I had something very similar a few years ago. If I had the same again I would do whatever was going to cause me least stress over the short/medium term. If you will have enough to live on for a good while, great. Do you love what you do? Can you do the same/similar somewhere else?

With me it’s all about the people you work with, I earn much less than I used to but I’m probably the happiest I have been because I have a great boss and lovely collegues.

I did Lea from Crouch End to Hertford and back on Sunday on my new CX bike……been off ill for quite a while so was a lovely way to get some miles in the legs, very zen.

Prob do the GUC ride on the crosser too…..28c slicks and discs, good urban set-up.

And remember, no outside interference is allowed unless the Russian Politburo and the Central Committe of the Chinese Communist Party say so.

I love Rapha kit, I’ve got loads of it. But seriously I sometimes wonder if their website is a spoof.

And journalism is frequently just part of the propaganda machine for whatever country they are reporting back to, even a fair and honest journalist is frequently controlled in what they see.

Journalists can be restricted in what they see but not usually what they report. At least not here where we have a magnificent free press of which we are rightly proud.

I used to be a republican but I’ve decided that I like the Queen, it’s a good thing that the PM has a quiet natter with her once a week. Her first PM was Churchill, she’s probably worth listening to.

Not sure where that leaves us when Charles takes over but in the meantime lets not get rid of the one thing that makes us a little bit different just for the sake of it.

I’m with lunge. Except on driving.

and I’m sure when your lords and masters tell you to lay down your life for the protection of their intrests, you’ll be happy to do so.

Yeh sure. I will get my mobilisation orders in the Daily Mail right?

Pretty much this ^^

Have a swiss type military and govt system

Yes those noble Swiss were safe and happy in the mountains counting their bullion when the Jews were being burned in Auschwitz. Military adventurism? No. Pacifism? Be one if you want, I choose to fight.

Just think how different your life could have been if at eleven years old you had failed an exam, and therefore been consigned to a second class education.

I did get a second class education. I went to a crap British comprehensive.

I meant if you can forget his massive fat head AND the yeoman crypto fascist Tory hatchet man persona……he’s probably a top fella.

The genuinely “posh” are usually living in a state of picturesque disrepair, baffled by the modern world.

This is true

“Toffs” aren’t the problem – it’s the cronyism that allows health reform to be written by management consultants and railways to be run by accountants.

Thats a different argument, and one that might have something to it. But if you read through the thread, the problem for the haters (who’re gonna hate) is that they dont like posh people, full stop.

Pickles is probably a decent enough fella, authentic blue collar Tory and all that. But I’m fattist, I try and treat everyone the same but I cant take seriously the words of anyone guilty of glutony on such an epic level.

I’m glad I come to STW. I never knew until today that the reason I got on a bit was down to all those discreet connections my father cultivated at the bar of the Perth City British Legion.

I’m broadly a supporter of this government but I wish the Tories would keep their views on religion to themselves. Patronising, paranoid, self-pitying garbage.

IanMunro – Member
I have a vague dislike for the whole concept of meritocracy in the first place that I can’t quite put my finger on.
But basically it’s something along the lines of judging the worth of a human on their IQ

No that isnt a meritocracy. Hard work, imagination, drive, maybe a bit of toughness will do wonders. As will having a stable family life.

Under the last government we had 5 Defence Secretaries in 4yrs, the last being the thoroughly decent but hardly qualified Bob Ainsworth, former sheet metal worker. Nobody liked to point that out because its a bit snobbish but there you are.

Seeing as the thread has moved onto social mobility and the lack thereof, maybe those yelling how much they dont like the country being run by toffs could explain to us why we shouldnt bring back grammar schools? Can we have one in Haringey please?

I’ve got photos of my pals and I acting like a bunch of boorish prats at university……so what? I was 20.

And I knew a bunch of guys back then who were from properly priveliged backgrounds, were arrogant and a bit unpleasant, though not to me. I’ve met some of them again in recent years and they are to a man all very nice, relaxed 40-something dads. People grow up, move on, the world turns. We dont all spend our time waving our ethical purity on the internet.

Welcome…..

Plenty on here bought Canyons, some Rose too, think everyone pretty happy with them.

You wont go wrong with a Canyon Nerve XC. I’d prob go for the XC-8 given it is same frame, fork and wheels but £400 cheaper than the XC-9. XT rather than XO, my preference being for Shimano but thats me. Lovely bikes.

http://www.canyon.com/_uk/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=2558

joao3v16 – Member
You’re middle class when you start looking down your nose at people with less money than you

chip chip chip chipppppppyyyyyyy!

Synopsis?

Usual

OK OK….before TJ goes off on one and rants himself into a lather.

Hijack

Who is the poshest on STW?

Yes I used to have a chip on my shoulder about rich young toffs but I grew out of it, worked my ass off and beat them at their own game. What did you do TJ?

Up the Workers!

(Teej has a fan)

molgrips – Member
Toys – there’s different kinds of clever.

Really? If there is a choice can my kids have the kind that George Osborne has please?

London is jammed full of downwardly mobile toffs. People who went to boarding schools but didnt do anything with it. Now finding they are competing for jobs with thrusting oiks and the rest of the planet who want to live here……people who cant understand that British affectation of not being seen to try too hard.

I have never ever met anyone who described themselves as upper-class.

Imagine a Chancellor making a decent fist of balancing the books.

This year we took the children from Thurs to Thurs over half term missing Friday. The new headmaster would not allow it. We went anyway. It saved a huge chunk of cost. This is just as Andywoods says.

Who would be a teacher.

I’m happy enough where I ended up but I really did waste a lot of time at uni. Time again I’d do some work.

Joining Glasgow OTC was one of the best decisions of my life though. It was like a rugby club with guns and girls……and we got paid.

It’s hardly a shooting offence, and I can understand why a parent would do it, I’d naturally always want parents to decide what they want for their kids and the government keeps their nose out.

….but you know.

This is the glum, cheerless Presbyterian (retired), part of my character showing it’s face rather than my more usual libertarian free love, gay friendly sunny disposition.

Yessir. Three.

I think all it teaches is that attendance is more important than performance

mmmmmm. It says “I’m going to do what I like, Jack.”

Not a popular view here but I think Gove is right. You take your child out of school to go on holiday you are showing disrespect to the teachers and telling your kid that it is OK to cut corners. That isnt a great lesson to teach them. I’m being a little sanctimonious maybe but it just feels dead wrong.

…..arent we all always banging on about the something for nothing culture that plagues us? Kid doesnt have to do the work and gets the holiday anyway. Doesnt matter if you are 5 or 15yrs, they need to learn that they have to graft.

Yes all different and all examples of succesful liberal Western intervention.

Bosnia was a success. As was Kosovo. And Sierra Leone.

And I’m not actually advocating we get involved militarily in Syria, I think you have to be very careful about buying a good guy/bad guy storyline. The press love a simple narrative. I’m just glad our government said at the UN yesterday that Assad is a nasty sonofabitch, that’s all.

For TJ, no matter how hideous a government, no matter the brutality they mete out to their population there is never ever justification for outside (ie Western) intervention.

I seem to remember the Libyan rebels were the bad guys in TJs world, Gadaffi was unarguably the rightful ruler owner of the country.

So sorry your side lost that one Jeremy.

As it is Syrians are paying the price for NATO’s aggrandisment.

Right-oh. Our fault again.

In other words you agree that Assad and the Ba’ath party should cut out the violence and step down yes?