The electorate will all be sent to the naughty step at this rate 🙁

I guess this is one way to stop the estimated (by polls) 50% + of the party supporters from voting Corbyn.

“Lord Mandelson, one of the architects of “new” Labour, privately appealed last week to the Kendall, Cooper and Burnham camps to quit the contest before ballot papers were sent out, according to sources.

One said: “Lord Mandelson and other Blairites were saying – this is a disgrace, let’s get this thing pulled. But it was not going to happen.”

The peer is understood to have believed that the party might suspend the contest if there was only one candidate, but he had to back down when officials said it would mean Mr Corbyn won.“

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11806498/Lord-Mandelsons-failed-mass-resignation-bid-to-attempt-to-stop-Jeremy-Corbyn-winning-Labour-leadership.html

If Corbyn is in on the first vote as a clear winner(presuming majority votes from long standing party members too) I wonder what the dissenting anti Corbyn MPs will do? Would the Conservatives want them as defectors once the publicity value of their disloyalty to Labour faded? Do they have any other career left to go to?

Perhaps more interestingly, what sort of protest might anti left MPs get from annoyed voters who feel voting has been undermined by a coup or similar poor behaviour?

There is a lot of potential for an internal party protest from even say a quarter of 600,000+ voters. There is a lot of writing about how the MPs may split the party but no one seems to be saying how the electorate of the party might respond to anti left MPs after the leader is announced. Hey, its almost like only the MPs response is of any value!

“Life peer Lord Greville Janner voted 203 times in the House of Lords after being diagnosed with dementia and giving power of attorney to his two children, it has emerged.

Janner, a former MP for Leicester West, handed over power of attorney for decisions involving his health and welfare to his children following a dementia diagnosis in 2009.

But the Labour peer, 86, attended the Lords on 634 days after that and claimed over £100,000 in expenses, investigative website Exaro.com found.“

Lord Janner ‘voted 203 times in the House of Lords’… AFTER his dementia diagnosis

It was reported in lots of other news sources too.

“Here’s me not supporting Labour’s values at the last election https://t.co/mKL2X7u0So
— Mark Steel (@mrmarksteel) August 12, 2015“
[photo of him campaigning 2015]

Petition now on Change.org

BBC:

“Labour received more than 160,000 applications to vote in its leadership contest in the final 24 hours of registrations…. It takes the potential total electorate in the leadership contest to 610,753.”

At the [2015] general election Labour had just over 200,000 full members.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33892407

I see Blair has rolled out now and wants us to “understand the danger we are in“.

Maybe he thinks there are thousands of people mentioned in the Chilcot Report? Oh, he’s talking about Corbyn, silly me…

“In a desperate appeal to Labour members and supporters, the former prime minister urged them to set aside their opinions about his three terms in power and save the party from self-destruction by rejecting Corbyn’s politics.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re on the left, right or centre of the party, whether you used to support me or hate me,” he wrote. “But please understand the danger we are in“

Another irony gap….

MARK STEEL BANNED FROM LABOUR VOTE

“The comedian and writer Mark Steel has become the latest prominent left-winger to be barred from voting in the Labour leadership election.

Steel, who has volunteered to knock on doors for the party in the past, said he was “fuming” at the rejection, which he was told was because he does not “support their values”.

The comic, who is also an Independent columnist, questioned whether it was right for Tony Blair to be allowed to vote given he had invaded Iraq for a “completely bogus” reason.”

“He said the rejection notice did not explain specifically why he had been barred from voting.

“It’s a standard thing that clearly goes out to everyone. It says there are two reasons [for rejection]. One is that you don’t support the ideals and values of the Labour party. Or you are a member of a rival organisation,” Steel said.

“I can’t think what that can be, unless it’s Crystal Palace Football Club or my local snooker club in Croydon. Maybe my snooker club is fielding candidates.”

“I applied as a supporter about three weeks ago. Then I started getting all the emails that people get, from Yvette Cooper and people like that, thanking me. Then I just suddenly get this, and there’s nothing I can do about it.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-leadership-contest-mark-steel-becomes-latest-leftwinger-to-be-barred-from-voting-10452628.html

“I have an e-mail from Yvette Cooper asking me to tell her why I signed up to vote. I told her there was an opportunity to get a Labour party that was compassionate and not Tory-lite, and this opportunity was not her.“

She must be getting a few blunt but constructive replies, mine was one of them. I doubt she cares what people think is wrong with things though.

