[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from Ian Davies on 3:01 pm on July 3, 2005[br]Sadly, however, most people would rather support the fight on poverty by watchnig a gig than by actually making a permanent financial commitment to helping the poverty-stricken by being prepared to pay more tax.

(Edited by Ian Davies at 2:08 am on July 4, 2005)<br>

<br>A man after my own heart, Ian. Around 5% of my monthly wage is currently passed onto charity, and I would in a heartbeat introduce a compulsory charity tax on all UK citizens of 5p in the pound.

I would, however, still permit the individual to decide upon which charities his or her taxes were allocated. This would be performed by furnishing ever household in the country with a copy of the Charities Digest every year – not a logistical possibility if you can all get Phone Books and Yellow Pages, I’d suggest – from which a tear-out page with a given number of choices can be freeposted back to an agreed Departmental Office of some sort (and let’s have this based in somewhere like the West Midlands, where a form processing centre would be a terrific shot in the arm for currently beleaguered local employment rates).

I defy anyone to let me know why this would not work.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

(Edited by graysonscolumn at 5:27 pm on July 6, 2005)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from lollys mate on 7:17 pm on June 28, 2005[br] My old dear departed Grandad, who I used to go and see on a Sunday lunchtime, allways asked me what I had learn’t that weekend.

<br>Not how to spell "learned", self-evidently.

Other threads in the Lounge indicate LM would make better use of his time learning how to love and tolerate people of other races and sexualities rather than anything else, but that might be too much for which to hope.

Last Saturday I learned that the German for the verb "to pinch (someone)" is "kneifen".

On Sunday I learned that Ceefax is 30 years old this year.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

<br>My guess is that he is, in reality, a camp black man (like the TRF equivalent of Derek from Big Brother).  

Steve

(Edited by stevedvg at 11:27 am on July 5, 2005)<br>

<br>I think there’s a little camp black man in all of us.

Fnarr.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Hiya,

I always remember the Jack Dee stand-up routine regarding dogs, cats, and how their very nature is polarised in their attitude to you putting up a stack of shelves in the house.

The dog will be wide-eyed, slobbering, staring inanely, and thinking;<br>"I love you. I don’t know what you’re doing, but I love you. I really do."

In the same scenario, the cat will be regarding you with barely concealed disdain, thinking to itself;<br>"Call those shelves? Pah. I’m not risking putting my books on those!"

I love cats as they are infinitely more deep, characterful and sarky than 99.9% of dogs. I’d have said 100%, but my late-lamented Einstein did his bit to besmirch the good name of cats by ramming his head through letterboxes having mistaken them for catflaps, knocking a mirror off a wall to see the other cat hiding behind it, giving himself bronchitis by hoovering up large clumps of dust from under the radiator when hunting for silverfish, and so on.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

I note with dismay that there is no jumps racing alternative that day, and the ptp season will have been finished a fortnight by then.

After you with the oyster fork, GH.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from Aranalde on 9:14 pm on June 10, 2005[br]Who knows what the world may be like in ten years time. Perhaps every racecourse will have accurately measured distances, regularly updated and published.  Perhaps the going might be measured by something more sophisticated than a man’s shoe or a pointy stick.

<br>Hihihihi, there’s political ideologies, and then there’s blind optimism! I’d like to see some foolproof way to stop horses charging the tape in jumps races, but I could live to 131 and not see that!

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from dave jay on 1:35 pm on June 10, 2005[br] I always listen to people like LM because I can remember speaking to white people in Zimbabwe 11 years ago who said that Mugabe was an evil dictator who was quickly ruining the country and murdering all of his political and tribal opponents. At the time they were decried as bitter losers .. time has proved them to be absolutely correct. Many of the farm and factory workers (900 ish) who were employed by them were killed and driven off the land and they themselves are now refugees in Australia.<br>

<br>Not quite a like-for-like comparison, as I don’t think Lolly’s Mate, for all his grievances, is suggesting London is really going to be lost forever to a by-stealth invasion of non-white immigrants. However, the Zimbabwe situation does demonstrate how a (relatively speaking) small dot on the horizon can explode into the most ghastly and oppressive of regimes.

