The Politics Thread

[Bijou Bob]

Without context, it's meaningless!

[thebish]

Made perfect sense to me.

me too...

[Prufrock]

Without context, it's meaningless!

It's a ratio; it doesn't need units. If a cordial bottle says four parts water to one part concentrate, it doesn't matter what your units are! Whether it's litres or pints it's the same.

Playground again

[Beefheart]

Made perfect sense to me.

me too...

and me

[thebish]

the Bulgarians are flooding in....

[Bijou Bob]

Without context, it's meaningless!

It's a ratio; it doesn't need units. If a cordial bottle says four parts water to one part concentrate, it doesn't matter what your units are! Whether it's litres or pints it's the same.

Playground again [/quote

Seems your play mates are happy with half a story.

The graph tells us the level of benefits paid in various countries. Relative to what? Do the benefits allow for comfortable living or are they set at the level of basic subsistence? If a loaf of bread is 19p in Bulgaria, how do their benefits compare to the UK where the same loaf is 84p?

Your research paper for your degree must have made interesting reading.

[thebish]

Without context, it's meaningless!

It's a ratio; it doesn't need units. If a cordial bottle says four parts water to one part concentrate, it doesn't matter what your units are! Whether it's litres or pints it's the same.

Playground again [/quote

Seems your play mates are happy with half a story.

The graph tells us the level of benefits paid in various countries. Relative to what?

relative to wages - as clearly stated.

[Bijou Bob]

Ah right, that explains everything then

[Beefheart]

Ah right, that explains everything then

Not sure if you're being deliberately obtuse?

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

What an odd discussion.

Though I have to say, I do find it difficult to take much from that graph without knowing the wage levels and their purchasing power.

Can that really be the correct ratio in the Netherlands?

[Bruce Rioja]

Can that really be the correct ratio in the Netherlands?

I was wondering the same about Belgium, albeit conversely. Their system will even pay your mortgage for quite a while.

[Prufrock]

Without context, it's meaningless!

It's a ratio; it doesn't need units. If a cordial bottle says four parts water to one part concentrate, it doesn't matter what your units are! Whether it's litres or pints it's the same.

Playground again [/quote

Seems your play mates are happy with half a story.

The graph tells us the level of benefits paid in various countries. Relative to what? Do the benefits allow for comfortable living or are they set at the level of basic subsistence? If a loaf of bread is 19p in Bulgaria, how do their benefits compare to the UK where the same loaf is 84p?

Your research paper for your degree must have made interesting reading.

Relative to their last wages! It might not be particularly instructive, but it's perfectly clear what it means!

And you say it needs context, but where is yours? Every country with a strong currency would be fine, those without screwed. For arguments sake, if benefits in Romania are 10p a week but you can live of 5p a week then any Briton going over there would live like a king, yet any Romanian who'd paid into his system to support the scrounging Brits would get f*cked when he got paid 10p a week over here in between doing the job he said he'd do, on time, for the price he quoted, with a smile on his face.

Now then, your ' I know you are you said you are so what am I' approach. Is this just for job seekers? If so what are you going to do about the hordes of Swedes, Danes and Dutch coming here to claim their equivalent? Or are we extending it to everything? Saudi women can't drive, and French people have to go through their mental rigmarol to pay for prescriptions?

[William the White]

The buses from Soria must have arrived at Victoria Coach Station by now.

Is there darkness at noon in London? Any grannies dead yet?

[Lord Kangana]

Conversation on thisthe other day. We join proceedings midway through:

Me "They can't claim benefits for the first three months, why would they come here for benefits?"

Him "Well all the buses are now full, they say they're charging up to £3k for a ticket!"

Me "So you'd save up £3k to travel for two full days on a sweaty coach, only to have to wait for 3 months to receive £79 a week in benefits? Robbing bastards eh?"

Him "Yeah, they'll all be criminals and the like!"

Me "Why would a criminal wait for the law to change to commit a crime? Surely they'd just be committing crime anyway, being as you don't really require a work permit to be a criminal?"

Him "yeah, but they'll be given houses..."

I went to the bar at this point.

[Prufrock]

The buses from Soria must have arrived at Victoria Coach Station by now.

Is there darkness at noon in London? Any grannies dead yet?

I can see the Gherkin from my window, and it's on fire. Buses are on bricks. Carnage. On the upside, I've never seen more staff in Pret.

[William the White]

Conversation on thisthe other day. We join proceedings midway through:

Me "They can't claim benefits for the first three months, why would they come here for benefits?"

Him "Well all the buses are now full, they say they're charging up to £3k for a ticket!"

Me "So you'd save up £3k to travel for two full days on a sweaty coach, only to have to wait for 3 months to receive £79 a week in benefits? Robbing bastards eh?"

Him "Yeah, they'll all be criminals and the like!"

Me "Why would a criminal wait for the law to change to commit a crime? Surely they'd just be committing crime anyway, being as you don't really require a work permit to be a criminal?"

Him "yeah, but they'll be given houses..."

I went to the bar at this point.

[LeverEnd]

Read the comments here for depressing.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/109 ... ?ref=var_0

[William the White]

Read the comments here for depressing.
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/109 ... ?ref=var_0

Nasty story - but why on the Politics thread? There's a coiple of jerks in the comments but...

[LeverEnd]

The general xenophobia of the comments about Eastern Europeans.

[Lord Kangana]

See. Saved up his bus fare to grope middle-aged women on our buses.

They should be made to stick to their own buses. And groping their own middle-aged women, and leave ours for us to grope.

British groping for British hands!