that of the local thug or bully, who declares that he just wants a bit of ‘respect’.

Eton and Public School Bullying

It also accurately describes the culture of bullying and violence that pervades private, and particularly elite, education. The bullying in public schools is notorious. A friend of mine, who came from such a background, told me that in the public schools you were bullied horrifically in your first year, only for this to stop and you to become a bully in your term in the second. And some of the bullying truly is horrific. Way back in the 1980s Private Eye reviewed yet another book on Eton, and said that the accounts of the bullying there were so extreme and revolting, that if they occurred in state education it would result in a public outrage and demands for the school closed down or placed in special measures. One example of the type of bullying that went on came from one old Etonian, who said there was one boy, who forced others to eat ice cream mixed with human excrement. The bully is not named. It was, however, stated that he was now a prominent lawyer. And some of the bullying was sexual. Given the sexual nature of some of the cruelty, it’s probably not surprising that the elite covered up the paedophile activities of their members for so long. Exposure to that kind of bullying at public school may well have inculcated a kind of indifference to it, in the same way it is argued that too much exposure to porn or extreme violence in the movies will habituate viewers to even more extreme and depraved acts in normal society.

Physical Attacks on the Poor by Public School Children

And the children of the rich are violent too. A friend of mine once told me that ‘Eton Rifles’ was about a gang fight in which a group of public school boys beat up a group of lower class lads. It also affects the security measures some local businesses adopt to protect their property and customers from assault from the rich and privately educated. A little while ago I went on a tour of East Anglia and the Fen Country with a group of friends. One of the hotels we stayed in, a magnificent inn dating back to the Middle Ages, had various measures up to stop people causing trouble. They weren’t particularly intrusive, and I can’t remember now what they were, only that they were there. They weren’t imposed to stop the usual drunks and thugs starting fights in the bar. They were actually aimed at protecting the premises, customers and staff from the pupils at the private school nearby. At the end of the school year, or the term, these children would leave school to start fights and smash up the shops in the time. Presumably they felt entitled to this as their parents were rich enough to pay the £40,000 a year school fees.

The Public School Gun-Nuts of Snapchat and Pistolero Violence in the Developing World

You can see some of that same attitude on the story I reblogged this week about Snapchat, the Facebook site for public schoolchildren. This featured them showing off their wealth and contempt for the rest of the society in the most offensive ways possible. Among them were using £20 and £50 notes as toilet paper, and waving around guns. These, they claimed, were to protect their estates from ‘the peasants’.

Let’s examine the double standards going on here. If a Black lad or someone from the White underclass put up a photograph of themselves waving a gun around, trying to be ‘gangsta’ or mouthing off about protecting his ‘manor’, there would be angry and excited columns in the Mail and other papers screaming about ‘gun crime’ Britain. And not without reason, either. Gun crime and gang shootings are a problem in many British cities. You could also compare it, and the attitude underpinning it, to the right-wing gun-nuts in America. They’re affluent, but not necessarily rich, and the image tends to be of rural red-necks announcing that the government will only be able to take their guns away from ‘their cold, dead hands’. They’re as much objects of ridicule and contempt as seen as a threat.

No such opprobrium seems to be applied to these children, probably because the upper classes have always had a fascination with guns and shooting. Orwell remarked that the aristocracy and middle classes were brought up for war and battle. Which makes them sound like Dr Who’s Sontarans: bred for war. The stereotype is of aristocratic families, who have supplied a long line of soldiers and generals since the founder first came over with William the Conqueror, and who list various antecedents who fought at Agincourt, conquered India under Clive, and then did their patriotic duty at various battles in the Napoleonic, First and Second World Wars. The Combined Cadet Force frequently formed part of their education, training them for further service and leadership in the armed forces.

Now there are certainly parts of the world where, if you’re rich, you most certainly do need armed protection. There’s some extremely grisly photos around the web of the White farmers, who were killed by armed robbers in South Africa. In other parts of the Developing World, it’s historically been the other way, and the poor have most definitely needed protection from people like the gun-crazed youngster on Snapchat. In many parts of the Developing World the rural poor were kept in serfdom by the masters of the estate, who hired guns to intimidate and kill anyone who stepped out of line. Way back when I was at school about thirty years ago, the BBC screened a series, Brazil, Brazil covering that country and its history. This covered that aspect of Brazilian society, the owners of massive estates in their haciendas, and the pistoleros, the gunmen they employed. They talked to the peasants, who’d been threatened and attacked by these men for asking for wage rises or otherwise daring to challenge the absolute domination of their lives by their masters. Now you can conclude from this that the rich kids now showing off their guns on Snapchat and ranting about protecting their property from peasants are just reacting to the real violence against the wealthy in many parts of the world. Or they’re simply rich brats, with a feudal sense of entitlement, who really do believe that the lower orders are peasants, who should be kept down with armed force, exactly like their public school friends in Latin America do with the peons on their plantations. Considering the way Priti Patel and the other authors of Britannia Unchained believed that Britain should follow the exploitative employment practices of developing nations like India, this is a real possibility.

In short, A Gay Mentalist is exactly right: there is a culture of vicious, feral violence amongst the middle classes. It’s shown in the horrendous bullying for which the public schools have been notorious since the publication of Tom Brown’s Schooldays. It’s shown in the violent contempt so many have for the lower orders. And its there in the need to humiliate, persecute and kill the working and lower middle classes, the unemployed and the disabled, as expressed in the system of benefit sanctions, and physical testing now being used to decimate the welfare state. It’s there to satisfy the sadistic cruelty of RTU, Fester McLie and latest upper middle class thugs now taking up residence and valuable office space in the DWP. And its present in the terrible sense of threat clearly felt by the Daily Mail, the Express and every right-wing newspaper, not excluding the Torygraph and the Times in their editorials and their need to drum up further hatred against the poor, marginalised and underprivileged.