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Listed below are comments made by jabber_jabber between Sunday, 30th August 2009 and Tuesday, 27th October 2009.

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Why them and not us? 02:53am on 27 Oct 2009 262. At 12:30pm on 26 Oct 2009, JadedJean wrote:

'Females are more into appearance than reality - hence not so good at hard sciences/logic etc.' - So you admit it then!- but perhaps Jean you are a Frenchman of North African descent . Dites-nous c'est vrai !. BTW my dad was amongst some of our soldiers who came across a concentration camp towards the end of the war as his artillery unit made its way across country . He was so distressed at what he saw he wouldn't tell its name but he did say that all the locals knew what was going on there and none had gone without . What goodies they had were well hidden -- he picked up a phrase which seemed to be ' nicht in der winkel alles in der kellar' - nothing in the window everything in the cellar . I'm sure my German will be corrected !!. But as well as that they came across several German officers ( he later found out from the camp nearby) in the woods who had hanged themselves knowing full well the enormity of what they had done. Not the actions of those trying to contain an outbreak of typhus . But all this is history and we should try to learn its lessons - which economically our leaders seem to be unable to do and so it falls on the general populace ( which includes us all ) to try and muddle through this fiscal concentration camp we have been led into . But not for us the chance of liberators appearing to let those of us who survive out .
Pause for thought 11:31pm on 17 Oct 2009 46. At 8:46pm on 17 Oct 2009, armagediontimes

