Blog Comments (3,000+)

RE: Donald who...?

Biden's address was angry - and thoroughly predictably - dishonest (and divisive)

Donald Trump's speeches are angry - and thoroughly predictably - dishonest (and divisive).

corrected...

RE: Donald who...?

Really...?

With her 'life begins at conception' attitude towards abortion with no exceptions, not for rape, not for incest/child pregnancy, not if a woman dies in agony leaving her other children orphaned?

That's not just a personal attitude of hers, that's the bill she tried to push through in her home state to force every other woman into a position of second class citizenship by not being allowed to have an opinion, or say in her own medical care.

RE: Donald who...?

I've watched a bit more.

It's a bit of a 'We will fight them on the beaches...' kind of a speech, eh?

Whoa! I just got to the bit where Biden promised passionately and authoritatively to restore Roe vs Wade...and the then camera panned to a very huffy looking Supreme Court in the audience.

That was a classic.

RE: Donald who...?

Listened to people's opinion of the President's speech one would think the democrats and the republicans heard two different speech.

President Biden gets multiple of these.

RE: Donald who...?

The reasons women wore white are:

Lawmakers seen wearing all-white at the president's State of the Union are commemorating the 19th Amendment. Passed by Congress in 1919, the law granted women the right to vote following decades of agitation and protest.

With so much going on in the news about Invitro eggs in Alabama being destroyed if they aren't used by the end date women are protesting. In addition, Alabama says that the eggs are babies and if they are destroyed it is considered murder.

There is much more about this in the link.

RE: Is it true England is a permanent Welfare State and anyone who works there is a sucker.

Yeah, I think it's pretty bad manners to be a second, or third generation immigrant and to try and pull up the ladder behind you.

Did you read the article you cited?

Only I think it's saying that you are to blame for my not infrequent urges to call you a callous, selfish count.

It's just my responsibility to temper those impulses and understand where they come from.

Do you understand where your anti-social behaviour originates?

RE: Is it true England is a permanent Welfare State and anyone who works there is a sucker.

You've lost the plot galrads. You take one article which incidentally includes the rudeness of John McEnroe and judge the whole of the U.K.

Now read about your hero and what an unutterably rude disrespectful man you want to run America.




Delete it at your will.We all know the "truth"

RE: Is it true England is a permanent Welfare State and anyone who works there is a sucker.

Ffs, no it's not true, you muppet.

If you are too poor to pay your rent and/or council tax you can get some, or most paid. It's not a perfect system, mind. There are caveats that have really caused problems for some of the most vulnerable, like people who need an extra room for a severely disabled child with lots of medical equipment, but don't necessarily qualify for that space according to the gender/age of siblings. Also, it can be difficult to find the right sized property to rent - there are few one bedroom properties for single people to rent.

I've never heard of anyone getting free utilities, but there were some subsidies for the poorest people coming out of covid into a winter of huge price hikes.

We have food banks. They work by shoppers buying an extra item, or two to drop in a donation box on their way out, or volunteers collecting today's date produce from supermarkets. I'm not sure of the criteria for being able to use a food bank. It might be some kind of benefit, but that would exclude those who are working and whose income covers everything except enough food to keep them going, so I don't know. It's not state welfare anyway, it's the community doing it's best to look after others.

We have the NHS, so yes medical services are free for everyone. In Wales we have free prescriptions and some free medications under the Common Ailment Scheme from pharmacies. I'm not sure what the other GB countries do, but I think Scotland is much the same as us and in England you get free prescriptions if you have a chronic illness like diabetes. We certainly don't let people keel over in the street for want of a bit of medicine, or treatment. We're not monsters and it would be a short-sighted way to run a country anyway.

In Wales we can get a bus pass if we're over 60 years old, or disabled, likewise there are concessions on the trains. There are also minibuses to get people to hospital appointments. Luckily when my dad was having dialysis having had his guts held together with mesh and a wish, my mum was still able to drive him to the out of area specialist unit. Otherwise he would have been propped up in the minibus for most of the day as it went round all the towns and villages. It would be pretty psychopathic to leave folk dying of kidney failure on their bathroom floor because they couldn't get to the hospital for dialysis.

We have the Citizen's Advice Bureau and other charitable organisations that help with all sorts of legal and social issues. Government funded Legal Aid is quite restricted, for example you can't get legal representation for family court issues, but clerks will advise you in house. I assume you can get Legal Aid for criminal trials.

If you voluntarily leave your job, you won't be entitled tax credits, or any of the other forms of unemployment benefit. If you lose your job, it's of a barely subsistence living standard. You're expected to look for work full time and it can be time consuming trying to get enough food, etc. to live. There's certainly not enough money for luxuries like heating and hot water in the winter.

If you want to pull up the ladder on the UK's most vulnerable whilst stuffing you maw on one of those ridiculous take aways you like to show off, I'm afraid you're out of luck. We have a halfway socially responsible system because it's both the right and the sensible thing to do.