Mummy in the foothills

Are you my Brother?

Lothianlad

Some things will never change in the UK in spite of the concerted efforts of the late and very unlamented Labour Government to bring about as many changes as they could most of them for the worse as they spent money which was not theirs to begin with - it was ours - spending it as if it was going out of fashion. One of the worst things they did was to introduce almost unrestricted licensing laws enabling pubs to open most of the day and half the night, allowing happy hours and cut price booze, special offers in supermarkets selling alcohol at low prices - result: binge drinking and social disorder on a grand scale. What people came to realise that a type of "cafe cuture" which works over on the Continent, involving "responsible drinking", does not work in the UK as the culture in this respect is quite different. The harsh reality is that the British people generally, more especially those, above all, in the 18 to 25 age group, don't quite handle alcohol in quite the same way as in the rest of Europe, where it is not common practice to tank up with a few cans and alcopops before they even leave the house to go out on the piss in the pubs and clubs as it is here in the UK.

Labour got dissed on 06 May and now we have a new (coalition) Government who have already announced plans to curb the British binge drinking problem and to greatly reduce the licensing hours and strictly regulate all the cheap booze and availability deals, going against everything introduced by a totally irresponsible Labour government.

The new Government will alo repeal the law banning fox hunting in England and Wales.

My grandparents live in the small town of Ledbury, Herefordshire, England, featured in this YT clip which showed the Boxing Day meeting in the main street of Ledbury on Boxing Day morning. They may have banned the drinking of alcohol on the streets and in the parks (as the Master of the Hunt says in this clip) but hop into a local supermarket and you will see all the special offers on cheap booze, and the pubs open from morning to past midnight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuur-...eature=related

Cape Blue

Only in the UK eh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botell%C3%B3n

Sally Redux

Oh, top-hole

robin1234

Yes. Is Thanksgiving at your place this year? (Not if you make string bean casserole though.)

robin1234

Absolute nonsense. If people want to drink, they'll drink.

Ledbury is a very nice little town.. I remember staying at the Feathers, on a family holiday, when I was a lad. Must have been early sixties.

I'll look at the YouTube video when I have more time on my hands; i.e. at work tomorrow

sallysimmons

Well yippee.

I seriously hope they don't waste their time on ensuring that people can kill innocent animals for sport. It's not like there are not more important problems to deal with. And if they think that shutting down pubs will solve the drinking problem while they're also gutting spending, and therefore increasing unemployment .. well, good luck with that.

exvj

Lived in Florida and saw the red necks who's mother ship is north of Tampa.

Encountered one here on the I 5 north of Seattle this morning . I was joining the freeway and there was plenty of room to get on - until the guy in the right hand lane 200 yards back saw me - then he accelerated to try and stopped from joining. Naturally I let my 268 horse power Camry giddyup and got on 150 yards in front of him before I joined. He didn't like being thwarted in his attempt to stop me joining the freeway so he came steaming up onto my bumper for 2 miles and then roared past
He had a big Ford pick up with 'white power' stickers on it and confederate flags etc etc

Yes 3,200 miles from Tampa they have ignorant menacing aggressive necks with confederate flags and the whole thing

Over here in Central Washington it's the opposite. When I am walking and waiting to cross, people stop on the main road even when there is no crossing and wave me across - that's embarrassingly over polite but I don't complain..

It's 87 here right now and very low humidity and very comfortable. In Anacortes north of Seattle this morning it was 57 and drizzling - just like England. It was green and beautiful but jeez 57 and manky wet on August 1st...

I think ANY town center in England is pretty dire but life in the leafy suburbs would be as nice as ever it was

In that way it's like the US - if you have money to escape the problems then you sure can. Get a nice house in a nice area and go to the Canary Islands in February and Crete in May and live happily ever after.

If you haven't, life can be hell in the US or the UK

ExBritFL

Encountered one here on the I 5 north of Seattle this morning . I was joining the freeway and there was plenty of room to get on - until the guy in the right hand lane 200 yards back saw me - then he accelerated to try and stopped from joining.


I've experienced this many times in FL - they'd rather crash into you than give you way. I had a similar encounter on Friday and of course the guy was on his mobile phone.

exvj

Yes the media are the enemy in the US and the UK

The BP thing is a perfect example. Gulf destroyed forever - will take several life times to restore etc etc Women (! ) posting that they would like to pound Tony Hayward's face to pulp with their clenched fists.


Here we are a few weeks later and all we see is "come on down the beaches are fine and the seafood is totally unaffected !"

As a BP shareholder (49% of whom are USC's) I feel like saying never mind our lives back, can we have our 20 billion back?

It's the bloody telly and press again

If we turn the telly off we can have a nice life

All those people who had to have counseling coz Princess Diana died could have sat in the garden and watched the bees collecting pollen and had a cucumber sandwich and been content; but this woman who only existed in pixel form, became their everything because of television

Most of all our discontentments come from the telly and urban myth when we get right down to it.

Lothianlad

If you suspect that scenes such as those shown in this clip are unusual here in the UK, and happen only rarely, think again, very, very carefully. They are the norm in our town and city centres, especially at weekends, take it from me that's gospel.

I have never seen this sort of thing on late night streets on the Continent except on the Spanish Costas (E) - in Marbella and Torremolinos and once in Prague CZ) and, yes, you've guessed it - they were Brits out on the lash.

Sure they sup plenty of beer in D, NL, B, CZ, PL, DK, etc but very, very, very rarely do they end up legless in the gutters or spewing their guts out or emptying their bladders in shop doorways, something seen regularly here in GB.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ale-price.html

exvj

Parsley is ghastly - it's an elocution exercise

We don't all live in council houses and I quite like 'ghastly'. It makes me laugh how people from the pits of society describe it as 'the real world'. I guess a dung beetle would be living in a really real world.

My daughter is into reverse snobbery and says she would never have a relationship with anyone who 'worked in an office'

She goes for the rough stuff with tatts and ear rings and convictions and she pays the price. They are ghastly

She is slowly getting the message...

sallysimmons

Really? I'm hearing the opposite from scientists. Just read a very scary report about the chemical dispersants that are now showing up in the food chain.

If I was a BP shareholder, I'd be angry with BP. They cut corners and now we're all paying the price.

exvj

How about water boarding ? Why are right wingers so plain CRUEL to animals and humans ?

exvj

You have that wrong. I believe BP did nothing wrong and the people who made the blow out preventer (Cameron USA) and the cementers (Halliburton) will be sued by BP.

BP is a fantastic company and 49% US owned. I have been a proud shareholder for many decades. I was disgusted by the mob who attacked Tony Hayward. There were women saying they wanted to beat his face to pulp. They were a howling mob inside and outside Congress. I bought a lot more BP shares at the bottom and I am up 40% in weeks.

There is no evidence established yet so nobody can say it was BP's fault

All the people on the gulf are saying the water and beaches are great and the seafood is fantastic. One has to believe US Citizens who would never harm their own people.