Just found todays best quote from Campbell – a man who has no understanding of irony at all, unless he intended this as a joke to get the UK laughing:

[Campbell] also said that [Corbyns] “career has “laid a plentiful minefield” for the Conservatives to use against him if he wins. “The past, he will discover, is not another country,” [Campbell] said.“

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11794381/Jeremy-Corbyn-will-march-Labour-off-a-cliff-Alastair-Campbell-warns.html

First it was Blair, now its that charming chap Alastair Campbell warning us dim witted electorate against Corbyn.

Comically reminiscent of Corporal Jones yelling
“Don’t panic! Don’t panic!” to the platoon members.

Must say the more the Establishment of whatever party screech the more it adds to the belief Corbyn must be a very good thing and well worth my vote.

I guess the war crimes comments from Corbyn are making some people nervous.

Maybe if Corbyn gets elected in 2020 he might get that war report finally released to the public… puzzlingly no one else seems to be able to get it published into the public domain. Its almost like its a conspiracy, but that can’t be.

ONLY A FEW DAYS LEFT to sign up to vote in the Labour leadership campaign – whoever you want to vote for.

If you want to DONATE TO CORBYN or check how much he has raised from donations to his campaign given by the general public, its here:

https://jeremyforlabour.nationbuilder.com/donate

(£114,595.00 raised at time of posting this)

“I see also he’s offended numerous victims of IRA violence by refusing to condemn their campaign of violence. Not surprising from someone who took money from Hamas to pay for his visit to Gaza”

Corbyn has said negotiation is the key to improving relationships (my paraphrasing there). In my own view its obvious if you want to get meaningful dialogue going to break a stalemate and achieve any progress, its pretty clear that going in with hostile comments is not going to encourage constructive talks from the other side. Its not about shouting out the rights and wrongs, its about trying to find a solution in desperate situations – often the only way to stop even more people from dying.

“How can he appeal to the aspiring working class or middle- class wannabe’s?“
Maybe they would like a home or at least somewhere they can afford to live or healthcare for themselves or their kids, or maybe support for their elderly relatives so they don’t have to resign well paying jobs to look after them? Or maybe some people are just not utterly selfish and self obsessed and therefore want society to be somewhat more fair and kind to the vulnerable.

“It will be interesting to see if the people surging to support Corbyn will put their hands in their own pockets to cover the gap in financing that his gaining the leadership will create – are they socialist with their own money, or just other people’s ?“

“Cash pours in to left-winger’s Labour leadership campaign, with target to raise £50,000 in 50 days exceeded in less than two weeks” Telegraph headline.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11784374/Jeremy-Corbyn-raises-100000-in-crowdfunding-campaign.html
Its very interesting where the other candidates get their campaign funds from (same article)and how much they have recieved:
” Andy Burnham declared more than £130,000 in donations, including £20,000 from green energy company and previous Labour donor Ecotricity.

Yvette Cooper had received more than £80,000, including £50,000 from Ken and Barbara Follett, while Liz Kendall had received about £36,000 including £10,000 from Lord Hollick.”

They would be socialist with their own money as many voters, surprisingly to you, actually pay tax. Also no socialist party can spend any government money unless it is voted into government by a dominantly large section of the general population (ie democratically elected). I can only presume that those who resent using pooled money for general good float over road surfaces, never go anywhere with street lamps, never use any public education services and never get sick – given the results of pooled resources are so unworthy.

“Bagehot nails it in the Economist this week. There are innovative thinkers in the world who could challenge the mainstream consensus but Corbyn is not one of them sadly.”

Well, where are they and what are they doing? No one seems to have noticed this batch of people who can do better than Corbyn.

Re cancelling Guardian subscription – the comments pages on the Guardian site are plastered with members calling out the Guardian on biased coverage blatantly hostile to Corbyn – its got so bad they had a half baked justification piece running trying to explain why writing hostile articles is really neutral behaviour:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/03/analysing-the-balance-of-our-jeremy-corbyn-coverage

The Guardian Whitewashes Biased Coverage of Labour Leadership Candidate Jeremy Corbyn

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/07/27/diane-abbott-guardian-newspaper-jeremy-corbyn_n_7881492.html

Lots of people are leaving the Guardian because of the hostility being shown to left of centre candidate – mostly because the readership had previously believed the paper itself to be left or at least moderate centre.

Just one person cancelling a subscription or account WILL make a difference if its lots of ‘just one person’. The questioning readership has already forced one backtracking piece and a sudden show of a few more neutral ones.

Quite a few depressing things have come to light due to Corbyn. He has shone a light into the inner views of mainsteam politicians.

