Ler's increase the penalties for smoking.
And reduce them for murder. Note the BBC's 'US-style' spin. We'll get US style categories - and British style sentences.
Education's just fine as it is.
The NHS - Pride of Britain. If you get maggots on your face in 'intensive' care, what's bog-standard care like ?
And drink-related deaths in Scotland rise 350% in 20 years. Didn't the Scots introduce 24-hour drinking a while back ? Say about 20 years ago ?
And remember last year's population figures, showing 19% of English births and 47% of London births were to mothers from outside the UK ?
This year's figures are 20% and 49%.
Oh, and there's no pensions crisis.
The move is likely to be watched closely by other firms.
Companies have previously tried to control costs by closing final salary pension schemes to new employees, but no large company had "dared take this step", one pensions expert told the Financial Times.
The National Association of Pension Funds said that other company pension schemes would increasingly have to follow Rentokil's approach.
There's not one here either.
Friends Provident is investigating the whereabouts of staff pension contributions at Unwins, the off-licence chain, as the troubled high street retailer was forced into administration last night threatening the future of about 2,000 jobs.
Xi humiliates Starmer
1 hour ago
6 comments:
More moans in that post than Meg Ryan.
Just be grateful you're not one of the 100,000+ Britons who's going to die in the coming year thanks to smoking-related illnesses.
Its not moaning if the world really is that bad.
Like hell it's that bad! Most people in this country are better off than they've ever been.
You are unlikely to experience violent crime, most work is a doddle now compared to being sent down mines or grafting away in asbestos-riddled factories, you're not going to get sent off to die in a muddy trench in Flanders, and when your time does come, you'll get a nice big jag of diamorphine to help push your boat out.
"Sorted."
No, the Scots did not introduce 24-hour drinking 20 years ago. Don't know where you got that from. They have longer hours than England, but only by an hour or so. And that doesn't necessarily lead to more drinking, because the Scots just go down the pub later in the evening than the English, often not heading out till ten or so.
The Scots have, however, long had a culture based around the drinking of alcohol. The problem may be the combination of that culture with the modern increase in disposable income.
Unlikely to experience violent crime? Compared to 50 years ago? (Genuine question, I have a vague memory of reading somewhere that it really was better 50 years ago in this regard.) Still, you are more likely to have your bicycle stolen, if it is worth it, and trashed out of pique if it is not, than you were even 20 years ago.
Violent crime is worse for sure. The only exceptions on that score are a greater understanding of the extent of rape and child abuse, so presumably there is a higher detection rate (we hope) than twenty or thirty years ago.
But standards of living have improved for the great majority of people, mostly thanks to technological progress. We live longer, we can eat better, we can wear better clothes, we can travel further and more often, knowledge is available to us in many more ways, and it is easier than ever for private individuals to disseminate their opinions.
Most of the moaning that fills the blogsphere reflects the age and sex of its contributors, i.e. mostly middle-aged men, dismayed at the thought of the steady diminution of their senses and abilities.
But these are the good times.
Happy Christmas!
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