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

It is not for the first time; he seems to suffer from that common disease called 'God Complex'; I've even heard him suggest MPs' should be paid the same as Drs' which seems to me to be a rather excessively high opinion of his abilities and worse others abilities, where of course real Drs' study and research full time for at least eight years.

I think a more appropriate rate would be set as high as a teacher, but point out that he really was elected for his ability and confidence to speak in public, the sort of ability born of arrogance and being slightly better than his peers, much practiced and hard to defeat because of that.

I find it really hard though; to see him as a representative of the working classes, he did after all manage to get a job as a reporter without actually having a degree, which I thought was a requirement. I couldn't get a job lke that; around here reserved for those with the right social standing, with devices like unpaid internships ect ect.

I forgot to add; everybody is conned by all politicians.

First man to walk on the moon buried at sea.

http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/14/13866917-neil-armstrongs-ashes-buried-at-sea?chromedomain=cosmiclog&lite

I wonder what that'll do to the tides?


~jwf~

This is one reason why the US and NATO's campaign of bombing Pakistan and Afghanistan villages can never win because it breeds more and more resentment ... as they kill women and children:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19616356

A teenager in the UK has been convicted for no more than writing comments on Facebook that some people found insulting. What the hell?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-19604735

According to the BBC he put the following on his facebook:

The offensive message, which said "all soldiers should die and go to hell", was posted by Ahmed just two days later on 8 March.

Which fair enough makes him a bone fide evil-doer and potential target for the drones.

er... is that prosecution just a function of british government
or is it all reaching to any country?

truely we can not be prosecuted for voicing opinions?
or offensive opinions?
what about all the pron on the inet? it offends me.

not to mention the porn... now that really offends me

Well folks, it's been nice knowing you all. If you can get jailed for posting moronic stuff on facebook then it's only a matter of time before I'm banged up.

Can you get an en-suite cell in jail?

<>

Except he hasn't.

Many years ago, when I was a postman, an old guy on my delivery route was prosecuted for writing offensive messages and sticking pornographic pictures on the outside of parcels he was sending to a Women's refuge.

Nothing new here.

Two stories; one where the Germans didn't magic away six million Jews without anybody noticing:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2204160/Darkest-atrocities-Nazis-laid-bare-secretly-recorded-conversations-German-prisoners-war.html


and the other showing attitudes hardening against the disabled proving government policy of demonisation to be working, blaming the disabled for the loss of trillions is too stupid to be believed but anyway, it is working.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19621020

From the above -

"One thing that we've seen is that even where groups are seen as perhaps more deserving - so retired people, disabled people - again for the first time since 2008 we've seen that the number of people who are prepared to see more money go on disability benefits has actually fallen."

This echoes something I've thought for a long time - low level benefits cheats are more damaging to society than a few uber-rich tax dodgers because we live amongst the benefits cheats whilst the rich are disconnected. I don't meet a lot of billionaires down my pub, but I do know about John who's been on disability with a "bad back" for years but still manages to play five-a-side football every Tuesday.

I'd wager a lot of people on these forums know of someone who's fiddling the State or who appears to be fiddling and that affects how they instinctively view others claiming to be ill.

>>This echoes something I've thought for a long time - low level benefits cheats are more damaging to society than a few uber-rich tax dodgers because we live amongst the benefits cheats whilst the rich are disconnected<<

I'm not sure I follow your argument swl. The sheer amount being tax-dodged is far larger than the amount being claimed fraudulently in benefits. Demonising the undeserving (and the deserving) benefits claimants would do very little for the public purse whilst claiming the tax we're genuinely owed would be worth billions.

Compare your average benefits cheat to someone like David Laws: Laws misappropriated something like 40 grand of public money for his accommodation. If a housing benefits cheat fraudulently claimed one-tenth of that, they'd be in jail whereas Laws is back in the Cabinet. That, to my mind, sends a worse message and costs the taxpayer more.

swl: This guy seems to have just posted the messages on Facebook. He didn't send the messages to the families of the dead soldiers. That on the other hand could well be an offence, and one I believe people have been convicted on before.

It's not about the pure monetary value, it's about people cheating.

Let's take Glasgow as an example. It has more Disability Blue Badges per capita than anywhere else in the country and an unfeasibly high number of people on incapacity benefits (something like 15-20% of the working population IIRC). Put that beside stories like this - http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/shocking-probe-reveals-more-drivers-1096154 and you can see why attitudes change.

"Helen Dolphin of disabled driver's charity Mobilise said: "These figures surprise me very much.

"I wonder sometimes if there is any point in the blue badge scheme, given how widespread the abuse is."

By the way, the Sunday Mail is assuredly *not* a supporter of the coalition

Where there is a "culture" of benefits abuse, is it any wonder that benefit claimants in general come to be abused?

Purely anecdotally, my wife says she encounters more negative attitudes in Glasgow when she is out on her mobility scooter than in Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen or Newcastle.

Xanatic - Facebook is a public space as is the Royal Mail, hence the prosecution.

swl the problem with the benifits thing is that everyone gets tarred with the same brush and the government don't care because they are holding the brush. there are thousands more honest people who by shear misfortune have to live on incapacity benefit than there are cheats, but do we hear about how they struggle day to day no all we hear about is fred who claims he cant walk but was seen running a marathon or some such.

Glasgow, for reasons unknown, has a much higher death rate and a much lower life expectancy than any other British city. Pretty much every aspect of health and wellbeing is worse in Glasgow than in other cities, even those with similar (or worse) levels of deprivation.

http://www.economist.com/node/21560888

Dr A - is it "tarring with the same brush" or "addressing the elephant in the room"?

We may not like it but there are a *lot* of benefits cheats and, sticking to the sub-section of disabled parking badges, thousands of fraudsters in Glasgow alone -

"Officials from the National Fraud Initiative found 2322 badges with problems, 1948 of them “high priority”. http://www.theglaswegian.co.uk/glasgow-news/news/2012/01/11/disabled-parking-probe-uncovers-huge-rise-in-number-of-false-badges-across-glasgow-102692-23694484/

If the government ignores this low level fraud, you can be sure the tabloids won't and are the tabloids really in the wrong when they report facts?

I can't fault a desire to move away from an attitude of "large scale fraud is ok amongst poorer people because the rich cheat too" towards a flat "Benefits cheats undermine the Welfare State" approach.

On another topic - Salman Rushdie reckons the Satanic Verses wouldn't be published nowadays http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19600879

He's probably right. Violence and intolerance trumps artistic expression now.

Facebook may well be a public space, but it's still the sort of comment I feel people should be allowed to print on a t-shirt and walk up and down the street all day with.