– We are told by both mainsteam political parties we the population are mentally incompetent to have any views that vary at all from their own near identical centre right agendas. From that we see we have become virtually a one party state.

– That our representatives (and ex representatives) from all parties feel entitled to be verbally abusive and bulling to their employers (us the population) in ways that would get people sacked in any normal employee/employer situation.

– Why have a decent set of policies people will back out of free choice, when you can just sneer or manipulate instead?

– That mainstream politicians have no interest in promoting any form of real voice for the population, only wishing to play pretend democracy.

– Politicians in general are still too determined to feel complacent contempt to understand why people are rebelling.

Whatever happens Corbyn has done us all a favour by showing us how things have become between population and the leaders they have elected.

The comments from politicians from both Con and Lab plus the 3 ‘policy free’ Labour candidates are driving people towards Corbyn in droves and still do not have the sense to keep quiet.

Thankfully Corbyn genuinely deserves the votes he is getting.

As I have said before, I know of 5 people who have joined to vote for him, none of which were very political before.

Personally I have met no one who is hostile to immigrants. Most immigrants I have met have been nice friendly pleasant people and I think they are often viewed by UK residents as being brave in moving to a new country.

I find people who were born in the UK are instead angry with the UK government / the EU for allowing in huge numbers of immigrants in a very short time period – meaning long term residents get problems with access to schools/health etc after having paid in for it for years. This is not the fault of the incoming people, but of a government who is not listening to the population and who wants to push down wages. As someone said, when did the minimum wage become the maximum wage for the average worker?

I think the solution for immigration issues is for developed countries to seek to improve the home country of people (but not exploit it), so residents do not need to rush to leave and so that the people unable to leave are not left in dire situations.

I also think every single country in the world needs to look at reducing, not maintaining, the number of humans born. Constructive social policies – say a reward for families with 2 or less kids.

Good of you to care, but probably wasting your time. The councils etc have no resources left due to Central government cutbacks – they cant even keep the Libraries open in many places.

Our local council verges are covered in this plant which it is illegal to allow to grow

The need to control ragwort

Common Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea) is a specified weed under the Weeds Act 1959. It contains toxins, which can have debilitating or fatal consequences if eaten by horses and other grazing animals.

Ragwort may need to be controlled when its presence and the likelihood of it spreading to neighbouring land poses a risk to horses and other grazing animals or land used for the production of forage.

The Code of Practice provides practical advice on identifying the risk and the most appropriate means of control.

The safe and effective disposal of ragwort is an important part of ragwort control. Disposing of ragwort responsibly reduces the risk of further spread by seed dispersal and regrowth from root sections.

“He’ll never get elected as leader by Labour.

Unfortunately.”

The more of us – the general public, sign up to Labour to vote for him the more chance he has.
There is still time to join up to vote for Corbyn.

Its the first time I have ever signed up to a political party. Worth every penny. I still have to decide who to vote for for the Deputy Leader position.

Which Deputy Leader are any of you voting for and why?

Done.

Surpised you did not ask how many cats in a household as if more than one you learn more about behaviour.

Some of the questions could be answered in more than one way (realise you have problems creating the form). For example, does a cat have awareness of doing wrong. Was tricky to answer as yes, sometimes they clearly know they are naughty, sometimes they show what best interprets as ‘guilt’ but it would be easy to interpret from the answer something like ‘all cats should know all the time if they have done something wrong and they are fully responsible and should be blamed’ or ‘If a cat knows the rules beforehand it makes a choice but sometimes it might not understand, so is not choosing to break rules intentionally’. Which box to tick?

You also ask about experience with cats – I have worked with many animal types and find awareness of one sort helps with awareness of others – so I do not have lifelong experience of cats, but consider my self to be fairly on the ball with much of their behaviour. Having more than one really helps human learning about them.

Can you post a reminder on Singletrack when your results are ready for reading as no way will I remember your e-address and the date, but would like to see the results. Thanks.

Cranberry, maybe you are right. You are perhaps giving people more choice in future, even if that is not your actual intent. Roll on with your £3 🙂 Its been such a long time since so many of us had any party worth voting for.

Have a nice night, off to bed myself now.

I love the ego filled honesty of the Tory £3 voters – the willingness to tell us all what shallow, dishonest and utterly self centred people they are.

– Lying to screw up an election (you have to make agree with a statement that you genuinely support the aims of Labour in order to join up).

– Trying to undermining the rights of others to be represented by anyone other than a right wing party.

– Attempting to destroy a legitimately elected opposition party by underhand means.

What heroes. The words “integrity” and “honesty” must send you running ignorant and confused for a dictionary!

