The kids with their homemade karaoke microphones (made from rolled up newspapers and protective plastic peach wrapping).
Here, Katherine belts out You're Beautiful by James Blunt, while Emma runs through her floor gymnastics routine. Two words: London 2012. Margaret, don't forget to turn the sound up on your computer. On second thoughts...
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10 comments:
that got a big almighty aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!! from the doc
Thanks Doc. Hey, you're not flirting with the UK Independence Party are you? Tell me it ain't so... I feel a political missive coming on if so. Mind you, you did see a lot of corruption when you were in Brussels, n'est pas?
I left the tories last year because I think Cameron and his ilk are the wrong thing for the country.we're going into a big recession.Brown has borrowed the country up to the hilt,seriously,taking on £30 billion debt per annum.Joe public has done no better.average non mortgage debt is at record highs,mortgage debt at record highs.savings ratio at record lows.now propertys dropping 20% per annum and we're in deep trouble.
all the wya through this Cameron and the tories have done nothing but stand idly by,promising to outspend labour when they get in.I am seriously dissillusioned with the big parties.reading peter obornes 'triumph of a political elite' says it all.these days most politicians are in it for what they can get and look where it's taken us.
UKIP believe in a flat tax,leaving the EU,controlling immigration and freeing business to do what it does best,create the wealth that pays for the public sector.
now the bust is upon us, we have nothing to fall back on.hard times are a coming paddy.
you may not get this feeling because you dont live here any more,but within my circle the difference in a year is amazing.last year,rising hosue prices were going to sort everyone out,debts,pensions etc.Now people are losing their jobs and regretting taking out that 5 times salary mortgage.very depressing.it's like the bad old days of the eighties are coming back when we left school and unemployment was three million.
rant over
oh and the Eu,don't start me.Corruption?They havent had their accounts signed off for years...seriously,if they were a private company,they'd be in trouble.75% of our laws are made by them.
Yeah, a lot has changed in a year. We got out of the UK property market just before the bubble burst and I do feel lucky I got out of local papers when I did, there can only be more downsizing in store for them as the advertising revenue shrinks even more thanks to the recession.
Japan has been in the doldrums for a while, but we are bracing ourselves here for a storm now that world orders for Japanese goods are drying up. I don't work for any global corporations, but my students do. Hopefully enough will continue with us and won't see us as a luxury expense they can do without.
I could agree with the UKIP were it not for their little Englander stance on immigration. I am the son of an immigrant (ie non-English) mother. When I was in Britain I was married to an immigrant, now I'm in Japan, I am an immigrant myself, so I really cannot argue against immigration. In fact, I would argue immigration is simply a fact of life and we should embrace it as such. Whether it is economic immigration or otherwise, it makes no difference in my book. I believe we should all be able to go where the heck we like in the world, provided we do something productive and worthwhile for our communities and families. If that's the case, why should I worry where my neighbour had the misfortune to be born, whether my neighbour is black, white, yellow, Korean, Japanese, Muslim, Christian or even a Tory, just as long as they keep their music down and let me drink my cheap Australian plonk in peace, I'm happy.
The closet racists in the UK who will tell you "foreigners are stealing our jobs" and "cause crime" might be surprised to hear exactly the same arguments from Japanese directed at all other races living here. What the UKIPers would call patriotic for the UK, they would call imperialist for Japan. No, can't be doing with any of it.
Rant over.
Have you read Bloody Foreigners by Robert Winder, I think? It's a well-written non-doctrinaire analysis of immigration and it's affect on the UK throughout its history.
I know you are a decent free-thinker, Doc, I just fear your UKIP bedfellows are not.
you'd be surprised,there is a strong libertarian element in some respects not in others.in terms of double jeopardy,right to silence and other rights won under the magna carta,i think we are the only party that has a commitment to them anymore.
with regard to immigration we jsut say we have to limit the numbers.I think a lot of people call us the BNP in blazers and presume we have the same attitude to race.they couldn't be more wrong,but hey,we're too small so peopel and the media just like a tag to belittle us with.I too am the son/grnadson of immigrants.I would argue that it's absolutely necessary for economic growth.What worries me is the cost.Over the last ten years we,as a country have had a very cavalier attitude to paying for things.Public sector pensions are going to be funded out of future taxation,there is no separate pot set aside.we are burdening future generations with out profligacy.
