general enquiry about Pensions and Life Savings (and stuff)

[CrazyHorse]

3 million sounds like a lot to me too. But there're 47000 places of worship. 3 mil equates to only 67 in each which tbf does sound reasonable.

Anyway, who asked me?

[Prufrock]

I think he was talking about Pru World.

I have a butcher I use ( indeed, I have a farmer I stock up with from time to time), I have a local ... I don't go to church but mrs. bobo does, and I have a few good lical restaurants I frequent more readily than using chain groups *except for Nandos.

Middle England, even in Wales, thrives young man. Just because you're all cosmopolitan just presume everyone is.

I would suggest you're the exception in having a farmer!

Town centres used to be full of butcher, baker, florist, a co-op, grocer etc. Now they're all takeaways and all the above is available at Tesco or Asda. My old man was a butcher run out of business by an Asda supermarket, but ironically he ended up working there as in-store butcher later, so I suppose the jobs just move, but there is *something* lost when the local man runs his own business, has a relationship with his customers and so on, ends up in a back-room as a colleague of Wal-Mart.

Of course its customer driven behaviour which has caused all this. Women work so much more now, and with free parking available next to an A-road it's just so much easier to get it all done quickly. Pubs you could probably argue about tax & brewery behaviour.

Exactly. But people are too quick to say it's (insert large company)'s fault. People STILL have a choice.. But more often than not, they choose the place where they can get everything they need in one place.

In fairness I don't think anyone here ( so, me ) has been talking about it as if its their fault. I don't blame them, I just don't like it!

[boltonboris]

See even 67 seems high.

I've HAD to attend churches in my time such as before we were getting married and when we wanted Erica christened. Different churches, but each with about a dozen people in. there were more kids on the altar forced to be there with School than there were actual worshippers.

Maybe a dozen at a time. And St. Mark's Church in Worsley in particular is a big church with (I imagine) a high number of people in the Church's catchment area or whatever you want to call it.

[Athers]

I suppose loads of Poles will go! Half a million of them knocking about.

According to the most recent CBOS opinion poll published in the fall of 2008:[9]
94% of Poles claim "they believe in God",
6% claim they "do not believe in God or do not know",
52% of believers claim "they attend to mass, religious meetings etc. at least once a week",
while 17% do so "once or twice a month",
18% do so "a few times a year",
and 13% "never do so".

[Bruce Rioja]

I don't know.. But 3 million just seems high to me. I don't think I know anybody who goes to church other than for weddings etc, and I know a lot of people of varying age.

I'd also imagie, Boris, that of those you know, some, maybe a good number, will go to church but you just don't know about it.

[Beefheart]

See even 67 seems high.

I've HAD to attend churches in my time such as before we were getting married and when we wanted Erica christened. Different churches, but each with about a dozen people in. there were more kids on the altar forced to be there with School than there were actual worshippers.

Maybe a dozen at a time. And St. Mark's Church in Worsley in particular is a big church with (I imagine) a high number of people in the Church's catchment area or whatever you want to call it.

But 67 would be an average. There'll be some that have way more. I went along with a flat mate who is a Methodist to a mass once, just to see what it as like, and it was at the venue where they have 'We Will Rock You' in London, and it was full. So had to be a few hundred there!

[bobo the clown]

I have a butcher I use ( indeed, I have a farmer I stock up with from time to time)

Middle England, even in Wales, thrives young man. Just because you're all cosmopolitan just presume everyone is.

I would suggest you're the exception in having a farmer!

Fair point ... and I don't want to lay claim to him being "mine" but if you ever travel in anything resembling countryside you'll see signs at some farms saying they sell whole or half lambs, pigs & quantities of beef. There's one quite close and is a fine ... and good value ... place to get larger amounts to fill up the freezer.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I have a butcher I use ( indeed, I have a farmer I stock up with from time to time)

Middle England, even in Wales, thrives young man. Just because you're all cosmopolitan just presume everyone is.

I would suggest you're the exception in having a farmer!

Fair point ... and I don't want to lay claim to him being "mine" but if you ever travel in anything resembling countryside you'll see signs at some farms saying they sell whole or half lambs, pigs & quantities of beef. There's one quite close and is a fine ... and good value ... place to get larger amounts to fill up the freezer.

Y'see we too have a farmer. If more people go to church than go to a football match, I'm betting that more people have a farmer than have a chiropodist.