Edit:
I see Mr Corbyn is undermining his own chances – here IS a man of integrity

“The Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn has called on the party to root out people voting for him in a bid to to skew the election result.”
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/16/corbyn-urges-labour-to-root-out-telegraph-readers-trying-to-skew-vote

“really, parties are trying to attract;

1) older people (young people don’t vote in enough numbers to worry about)
2) the middle ground – they need to attract the 10% of people who actually vote that might be trying to decide between the two main parties. “

What they need to attract is the huge number of people giving up on voting as they feel unrepresented, rather than a comparatively trivial number of floating voters. Leading up to the last election I (left of centre) spoke to a friend who is a lifelong Tory and some friends who had moved from ex Conservative party membership to Liberal voting. All of them felt they were not represented any more and hated the self serving corruption of UK MPs – but could think of no party different enough to move votes to, from the ones they had been voting for.

It really come to something when even those who vote are in despair about limited choice.

That young people are not voting should also not be dismissed – its a major disaster.

Voting and political engagement is to some degree almost a habit or mark of your view of yourself. If they dont vote when young they most likely will remain disengaged and apathetic (for good reason). Politicians of conviction (Corbyn) or who at least show some personality rather than looking cloned (Boris, Ken Livingstone) at least bring or brought the start of engagement, if you support their individual beliefs or not.

No – its not too late to join up and vote for Corbyn – there is still time. 🙂

I would suggest not putting 2nd or 3rd preferences on your ballot as they are going to try to use those to manipulate him out of the leadership.

“I suspect if he is winning it will be due to conservative politicians and supporters paying three quid and voting for their preferred candidate.“

“Corbyn is a step left that appeals to CURRENT members but won’t win new members.“

I have never previously joined any political organisation.
I joined Labour (chose full membership price) last week only because of Corbyn.

I know 4 other people of various political position (but none being tory voters) who also rushed to join Labour in the last couple of weeks. People who have never previously been members of any political party and they have all joined just to vote for Corbyn. I have been amazed how he has brought out activity and enthusiasm in people who until a couple of weeks ago had given up hope with UK politics and its corruption.

People are desperate for democracy and genuine democracy needs to offer free choice. Labour, Libral and Conservative have all been right of centre parties for some while – so there is no genuine variation in choice for voters.

A good opposition is vital to promote debate, to highlight options and alternative beliefs or choices. Similarity of recent politics does not offer even a decent protest vote to the population.

Corbyn is the only person offering DEMOCRATIC CHOICES for voters in the UK at this point in time instead of just more of the same. Until the last week or so (and Corbyn standing) we have lived the last decade in what is alarmingly near a ‘one party / one policy set’ state due to all parties becoming so similar, with most politicians seeing politics as a good career rather than as a belief or as a need to help others instead of helping themselves to perks and power.

A good opposition is healthy challenge for whichever party (left, right or other) is in government and good for the population as a whole. Corbyn can reinstate an intelligent and engaged opposition – good for all of us, whatever our political party preferences are.

“on the nights before I plan to go for a ride I drink enough to scupper those plans. Habit I guess, but a hard one to break.”

Its not habit, for some reason you don’t actually WANT to go or are punishing either yourself or others by making sure you do not attend.

Spend a bit of time asking yourself why you are making this choice and what some sub concious part of you thinks it is gaining from such behaviour.

You do know the answer, we all know the answers to our own odd behaviours, just usually we do not want to admit the reasons to ourselves because we are scared of the answers or scared of finding we are not always nice. Being brave enough to find out who you are is hard, but ultimately can be very enlightening and even fun at times.

Aside from that, re taking antidepressants. I will say here that this is my personal view and lots of people may disagree or find that the opposite of my view worked out really well for them – its all very personal. However when I became ill a few years back with stress and depression I already knew I wanted counselling and not pills before I got to the GP. Things were so bad for me I had to write a letter and give it to them to read as I could not talk out loud about my issues without crying. I was lucky my GP full supported my reasons for avoiding pills totally and wanting counselling instead. I think I hit gold there with that GP.

Over the previous decade I had met several colleagues/acquaintances/friends who were on anti-depressants.

I had 2 observations that scared the hell out of me. The first was that people go on them expecting it to be short term (its only 6 months….) but then find their doctor is all too keen to keep them on them and I know of at least 2 people who have been on them over 10 years and several more who have been on them multiple years. None of these people seemed very happy in life to me. The doctors make no serious attempts to wean them off and the people who are taking the pills become terrified of life without them (despite side effects no one mentions such as digestion issues etc), so the patients then fight tooth and nail to stay on them. A couple of friends did try to quit in fear at their dependence, but instead of weaning slowly, both came off abruptly, just stopping the pills totally on whims. This seems to lead to a lot of withdrawal issues and panic attacks and the result was they became more determined to stay on them ‘long term’ which seems to mean life long ie decades.