Immigration,dare say anything against it and you get labelled a racist.In the real wrold,there are schools where they have to make the choice between special needs education and teaching immigrant children English(it's one and the same budget)but you can't talk about it.In the NHS,many people arrive here with problems .They are given treatment for free.People are also given free education for their kids and houses from the council to live in and money to live on.It all costs money and on top of this we are pretty generous to our own people.
the simple reality is that in the last tax year we raised £160 billion in income tax and spent £169 billion on welfare payments.(does not include NHS educ army)
Now in money terms here it is.One single male comes to the UK,works a factory job for minimum wage ,pays a a modicum of tax on a min wage job.Net benefit to us.
same guy comes with wife and two kids,net cost.Unless they stay for life.It's harsh,but it's the reality.
I am not for one minute arguing that we should suspend unemployment insurance.But in 1997 we had 700,000 people on incapacity-thereby taking them off the unemployment figures and getting them an extra £75 on top of other benefits.Now we have 2.6 million on that benefit.
This is just totally unsustainable.As soon as creditor nations decide to stop buying our govenrment bonds,we are toast.
on top of which,we are making grandiose gifts that future generations will spend a lifetime paying off.
And I mean a lifetime.
you did well to leave the papers,they are toast.the internet is slowly killing them.
everyone is in for a tough time,but japan is a better palce to be than here for the enxt few years.we are in for a shock fo the kind where public secotr workers will be striking for pay one day and getting p45s the next.
I wish I could be more upbeat.
Don't the Lib Dems still have a commitment to the Magna Carta? Or are they so opportunist they have no principles left to define them other than "we are not the other guys." I voted for them last time as a vote against the war, next time round, don't know who to vote for, or indeed as an ex-pat, whether I should vote at all.
You may be surprised to know I once voted for a Republican in Arkansas for Congress (I am or was a dual US/Brit citizen) against my natural allegiance for the Democrats.
Why? I met him a number of times and he took the time to have the odd friendly argument with me when I was a cub reporter. He actually enjoyed politics and drove himself around in a beat-up Datsun-like economy car (could it really have been?) His campaign manager was a clueless college grad, the same age as I was back then. Quite a character (the candidate, not the college grad). Bill Powell was his name. He had no chance in the safe Democrat seat, but took something like 43 per cent of the vote in a two horse race, when the time before the Democrats had romped though with 73 per cent or so of the vote.
Sounds like the chickens are coming home to roost and there is no North Sea oil left to ,er, bail the sinking ship. Pardon the mixed metaphors, but you know what I mean.
Who are the creditor nations now anyway - Russia? China? Gawd help us.
We enjoyed the photography! Are the kids seeing an agent?
No agents yet! We are looking for a nice ballet class for Katherine though. Emma might be more suited to karate, we'll see...
paddy,you have to vote if you can.apathy i the enemy of democracy.our turnouts are dropping heavily,each GE less than the one before.people just see nothing to vote for.it doesnt help that the three main parties are virtually indistinguishable from each other interms of policy.it just reinforces the notion that they are just in it for themselves.the oborne book is really spot on and although a daily mail writer,i nkow a good few lefty friends who agree with everything he says.
in my first campaigns for the tories I was helped by a couple of old labour people who just liked me.I would do the same and have helped other candidates out if I believe in them.
I just long for politiicans with a conscience.dennis skinner,tony benn,margaret thatcher,you knew where you stood.and they had some principles.
the lib dems have changed from the bob pritchards that I admired as a youngster.they are no longer that liberal nor that democratic.they didnt want a referendum on the lisbon treaty.but they do have some really committed councillors and one great MP in vince cable.the only man who's called the hosuing mess for what it is.the rest are all busy trying to plug the dyke
great thread btw.
creditor nations would indeed be China(very big),poss russia,but more likely far eastern oil/gas producers,also a lot of pension funds but obviously,with the amount thats been issued,foreign buyers are absolutely key going
forward.
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