h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are you using the word /mainland/ to refer to Britain, Potholer? Be very careful. Wouldn't want to get lynched, would we?

(Some people living on the islands off the West coast would use the word 'emigrating' to refer to moving to the mainland of Ireland. Quite an independent people.)

TRiG.

>>>I live in Birmingham.

>>>About as far from the briney as its possible to get in the UK.

>>>Why am I paying for something Im very unlikely to ever use?

Ever heard of insurance? I assume you either don't drive or consider yourself a lousy driver? Oh, and that a gas leak could never happen in one of the houses surrounding your own or in the street outside.

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>>>Well they look after fishermen and ferries aswell as people in pleasure craft. Great let the people in ferries pay a surcharge ech time they come under the protective wings of these people and their expensive helicopters. Let the people in pleasure craft pay a subscription on their maritime insurnace because they are the ones who get the benefit not me.

Tell that to the people of Carlisle and Boscastle who were rescued by Helicopter, tell that to the hundreds of people injured throughout the country in areas inaccessible to ambulances, tell that to the people who would have died in a Road Traffic Accident if there hadn't been a handy helicopter to get them to hospital in ten minutes when it would have taken an ambulance half an hour just to get to them.

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>>>>As for the fishermen if they have to pay higher insurance to pay for this service being there well good and if they pass that cost onto me through the price of cod going up that's just fine.

>>>>If the upshot of these changes is a less reliable service then that's fine too. The fact is people die and while its not a pleasant fact we could spend millions or even billions more on this service and people would still die. With a less reliable service some people might think twice about pleasure trips and find a less dangerous and perhaps simpler passtime. There might be less fish caught which would be good for the fish. There might be fewer greedy people willing to take the risk of a ferry crossing just to stock up on cheap booze and ciggies.

Ooooh, now there's a way to save money - do away with the National Health Service and State Education System as well... If people are inconsiderate enough to have kids then they should ruddy well pay for their education themselves - I don't see why my taxes should pay for other people's sprogs.

And people should ensure that they put aside enough money to deal with any potential health problems they might have! Can't have ill people cluttering up the place - it's damned unhygenic for a start!

Seems Whisky has covered most of what I was going to say already for me .

I would say though that the fishermen and others who go to sea for work or pleasure *do* pay into insurance for their rescue.

Who do you think volunteers for the RNLI?

I dare say that some people who are rescued make donations or help with future fundraising.
However there is the issue (covered on an old thread, if I remember) that a *perception* that a volunteer rescue organisation was getting significant funding via other means, and maybe especially from a state-organised system, can risk normal small donors stopping giving money as well as raising issues over the independence of the organisation.
If a rescue organisation is doing OK on donations, they may well prefer to keep things as they are.

Whisky, they say sarcasm is the lowest form of whit, but as brevity is the soul of whit then your pst deosnt even qualify as sarcasm.

I dont have a problem with the RNLI, the NHS or the state education, if I did that would be hugely hypocrtical of me as at various times Ive been employed and dont fundraisning in aid of two of those bodies.

Guess which one I didnt fundraise for. Here's a clue I live in Birmingham.

Now If I lived in a costal place like Boscastle chances are I would feel differently.

Im not saying people dont need these things (or that airline fuel shoudnt be taxed, it should and Ive said so in the past). What I am saying is that any service should be funded by the general population if it covers enough of the population but whetre the number covered is much fewer then it ought to be considered as more down to them to get it financed. As a fish eater I said I'd pay more for the true cost of paying for the emrgency services to fishing in the price I paid for fish or not if it was too expensive.

Please dont put words in my puth as Im sure if you've been around here long enough you'll see that I can come out with enough rubbish without help from anyone else.

one love

PS those who say sarcasm is the lowest form of whit are just jealous because they dont have the whit or the cojones to say such things. i for one think that the funiest films I ever saw all starred Groucho Marx.

"Why am I paying for something Im very unlikely to ever use?

Ever heard of insurance? I assume you either don't drive or consider yourself a lousy driver? Oh, and that a gas leak could never happen in one of the houses surrounding your own or in the street outside."

Whisky, I have to say well done for being fantastically accurate in your guesses. I dont drive and yes it is because Im an absolutely appalling driver. I have both the mental and physical scars to prove it. I have however heard of insurance.

As for the possibility of an explosion caused by an explosion in the house next door, hopefuly the possibilty is reduced by the cpotribution I make to to transco and the Loacal authority who perfom gas supply and appliance which make by paying bills and community charge. Moreover the comunity charge also helps to pay for the fire and ambulance service I might need in the event of an explosion.

See I do think things through sometimes.

So living in Birmingham, excluding fish, you think you have no reliance on the sea?

What about all those things in the shops that are "made in" or "packaged in" places other than the uk?

How do they get here?

They don't fly it here, because it costs too much, instead it gets sent the long way round on a container ship. If it is being transported by lorry on land it still has a ferry to use. The only other method being the channel tunnel.

Well duh!

I will pay more for them wont I just like with the fish.

I didnt go into a tedious list of things I imaginged that ppeople would be smart enough to extend to other commodities shipped in or indeeed out.

If I cant afford them no one need risking their lives to bring them, fairly simple really if people realy want them they will pay the extra cost of providing safety meaures for those who bring them.

If the safety measures arent their then the people who ship might decide not too. Its called a mixed economy because the Gverment might insist but I dont see why the government should tax me for things I am not going to use the same as other people who we defnitely use them much more than I and the most of the other millions who dont go to see much.