The 2nd observation is that if you are unhappy and depressed you do still have some motivation to change your life as everything seems unbearable and you want ‘out’ and into a better type of life – and councellors can help support you in such changes. From observing people on long term anti-depressants it seems to help them manage to tolerate life as it is… so they plod on changing NOTHING as the awful aspects are numbed out and just bearable though still miserable – and all drive and motivation to change job or whatever sort whatever is the real issue just fades and they go on and on living the same crap life as finding it just about bearable on pills ends up outweighing the drive to change and improve things for the better.

Personally, I did not want the numbing out and going on living the same miserable life, nor did I want side effects or life long pill dependence. For me, not taking pills was absolutely the right choice as the active misery causing the drive to change saved me and helped me alter my life to a better one. But again I say this option and my reasons might not fit everyone, its just a point of view.

I would also say that, aside from doctors, pills or counsellors the biggest problem if you are unhappy can be the people who are around you – when I first started to make changes to my unhappy life I got lots of low key but very persistant negative feedback not only from bosses but from friends and relatives – people in my close circle I had expected to want to support me in making changes to be happier. I found this quite shocking as I was not exactly looking at huge changes, just different type of job, a different personal outlook of ‘can do’ rather than being beaten down. I found people felt threatened by or resentful of even smallish personal outlook changes and they would try to stamp on them in all sorts of ways – even such odd things along the lines of ‘just stay as you are [for the next 20 years] as you will get a good pension’. It was staggering. Be aware of this resentment of change in you as it can grind you down subliminally and undermining is the last thing you need when you want to change your lifestyle to a happier one.

I saw some troubled teenager on TV about a decade ago. He turned his life around at some boot camp type thing and wanted to be a new person and was doing really well. They interviewed him a few months after he got home and he said that he was still determined to change his future to a better one, but that moving forward then being put back into the same environment that helped create his negative tendencies was very unhelpful. He said its no good to treat a person in isolation as if they are the problem and only them – in fact their entire daily environment and the feedback from the people in it needs to be assessed and interpreted as positive or negative as well, as the environment creates the person to some degree.

The older I get, the more intelligent I think that teenager was.

Anyway, good luck.
It gets easier to change the longer you keep at it.
Be aware of other people looking after their own interests first.

Asus MeMo pad 7

Really pleased with mine, nice and nippy, happy with the screen, speakers loud enough to use for audio book reading while I am decorating a room – plus it came from John Lewis so good service, excellent guarantee and the profits go to the staff. Win all round!

No offence, but you cant count on your mums house. If she gets ill or needs home care or to go into residential the cost of her house will be eaten up in only months.

It also depends on how old she is now and how her health is. If say she is only in her 70’s and fairly healthy she could easily live into her 90’s and the number of people living to 100 is rapidly increasing. The side effect of that is not ‘how long until I inherit’ but more along the lines of what social care right wing governments in this country will continue to provide – at the moment doctors, dentists, hospitals are low cost to the individual and there are financial allowances for the elderly who need home care etc. All that could be gone totally within 10 years given how this government is heading and that people seem keen to vote them in (next election too?), so the costs will have to come from her savings, the value of her house or from her family supporting her (plus their own healthcare bills in addition). People are desperately poor in America for such reasons.

Ask them?

http://www.cathkidston.com/pws/Contact.ice

http://www.robertsradio.co.uk/About_us/Contact_us/index.htm

“Why do you want a partner if you didn’t select them to have your children?”
Can’t believe someone actually wrote, or worse, thought this!

I would suggest you find some young children to spend some time with while making your decision – visits some friends or relatives with kids as much as possible for a while. It will give you some idea if you can find them as fun or an irritation.

I worked with someone who accidentally fathered a child who and despite having weekly and totally voluntary contact with his child and a good friendship with her mother, was still saying 9 years later that he thought a lot of his daughter and ‘loved’ her but if he could time travel (and despite knowing who the child turned out to be), would be very happy to have eliminated her from his life and her own existence. Which is all rather sad.

Whatever you decide, it should be said you are a hugely decent and caring person for thinking of your partners future. Well done. Quite often men procrastinates and string women along until the women are too old to have kids, then the guy dumps her and has kids with someone else, which is utterly cruel.