Thanks for the link - I watched it several times - fascinating . For me it is academic as I have retired and paid for my house but for number 1 son who has just finished at uni - degree but no job - it may help him in the times to come. What made me ask was I come from a family who rented council houses in Brum over 40 yrs ago and I sometimes think that we were mislead ( as I married and started a family)into buying when it seemed at that time the most sensible thing was to rent - but then there was always a supply of ' social ' i.e council housing . The debt each family had in those days did not include greasing the palms of the financial sector to achieve a house. My biggest worry now is that I don't have to sell the house to carry on living ( depriving my descendants of any advantage there from ) , if I was renting then that burden is taken from me.
Pause for thought 7:51pm on 17 Oct 2009 #40 ishkandar thanks for your views but have you really answered the question - would we have weathered the financial storm in a better or worse state had we rented or not. Thirty years ago we were told that home ownership was the thing - it made you better off , lifted you from the morass of the commoners and gave you money into the bargain . On the back of all this were those who took money off you to 'facilitate' your purchase/sale. Home buyers are a cash cow to the financial sector - they pay fees for mortgages, surveys, estate agents ( remember how many were bought by the banks in the property boom years) and just about anyone else who can dream up some scheme or other- plus interest rates which were calculated in some weird and wonderful ways . So my contention still stands - a disproportionate part of our economy is based on those buying and selling houses - not on making things..
Pause for thought 01:43am on 17 Oct 2009 From my non economics based and simplistic viewpoint it seems that the underlying cause for this is home ownership or the desire for it. Those who couldn't afford it were assured they could and lent the wherewithal to accomplish it. Those who could afford to enter the market at the lower range were lent far more than they needed whilst those further upmarket started to believe that their property was a source of wealth and income and acted accordingly . In the meantime property prices were rising thus further exacerbating the situation - this rise aided and abetted by those who stood to gain from percentage based commissions and sales commissions. Having bought the property then there appeared maintenance costs - or just upgrading the kitchen/heating/whatever. At the same time the perceived equity from ever rising property values encouraged a standard of living rise ( you can fill in the details of just what constitutes a standard of living for yourself ) .
Then two things happened - first time buyers couldn't afford to buy - they had been priced out of the market ; their wages hadn't kept up with property price inflation . The housing market stalled as no new buyers meant no sales for those wishing to sell ( not every body wanted a new build - some people wanted a house/flat with rooms in which you could put two chairs ). As it stood this may just have meant a period of stagnation ( I'm sure those of you who know better will be only too happy to tell me otherwise ) but it was just at that time the effects of those who had been overstretched/oversold and had started to default came into play. The house of cards built on poor risks and over priced property started to collapse ; it was obvious that the entire system had been based upon funny money ( on one of the blogs sometime ago it had been explained that none of this massive amount of money quoted actually existed ) . So what is the point of this you ask ( no? ) well the driving force is property ownership . We are continually exhorted to buy because you never lose out owning your own house ( really?) ; you never get to own a home if you rent - even though you pay all your life. Well there are a growing number of oldsters who have bought their homes , paid for it and then - because they have the temerity to live longer than they should - being forced to sell to pay for their upkeep in a home . So they have paid all their life and have had to sell - they have nothing to show for it!. Another canard is the excuse that paying rent is dead money - home owners have to spend large sums on maintaining their properties and some upgrades ,as those who watch the property programmes will know , do not add any appreciable value ( dead money) .
Property owning is a little like serfdom - you are tied to that place in as much as it takes a lot of time and money to move - thus reducing the mobility of labour and deadening the desire to move . So you buy a house and then take whatever jobs you can get in the locality - at whatever wages they pay - knowing that you can't move easily . Unless you are prepared to travel several hours per day - some home life that!.
So what I want to know is - would we have had a more stable housing situation and been less affected had the majority of us rented instead of bought. Of course an entire industry of hangers on and gold plated loo roll holder makers and all the other parasites on the home owner would not have existed .
Is primary education threatened by authoritarianism? 11:46pm on 16 Oct 2009 #13 Sage_Vals suggested privatisation of education . Yes just like the utilities are privatised and the majority foreign owned. Still there could be a toothless overseer 'Ofed' to make sure they don't make too much profit. Just think you could have the choice of French , German or even Saudi school systems for your offspring. By the way with nearly GBP 250billion PFI's in existence ( which do not appear on the governments books , making the economy look better than it really is , gosh is it worse than we think ) - a large portion of which are educational then privatisation of education seems to have started already .
There are sectors which are best left to professionals to administer ; The Armed Forces ( Soldiers don't need MPs telling them how to use firearms etc. ); Health - Doctors and Nurses know how to care for patients ; Education - politicians , with their isolated viewpoint in MP land , are the last persons a teacher needs to instruct them how to achieve a rapport with their pupils ( a very necessary requirement so that all feel included) .
It is time to take politics out of education and strive to undo the attitudes of the past 30 years which has encouraged the pursuit of self , self and more self so much so that total disrespect for others is very much ingrained in large numbers of our society.
...gone 11:12pm on 15 Oct 2009 There are a lot of posts saying things along the lines of ' they must legislate against this sort of thing etc.' . Just who is going to do the legislating - why those who have trousered what they can from using their positions as legislators!! . It's like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas - or just asking turkeys to vote.
Map of the Week: Cheese 01:56am on 03 Oct 2009 On the contrary the supermarkets ( at least one ) are championing the diversity of our cheese makers . Sainsburys are selling British Mozzarella!
'Labour's lost it,' says the Sun 00:14am on 30 Sep 2009 Nick - looks like Murdoch Junior is very possibly going to be your new boss . 'Till then I can ignore him by not buying his publications and not add to his coffers by refusing to purchase or subscribe to anything I knowingly believe he has any financial interests in . It will be a shame to no longer look at the Beeb's website after Murdoch's Macaroon has signed you over to him after the Tories win .
Can Brown convince the doubters? 8:44pm on 04 Sep 2009 I find it odd that over the years Al Qaeda and the Taliban - originally separate - have become merged by those in the west . So much so that Al Qaeda is very rarely spoken of , it's all Taliban now. So what are we doing ? originally this war was against Al Qaeda ( to satisfy the US's desire for revenge - which we were 'requested ' to join) , the Taliban being merely a hindrance in this effort . So will someone please tell me where Al Qaeda is/are now? - if here it is because of the folly of the adventurism of Blair and Bush in this part of the world . The threat to this country has never been greater than since the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq . In that respect Brown is correct , because of the folly of this government since 2001 , we are a terrorist target and we have to try and eradicate it . Talk about shooting oneself in the foot!!!
What future for media and journalism? 00:29am on 30 Aug 2009 The Murdochs - Major and Minor - seem unable to get to grips with the internet - you cannot own news, merely the method of disseminating it . There is no way they could ever control the flood of information on the web. It appears that they are still in the days of papers and tv. Minor Murdoch's outpourings seem to me to be the roars of dinosaurs trying to prevent the inevitability of their extinction . Still I expect that - after Cameron has handed the BBC to News International just after the election - the headline in The Sun will read GOTCHA .

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