[bobo the clown]

See .... you lot need to get out a bit more.

[Montreal Wanderer]

I have a butcher I use ( indeed, I have a farmer I stock up with from time to time)

Middle England, even in Wales, thrives young man. Just because you're all cosmopolitan just presume everyone is.

I would suggest you're the exception in having a farmer!

Fair point ... and I don't want to lay claim to him being "mine" but if you ever travel in anything resembling countryside you'll see signs at some farms saying they sell whole or half lambs, pigs & quantities of beef. There's one quite close and is a fine ... and good value ... place to get larger amounts to fill up the freezer.

Y'see we too have a farmer. If more people go to church than go to a football match, I'm betting that more people have a farmer than have a chiropodist.

Your thread has been truly highjacked, Spotty. You will end up in penury looking for Welsh farmers to supply your food needs.

[thebish]

I have a butcher I use ( indeed, I have a farmer I stock up with from time to time)

Middle England, even in Wales, thrives young man. Just because you're all cosmopolitan just presume everyone is.

I would suggest you're the exception in having a farmer!

Fair point ... and I don't want to lay claim to him being "mine"

aye - those kind of open relationships are much more common nowadays...

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I have a butcher I use ( indeed, I have a farmer I stock up with from time to time)

Middle England, even in Wales, thrives young man. Just because you're all cosmopolitan just presume everyone is.

I would suggest you're the exception in having a farmer!

Fair point ... and I don't want to lay claim to him being "mine" but if you ever travel in anything resembling countryside you'll see signs at some farms saying they sell whole or half lambs, pigs & quantities of beef. There's one quite close and is a fine ... and good value ... place to get larger amounts to fill up the freezer.

Y'see we too have a farmer. If more people go to church than go to a football match, I'm betting that more people have a farmer than have a chiropodist.

Your thread has been truly highjacked, Spotty. You will end up in penury looking for Welsh farmers to supply your food needs.

Hijacked! It's been coshed, fed Rohypnol, and subjected to degrading abuse... But I don't care, coz I got out of it what I needed. Ta for the answers, it really has helped. Really.

[jaffka]

I go to church on Sunday, mainly for the free food and ale.

[Lord Kangana]

Ahem, its not my fault. Its everyone else's. Just thought I'd point that out.

[Dujon]

Monty and Spotty, I too fell to giggling. A thread based on pensions and life savings degenerates into a discussion about church and football attendances? Only on TW.

[Burnden Paddock]

No one is hyperbolic. 'Far far fewer than used to' doesn't flow as well.

Which is quite close to the word Bruce used, to be fair.

Although I said no one, I didn't mean no one! I'm sure there are people who do use them, but I'm not sure the well-to-do middle-aged men we tend to get on here are truly representative. Blackrod at one point only had two open pubs (I think one was reopening) Adlington doesn't have a butchers anymore. Chiquitos is always rammed. Maybe I'm wrong, but I think I'm right .

I don't go to church coz I'm an atheist. I do have a local which I love back home, but haven't found one down here yet (I do have the choice of several Spoons), I dont have a butcher because all of the ones in my area are halal and I'm uneasy about the methods used to kill the animals and (probably the real reason ) the main things I'd want a butchers for would be bacon pork and lamb, and I can't be bothered going for just lamb. I can't remember the last time I ate in a chain restaurant, but then I have plenty of choice in this shithole I call home.

I just worry in 20 years time the only shop will be tesco and the whole world will look like middlebrook.

What about the one at the bottom of Babylon Lane?

I do tend to agree with you generally though. Hate the way that our own centres have become carbon copies of each other, with the same chains in virtually every single one. I drink in Wetherspoons and also eat the gourmet burgers. It's some of the clientele that depresses me, the old alkies and mobility scooters . Suppose that makes me something of a hypocrite.

[Prufrock]

Stopped doing butchery a while back, and has now moved opposite Greenhalghs and just does pies and stuff.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

Ahem, its not my fault. Its everyone else's. Just thought I'd point that out.

Noted.

[Burnden Paddock]

Stopped doing butchery a while back, and has now moved opposite Greenhalghs and just does pies and stuff.

Oh well. At least the pies survived.

[Prufrock]

Indeed, they are belting. So good they use them for the world pie-eating championships held in Wigan. That's right Wigan, you can't even do the best pies.