Agents got a friend in mind rather than you? If they continue to be obstructive try to contact the seller direct, even if s/he sends you back to the agent at least they now know you exist (in case the agent is not passing on your offers to the seller).

Always amazes me how people think its just fine and dandy to make a childs life a misery. Children have no control and no authority. How many adults in a comparable situation would not do something about it to improve the situation for themselves – most of them I think. Yet a child being sad does not matter at all. Yes life is hard – so why make it even worse for children or anyone for that matter when its simple to change it.

OP, do something about this, even if its only to ask the school why things are being arranged this way. At school it is not only children that bully, plenty of teachers do too. There is nothing wrong and everything right in standing up for a defenceless child provided you do so in a polite and constructive way. Let your child see change is possible and that misery does not have to be tolerated.

Do it yourself as far as you can or you will end up paying large amounts of money to a solicitor and have to pay them extra each time you contact them or check up on them to see why they are being so slow. My family were quoted a minimum of £1500.00 in fees for even a very basic probate.

GET THIS BOOK (Waterstones stock it on the shelf, other suppliers available!)

Gordon Bowley LLB – Probate: The guide to obtaining grant of probate and administering an estate.

The government web site is here and has lots of info/guidance
https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/overview

You can contact them for additional help and guidance if the stuff on the web is not enough.

All the probate forms and guidance can be downloaded from here
http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetForm.do?court_forms_id=735

A friend has just done probate for his Mums death. In theory you may be interviewed after you send the 2 forms into the government, but I think they do not bother to do everyone as his family did not get called in for a chat. Her estate was bigger, so they saved several thousand by doing it all themselves.

The fee for sending the forms into the government is around £200.00 no matter how small the estate. If you cant afford to pay it I think you can get some kind of grant or similar, see government web site.

My friend set up an Exectors account at the bank (note: the bank will be keen to do the entire executorship for you, but will charge you as highly as the solicitors would) but my friend said in retrospect he did not really need to bother with a specific ‘executors account’ as money due to the dead person can still be paid into their own bank account. We did not need to create one either. I just saw it as something else to have to monitor and later close down, on top of the deceased persons existing accounts. If you have money owing to the dead person, it can be paid into their existing accounts.

Keep a record of any expenses you run up – travel, maintenance of estate items such as property, bills you pay on behalf of the dead person as you are entitled to claim them against the estate.

If you need to pay for the funeral before the estate is settled, take the funeral bill into the bank or building society the dead person used and if there are sufficient funds in the account, the bank/building soc is legally able to pay the invoice from the dead persons account before probate etc is settled – its the only bill they are able to pay in this way.

Hope this is helpful.

I think its normal to be a bit in shock with the change. I found the first few weeks it did not feel as if I had ‘escaped’ it just felt like just some holiday leave and took ages to change to a long term freedom.

What struck me most when made redundant was just how institutionalised people become without noticing – loosing independent thought about how to plan our lives, expecting things to just be squeezed in around the structure of work demands of those who employ us. Obviously we need jobs or some reasonable source of income (pensions, self employed, redundancy money, inheritance, whatever) but I had not realised just how utterly conditioned to obedience/compliance some of us become – I guess really it starts at school where being an individual is strongly discouraged. It took me at least 6 months after leaving a significantly long term employer to start thinking fully independently, which is shocking really. I have been really lucky in that I have been able to financially provide myself with a career break. It changes outlook so much. Its like finding yourself again.

By chance a couple of acquaintances became unemployed, so I have watched them come to terms with having more personal freedom (of a kind, given high stress of low incomes), then with going back into formalised occupations.

While unemployed one of them was doing a lot of charity shop work for free (own choice, not government encouraged) and what was fascinating was how, despite being a VOLUNTEER, in less than a month he was saying things like ‘my boss is refusing to let me have any leave next month'(he has no formal leave allocation or card as he is unpaid), ‘I am only allowed to wear what my boss approves of’ and ‘I had to explain to her I have a medical appointment in 2 weeks before I could get the time off’. He is not paid, has no employment contract and yet he has moved totally back into ‘I have to do everything I am told without questioning it’ mode. He dislikes his boss, yet refuses to move to a different charity as a volunteer as ‘I must not let her down’. I respect and agree he needs to give fair notice for not serving in the shop out of decency but other than that I find the obedient compliance to any passing authority figure so scary. How many of us really realise how controlled we are and how hard it is to re-form ourselves to full self sufficiency?