The Weimar Republic were well aware of the NSDAP for some years but were seemingly content to regard it as little more as some lunatic fringe set-up of little consequence gaining barely 2% of the national vote at elections… which of course it was until the end of the 1920s, and the rest we know.

I think where I’m going with this is this; the two examples of the emergence of extreme, ghastly regimes listed above are not to be dismissed lightly, far from it; but I wouldn’t like to use either of them as reason enough to think Britain is in the early throes of going the same way, however much of an actual or perceived threat certain among us may think ourselves to be under.

Um, does that make much sense for midnight, Friday?

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from dave jay on 1:35 pm on June 10, 2005[br]<br>More than 1M people voted BNP in this country at every given opportunity. I don’t know why this is because I would never consider voting for any extreme party at this point in time or for the forseeable future, unless things changed and I felt threatened or unrepresented by my elected presentative. As the old saying goes there’s no smoke without fire. I believe that the current immigration fiasco will all end in tears and will polarise Britain and British politics to the detriment of all.<br>

<br>I think I mentioned in another thread that the primary failing of the immigration system is not the numbers of immigrants involved, but rather where those incomers are spread once they arrive in the UK. It’s not rocket science that if x thousand newly-arrived and processed immigrants are obliged to go no further into the country than the South-East, some sense of being overrun (real or imagined), or being overlooked for benefits and amenities in favour of "non-Britons" (ditto), and resultant tension is going to ensue.

I cannot believe it is beyond the wit of the UK government to identify specific areas further into the country than Kent where depopularisation has bitten, or has always been a problem, and for which employment of some description can be found for new arrivers (or, tying in with a previous comment, the tools can be put in place for them to effect self-employment if suitably resourceful).

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from stevedvg on 10:49 am on June 10, 2005[br]<br>It’s hardly surprising as, for so long, travelling to a country across the world was difficult and those who managed it tended to be resourceful and ambitious people.    

When many of them found that normal jobs were denied them due to prejudice, they often started businesses. And the same drive and resourcefulness that got them to these shores tended to work well in business.<br>

<br>Yes indeed, Steve, and that held  – and holds – true at all levels of ability and scale. I was born and raised in Oldham, and even as a relative youngster it was puzzling to me that the likes of Combat 18 were marching on the town (pretty much from the late 1970s onwards) and trying to whip up fervour against the sizeable non-white population for "stealing all our jobs", when the employment that those Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis had found was mostly that for which they had had the resourcefulness and enterprise you mentioned to set up themselves – private hire cabs, grocers, food outlets, etc.

The real villains of the piece in Oldham were, and have continued to be ever since, the successive Councils who have all made minimal effort to attract the high-volume employers required to offset the huge unemployment caused by the death of the mill industries in the town – even now, over 25 years after that particular industry died, there’s still an almighty hole still needing filling. Even worse than that, however, has been the sustained turning of a blind eye to the tensions caused by that high unemployment rate and the aforementioned resultant increasing racial dimension to the disquiet… and then the Council wondered why the town quite literally went up in smoke a couple of years ago.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from dave jay on 1:35 pm on June 10, 2005[br]Three.<br>Lolly’s Mate has made some excellent points and I’m sorry that you feel like swinging for him Jeremy, it just shows that you aren’t as Liberal as you would like to think that you are.

<br>A turn of phrase, Dave, no more and no less. I am as familiar with the famous Voltaire quote on the right to speak one’s mind as, I believe, most contributors to this thread (and the Forum at large) appear to be.

The last person I actually properly "swung for", fifteen years ago, I put in hospital. I’ve not lain a finger on anyone else since, nor will I.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from stevedvg on 8:31 am on June 10, 2005[br]we tend to forget the contribution that many colonies have made to the people of the world.

Steve

<br>…and continue to do so. Some of you may remember the Independent front-page feature of a few weeks ago wherein a variety of people – from industry magnates such as the Patak family, through to no less a figure than Dame Kelly Holmes – were identified as people whom, under the anti-immigration policies the Tories are toying with and the likes of the BNP would implement in a heartbeat, would never have been permitted to live in the UK (either directly or via a block on their antecedents).

