How are you paying for Christmas this year?

I wish I could top your glass up, Duncan: it always seems to be half-empty. Have a great time.

John I live in the world of reality ,even at Christmas-aka- xmas . I have seen what governments do behind the scenes including this one and its not a pretty sight. My glass will never be full until there is peace on earth for real and no more invasions of other countries to prop up a regime. No more war industry but real help for the poor ,not platitudes , a more even society , no homelessness , starvation etc and I mean this country and most of all no more lies ,this will never happen here but I keep fighting for it even at this time of the year.

duncan lucas says:
I keep fighting for it even at this time of the year.
—————————–
DL
I think that YOUR glass is not, and never will be, ‘Half’ anything.
This contribution tells me that your Pint Pot is FULL to overflowing with the Best Brew of Human Kindness and Care.
Not just for this one day of the year – but every second of every day of every year.
LONG may it be so!
.

Definitely a conspiracy. Brave choice of festive family fun, though.

It gave me a bit of a shock too,as it was near the time by 12 hours= 3pm/3 am that is supposed to appear even at that time is was dark due to the weather I was scrambling around for candles and matches as my torch wouldnt work . Its not re-occurred (so far ) the village has a history of killing “witches ” and is full of ghosts (not happy at the way they were killed ) I have read all of Stephen Kings books (except the ones his wife wrote ) and most 50,s US/UK Science Fiction paperbacks that got me on the road to getting a diploma from the Theosophical Society of the UK (after 25 years of study ) so things of the spirit arent unknown to me.

Duncan. If you are as far north as makes it near dark or dark by afternoon then you are a little further up than I am. Given that you worked to British Telecom may you have traveled to the Islands during your duties and if so might you have been in the Polachar maybe 5 or little more years back.

I live well south of Polachar but funny you mention it ,its in South Uist where I had relatives on my mothers side twice removed . They installed a rocket testing base there and some of my distant relatives being crafty devils sold off the cottage there to the RAF I never saw a penny of that. IF you live up there watch out a sea area in the western islands has been approved for testing torpedoes much to the anger of local fishermen .During the war they used to be tested up at the top of Loch Long but bigger now so need more space. The darkness was caused by a downpour of rain the sky was thick black.

No I dont live there but spent time there working and whilst there I met a couple of gents who were BT workers but they were near retiring age. Barren place especially South Uist. No if I were moving I’d move the the North. Near anywhere up the East coast above the Black Isle or the far north

Dee I agree I dont like barren countryside beautiful views look nice but they feel sterile to me I would rather live in an “alive ” area where there is interaction with people.

A lot of Christmas food and drink spending probably carries the family through much of January or even the whole year in terms of liquor. Certainly we stock up before Christmas and hardly do any grocery shopping for the next two or three weeks other than for fresh produce.

In previous years we have left some drinks and foodstuffs in crates in the garage or outside the back door relying on the general low temperature to keep it cool or chilled, but with overnight temperatures at seven or eight degrees or more and daytime temperatures in the mid teens this Winter, this doesn’t work so there is more demand on the fridge and freezer.

I would like to see gambling adverts banned. The only winners are the gambling companies. You are quite right about the lure of easy money – but who actually gets that easy money? Do you know anyone? The problem is, how do you protect people from themselves? How much should we be responsible for our own actions – financial and otherwise – and if we are not to take responsibility then who should?

Education about the losses that gambling will incur, the actual amount of money you will repay when taking out a legalised shark company’s loan, could and should be made clear, but will many people take, or want to take, any notice?