The other acquaintance became employed by a dodgy company who did not bother to pay her for 3 months, leaving her and her children in massive debt. I checked them out and found the company worked with schools all over the country and were cited in many local newspapers for not paying their sub-contracted staff for weeks or months – it was how the company was run, not a single error. I told her about this and she then proceeded to tell me that her boss and in turn his boss ‘would not lie to me, its just an error’. After repeated weeks of no pay I said why are you going in doing full shifts for no money when its already over 8 weeks since you have been paid a penny. Her response again was ‘I have to, its my job, I can’t let the firm down’.
Eventually the headmaster forced a payment from the company. He had not known for weeks as the sub contracted staff were scared if they told him the sub contacting company would sack them – which would seem to be an advantage in my view.

Human behaviour is scary. We are brain washed from school onwards to be obedient and not even notice it. Its not surprising some people have initial difficulty finding a life and who they are when not under the command of a ‘boss’.

Don’t worry about being a bit lost, it takes a while to find out who you are and what you want. It will happen though 🙂 But when you get a job, keep hold of the self awareness if you can.

If you feel so down when you get home/back to normal life, I suggest there is something significantly wrong with your ‘normal life’ and that things need to be changed either personally or in your job – maybe change job?

Its normal to be tired after physical holidays, its normal to feel it would be nicer to stay on holiday but feeling really low just seems a sign there are issues/unhappiness taken away when you are on holiday that you are not noticing or avoiding noticing on a day to day basis. Spend some time thinking on this.

I have had 3 dogs (not greyhound types) and none of them ever lost a dew claw. I would do a lot of research before deciding to amputate any part of a dog, the claw is there for a reason and its not like you can put it back on if its the wrong decision!

You can get travel sickness tablets for dogs from your vet.

I used to get them for our dog – she was miserable and would throw up even on a 4 mile journey. Getting the tablets meant she could enjoy trips out for new walk areas and going on holiday with us.

As someone myself who gets very very travel sick, I could not condemn a pet to feeling so very ill. Feeling travel sick is indescribably awful, you just want to die and thats not an exaggeration.

It may have been mentioned before, but in the last couple of years some of the multiplex cinemas and also the small fry have been showing opera etc broadcast live to the cinema screens. Maybe not as much atmosphere, but I have a friend who finds it enjoyable to go and it would be a much cheaper introduction/taster session.

If you move miles away, you remove the option for your children to be able to call around to your own new home of thier own free will. They will be dependent on transport provision from mother who clearly does not really want them to have contact with you. It will force them in the future to ask for contact from you, as opposed to just dropping round after school and if they have the courage to ask her they risk a backlash from their mother for doing so. If they want your advice on homework, do you want to drive 90 miles and back after work?

I can understand you wanting space, but in the process your kids will pay for it emotionally, not your wife – its all long term and short term gain for her. Its ok to say children will make up their own minds about the past, but do you really want to have to wait until they are 18 and can drive or earn enough money themselves to be able to get coach or train fare together in order to be able to visit you?

Moving away also makes it easier for your wife to move from Edinburgh to just about any place its hard for you to travel to. Son of a friend lost his kids that way. His ex partner, a nurse, wanted to move to Australia with their son to develop her career. At the time he was living miles from his wife, but seeing his kid now and again, distance making more freqent contact difficult for him. The court decided that as he was not local to the child and therefore unable to visit it frequently/weekly, it would make no difference to the childs personal development to be moved to Australia. So he lost his kid totally then as ex and child moved and never came back.

As the boy was way less than 10 I dont suppose he even remembers much about his dad now, so is not hugely likely to travel half way round the world to meet him when he grows up. Plus of course absence allows the hostile parent to imprint whatever they like on a childs brain with no other parent, family or friends around to give alternative impressions.

Whatever, best of luck to you and your children.

Not personal to you, but to the vast number of men in your situation – ‘Justice’ is still so stacked against men in relation to child custody – I will never understand why men nationally cannot co-operate and form a workable protest/pressure group to fight for greater custody equality. This inequality has been going on for years, yet there seems no viable national campaign. Men surely have the numbers to be highly effective as a pressure group, they have the sad stories of lost children, but seemingly not the co-operation with each other to change prejudice and inequality.

Can you ask senior students what they felt was missing?

Is there time to make design suggestions part of a student/school project?

Maybe do one unit/bedroom up first as a test run and get opinions rather than do the lot and find any errors?

Ask IKEA if they can give design advice (‘support a local school’ publicity, maybe they might throw in a few things free or cheap as well?).

Haggle for discounts on bulk buy.

Approach other local companies to see if they want to join in for the publicity?