Aranalde’s post is one of the best I’ve ever come across on TRF and I cannot question the logic of any of it. It is particularly worth highlighting, as he or she has, that crimes such as benefit fraud are far from the sole preserve of new or recently-arrived incomers to the country – a predominately right-wing press, coupled with the individual’s inclination to equate his own personal observations or experiences as part of an endemic, prevalent trend, combine to distort the true picture.

I could cheerily swing at Lolly’s Mate for most of the comments he has made in this thread to date, but presume he is ultimately speaking as he has found to some greater or lesser extent (I hope, at least, that he has not trumped up the problems he says he has encountered for dramatic effect). May I ask, however, what efforts he has made to ingratiate himself to the non-white members of his immediate environs, what time he has devoted to understanding their situation (plight, where applicable), and so on? Or are his observations basically pronouncements on what he has seen with fear-laden detachment? It’s always easier to hate and fear than learn and tolerate, after all.

Jeremy<br>(rather less than 100% English, as it happens)<br>

(Edited by graysonscolumn at 9:02 am on June 10, 2005)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Proof positive that exrecise isn’t always good for you – ran for a drop-shot at badminton tonight and skidded right into the net-post, bring said post and net down on myself.

Cannot feel right knee at moment, nice lump on head also, and had to have a big KFC dinner to keep me calm once the shock had worn off.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from Kotkijet on 9:00 pm on June 3, 2005[br] The celebs get to make fools of themselves by being swallowed by their own vanity. Shame that not many people notice the irony. IMO they get in the way more than anything since anybody who can think for themselves know that this is a great opportunity for uber – millionaires to candycoat their marketability. <br>

Yes indeedy. In the year marking the twentieth anniversary of Live Aid, methinks a reissue of Chumbawamba’s Pictures of Starving Children Sell Records from around the same period would be most timely.

I’m not sure I really want the likes of Bono or Dido’s record sales inflating for the next 5-10 years or so as part of the deal of them Saving The World this summer.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

(Edited by graysonscolumn at 1:20 pm on June 7, 2005)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Hiya,

I’d be 175 of your finest European centimetres and 69.85 beautiful Brussells-approved kilograms all told – which does not make me particularly fat, but I am a bit wobblier since I mislaid my Ladyboy ™ whalebone corset a while back.

(Forumites look at each other nervously)

The line is always given that, irrespective of diet, you can keep in reasonable physical shape by doing as much exercise as your antecedents did fifty years ago; think I’ll give dad’s then regime of involuntary national service and interminable spam fritters a wide berth, but the four hours of badminton per week and regular walks seem to be offsetting the worst that the KFC and ciggies can do to me. Result! Sort of.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

"Ten items or less"

"Can you be more pacific?"

"United are the winners"

"To boldly go where no man has gone before"

"I was sat reading the paper earlier"

<br>AAAARRRGHGGHH.

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

I would be terminally ambivalent about the following;

Van Morrison<br>Judi Spiers<br>Theodor Dostoyevsky<br>Robert Alner<br>Huw Edwards<br>Radio 3<br>Tomatoes<br>National Hunt Flat Races

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)

(Edited by graysonscolumn at 10:39 pm on May 23, 2005)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

[graysonscolumn]

Quote: from Kotkijet on 12:19 pm on May 22, 2005[br]92% 92% 93% 73%

I’ve been sat around the house for half a day and I already feel like I need to get out more.

<br>Forgive me Simon, as I’m a fan of yours, but I had to have a giggle at you posting such a huge score on the English test, but then falling for the old "I’ve been sat / sitting" confusion immediately afterwards!

Um, if you’re at Cartmel this Saturday evening you can pop round and give me a slap for such insolence if you choose… :biggrin:

Jeremy<br>(graysonscolumn)<br>

(Edited by graysonscolumn at 12:51 pm on May 23, 2005)

Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.

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