Difficult questions, Malcolm. To the extent that people who ruin themselves and their loved ones due to gambling addiction usually end up as a cost to the overall community there is a case for more state-funded support and guidance. I have read so many articles in the local newspapers about people who allowed a gambling habit to overtake them and ended up stealing from their employer, or from their parish council for whom they were the clerk, or from a charity for whom they were the treasurer. They all got found out in the end but in most instances these cases were not about a consequence of or a reaction to poverty and being unable to put a meal on the table, they were about avarice. But the resort to gambling and punitive borrowing to fund day-to-day expenditure is in a different league and certainly needs psychological and supportive intervention as well as professional guidance on budget management. Loan sharking, as distinct from the legitimate but still dubious pay-day loans industry, is an evil form of exploitation with blackmail, menace, extortion and cruelty at its core. It preys on those who are totally bereft and leads them into crime and vice. It is underground and secretive with no records except the shark’s pocket book. Apparently there are possibly a quarter of a million people indebted to this form of loan shark in the UK. Incredibly given its appalling reputation, the term ‘loan shark’ has also attached itself to the licensed and high-visibility form of high-interest short term lending known usually as pay-day loans. This tends to discredit those operations [if that is possible] and to part-respectabilise the criminal form. While education is one approach, as you say – will many people take, or want to take, any notice? Even if you explained that somebody who routinely bets five pounds a week could do just as well – or at least no worse – if they saved up and bought 250 Premium Bonds since they would still have their stake available, they would say they wouldn’t enjoy it so much, they would have a much lower chance of the big jackpot, they would lose the impulsive thrill of the scratch-card or the race. Of course, they don’t actually need the big jackpot, just a few hundreds to get them out of a scrape perhaps, but the important part of the education process is about living within their means and this is where society does fail people through its commercial behaviour. I don’t have an answer for that and all further thoughts seem patronising.

I blame the “New Society ” where borrowing is indecently encouraged by the government and the lowering of moral standards in this country where 24/7 you are bombarded with -cant afford it ??? take out a loan (at 1000 % ) or a “pound of flesh” will do. Putting the blame on the public IS patronising them , have none of you seen inside a psychiatric hospital or had a relative who needed group therapy or “some pills ” to tide them over a traumatic event . I fail to understand the== I am of a strong mind so everybody else should be like me –attitude. This certainly isnt the case in human society many people just dont have the moral strength or spiritual strength or even the intelligence to understand why they do it they need help not platitudes . WE are all born the same way , if some are hindered in life by poverty/illness /great loss why should they be persecuted by society ,why take from the poor and give to the rich ?? Do we not all die so who is better at the end ? Help should be given but what happens it is removed and even worse events occur (suicide ) I dont need to look too far to see who is to blame and neither do the non-NGO charities . People take drugs/steal/drink in many cases because they look around and see no future for them and at least prison will give them a couple of meals a day. I am not condoning it just commenting on what I have actually seen with my own eyes . Where is the pity / the humanitarianism ? the real giving (of themselves ) to help those in need ? This society has become a commercial hell of total free range neo-conism and its only getting worse . Its so bad that in Scotland school children who are hungry because of welfare cut-backs are stealing food from other school children.

A lot of what is happening now is due to the swing of the pendulum. It was not so long ago that a form of dependency culture was allowed or encouraged to develop [according to one’s viewpoint] and there was little expectation in official circles that people would be self-motivated and find ways within their family and community of supporting themselves so the state would provide. Now we have an opposite attitude in certain sections of society that everybody regardless of circumstances should be able to stand on their own feet, and that they only have themselves to blame if they can’t, and therefore should not be a burden on the state. Getting the balance right is the tricky bit and, I am afraid to say, some rather base political, electorally-motivated, calculations on where best to allocate public welfare have come to the fore. I think the situation is not helped by the gross and conspicuous extravagance of the better-off which only sharpens the divide and intensifies the feelings of hardship and disadvantage. I have to say, however, taxing out that propensity to spend from the wealthier section of the community is not the way forward; I feel the answer lies in better moral and spiritual values as Duncan says. We seem to have thousands of charities, most with laudable aims but many duplicating or conflicting with each other, but very few seem to be doing the really hard work of tackling poverty and human misery and they don’t get the support they deserve. Our history and traditions mean that it will never be acceptable for the government to provide full relief so the role of the voluntary sector is vital. “Benevolence” and “mutuality” are not the right language for today but there must be some elements of those concepts that can be applied in a society that considers itself one of the world’s more caring examples.

A lot of the ‘pendulum’ effect is shamelessly fostered by the DFM and its ilk. I suspect press regulation might be a better course. Perhaps nominations for who should be publicly flogged – starting with tabloid editors…