Will anyone donate some books etc for the reading room?

Decent and directable/dimable lighting for each person is always good.

Plenty of power sockets, there are never enough, anywhere!

Wifi

Do different colour walls in some rooms to create variety. Just painting one wall per room a non standard colour would be enough to make things seem more individual, less boring.

Cork boards, picture rail or similar so people can put up personal decorations without ruining the new wall paint.

Privacy curtains in shared rooms.

Lockable storage (even if you keep a spare key).

As much as possible needs to have some kind of washable option – removable chair covers, rugs that can go in the washing machine etc

Large cushion or a bean bag?

‘scrubable’ washable paint rather than just normal type.

Kick plates/finger plates to protect doors etc from damage (if this is likely).

Fly screens for windows (if in applicable climate).

Bookshelf or general shelving unit.Shelves done on metal wall strips so the spacing of the shelves can be changed to suit the needs of the individuals using it.

Shelves high up the walls with space or other furniture beneath – people waste so much storage space by thinking of only eye level or below.

Plan ahead. The local sports centre/pool showers will turn out to be very handy. If you don’t have a 2nd loo, keep a few containers handy for night emergencies when you can’t really nip round and use a neighbours loo and also plan where to dispose of the contents of such containers. Pre warn friendly neighbours that you are looking for ‘facilities’ in advance and you may get offers to use their shower etc if you are lucky.

For some reason if the loo is out of action, everyone needs to go twice as often as normal. 🙂

“They should do national service” is always directed at the young (ie those who can easily be forced into compliance). Why not at a broader age range if its so useful and beneficial?

People calling for national service make me angry. Usually such people are well clear of the age limits of call up, so they are happily volunteering others not themselves. Quite often they have never themselves been anywhere near the services and would never dream of taking part in them out of choice. Its so much do as I say, not as I do.

It seems deeply wrong to use enforced labour, esp when such labour placed in the military is at risk of severe psychological and physical damage or of being killed. It also seems unethical to force people into positions where they might be required/forced to severely injure or take the lives of others.

National service demands are a cop out on social responsibility. If people have social or employment issues they should be addressed by society and the government for what the problems are, not by the suggestion of sending people into what would be effectively a prison/labour camp by any other name.

Prince Harry – well maybe best to feel sorry for him on some levels. He was born into an unhealthy, self indulgent yet rigid system where his every life moment is documented by the press. He grew up in an environment (the institution of royalty) I think is cruel to children and their mental health and well being. Its a background not conducive to useful independent self development or self direction on many levels and places extremes on self discipline – either way too much discipline or almost none at all, not much normal middle ground.

I think if he had mixed with a larger number of normal people (not those personality types drawn to powerful control structures such as the military or obedient to obsessive royal protocol) he might find that thousands and thousands of everyday young people have self discipline, self awareness and the wit to moderate their own lives perfectly well without getting into difficulties and without being forced into a military structure to protect them from themselves. He is assuming his own poor decision making is by default endemic to all others.

It should also be said that unlike others, Prince Harry is always in the position of refusing to take part in any military activities he does not fancy, can walk away from the job at any time with no penalty and would always be provided with a ‘legitimate’ excuse for the benefit of the press and public. He also has no need to fear getting trapped long term in the military when wishing to move on – no worries about struggling on the dole or going down the food bank when he cannot find a civilian position. No homeless and unsupported with psychological illnesses.

I am not hugely convinced by his extolling the virtues of military life either – if its so great, why is he leaving at all? He is not a significant heir to the throne any more, he is not genuinely needed for official engagements (much better public relations for one of them to actually do some kind of visible job surely?) so why not spend his whole ‘working’ life within the military? Frankly he has nothing else useful to do other than pass his time in self pleasing ways. I saw he is helping to set up a games event for injured military people. I started off thinking that was really good, that he would do something long term useful for others, but then saw so many times in the papers that he only saw this as lasting a couple of years before it would be ‘handed to others’ to do instead. I foresee a long string of very very short ‘helpful’ careers, like the conservation work which could be an admirable and truly worthwhile multi decade job but which is already turning out to be timetabled to last months, not even years. Where is the self discipline here, in this already growing string of short term time filling toys?

What he needs is some self discipline, learned for life. Maybe he should join the military to learn some…..

Prince Andrew is one shining example of early military life creating the man long term.

Another memory from the past post on here – some recruiters love stuff about your hobbies and interests and others said they saw that info as a total waste of space on a CV as they want to know about your work experience, not your private life.

See… you just can’t do perfect! 🙂