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Renaissance Robot posted:I won't bother making a bet that whoever buys the place will do exactly that in order to turn a quick profit; nobody here would take it. It's a mountain with land that's only fit for grazing sheep (i.e. it's too steep/rocky to do anything more valuable with). There's no "quick profit" to be had; anyone buying it will be getting it purely as a status symbol.
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May 6, 2014 13:13
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Renaissance Robot posted:I won't bother making a bet that whoever buys the place will do exactly that in order to turn a quick profit; nobody here would take it. I thought the point was he was selling the mountain and it's grazing rights so he didn't have to sell houses and farms? It says a lot about modern times that this very faint hint of noblesse oblige is a national news story - "Man in position of power chooses not to gently caress people over!".
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May 6, 2014 13:16
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This is a very negative thread. Think positively, people. Turn that frown upside-down!
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May 6, 2014 13:36
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Good opportunity for a kickstarter, ive got 5 quid in my change box ... anyone?
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May 6, 2014 13:40
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goddamnedtwisto posted:I thought the point was he was selling the mountain and it's grazing rights so he didn't have to sell houses and farms? It says a lot about modern times that this very faint hint of noblesse oblige is a national news story - "Man in position of power chooses not to gently caress people over!". Nah he is just selling off the one part of the massive estate gifted to him that doesn’t bring in money every year, unlike the tenants. Because the local farmers have common rights to the actual grazing, there is no money to be made there. He is essentially divesting his estate of a giant unprofitable asset and reducing his family’s future tax liability. It is cunningly been spun as a combination of estate tax ruins family, and noble man bravely refuses to evict tenants.
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May 6, 2014 13:43
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Renaissance Robot posted:I won't bother making a bet that whoever buys the place will do exactly that in order to turn a quick profit; nobody here would take it. I'd take it as I don't believe the mountain he's selling has tenants. E: Oops there's another page
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May 6, 2014 14:02
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Whip round to buy and rename Mt. Stalin?
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May 6, 2014 14:03
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Touchdown Boy posted:Anyone who can do so, jump ship now. Doing so gleefully
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May 6, 2014 14:06
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JFairfax posted:Doing so gleefully What will you do if you discover elsewhere is just as terrible?
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May 6, 2014 14:13
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If you think Britain is a genuinely terrible place then you're kinda weird. It's actually pretty good.
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May 6, 2014 14:18
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Saki posted:If you think Britain is a genuinely terrible place then you're kinda weird. It's actually pretty good. Thats the most sweeping generalisation seen in this thread so far. Try it from a different perspective, its not so great when things are not ticking along just so.
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May 6, 2014 14:20
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We've got institutionalised, government sanctioned slavery, thousands of people with so little food they have to resort to shoplifting or relying on food banks and we have UKIP, a literal Nazi party, gaining some measure of traction. Britain is a great place, guys. Stop complaining.
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May 6, 2014 14:25
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Saki you're the most delusionally positive poster I've ever seen. Why would you post in a discussion thread if you can't handle people complaining about the negative impact of government policy?
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May 6, 2014 14:26
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Puntification posted:What will you do if you discover elsewhere is just as terrible? Continue jumping ship? There's bound to be a good boat out there somewhere.
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May 6, 2014 14:30
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Alternatively, learn to live in the sea. We'll all have to eventually.
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May 6, 2014 14:31
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We don't suffer outright violent oppression as we might in say Saudi. We do suffer constant ideological/cultural/intellectual oppression and are governed by people who attach value only to profitability. This worship of capital has come to permeate much of the country, even amongst the lower classes who get screwed by it. It's a massively dangerous situtation. Our oppression may be less visible and less immediate than its more violent counterparts in other countries but it is no less meaningful.
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May 6, 2014 14:33
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There are a lot of places better than the UK fairly close by, the only thing the UK has that puts it above others is the NHS and we're doing our best to wreck that. I'm here solely for free medical care. Absolutely no other reason. Should this cease to be an option I'd be in Germany the day the changes hit. The UK is a fantastic place relative to world history and a large majority of the global population. But that's a stupid argument since we're EU citizens and our options include France, Germany and Sweden to name a few.
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May 6, 2014 14:37
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I downloaded a bunch of Norwegian audiobooks and I'm slowly learning the language. Just in case. First though I'm going to St Petersburg to teach English for three months, I wonder what life's like over there.
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May 6, 2014 14:39
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I guess we have a large amount of structural violence. We may not get beaten across the head, unless we protest or look at a copper funny, or be black, but denying a large proportion of the population to basic human needs is an act of violence by many, many definitions.
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May 6, 2014 14:41
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Puntification posted:What will you do if you discover elsewhere is just as terrible? Everywhere is terrible. It's being terrible on my own terms. Britain is just so parochial, the politics is like the Local Am Dram whereas the states is like Broadway - they really know how to put on a show. I was recently working US hours in Bristol as I couldn't make a call to people I needed to speak to before 3pm. Try getting a decent meal after 10pm. Impossible. Shops still by and large are closed when you get out of work - except for supermarkets. As for public transport. Well... I hate to say it but here in Chicago I can either use a ticket, cash or wireless bank card to get on a bus or train and the same tickets work on either. In Bristol the biggest advance we've made in public transport in the last 20 years is a loving water slide. The busses are dogshit and get more expensive all the time and the train connections inter-city are great but you can't get from southville to clifton on one train and that's just loving idiotic. Not even saying there has to be a light rail system, just loving make the best of what we've got already. And Bristol is, by all accounts ones of the best places to live in the UK. I love it, but I grew up here, and don't want to spend my entire adult life here and don't want to live anywhere else in the UK - don't fancy London, not cut out for the countryside (love it but man it's boring) and I've lived in Liverpool while at uni, and whilst a lot of fun, the northern cities just don't appeal - in comparison to Bristol. Britain is great, it does have lots of opportunities if you have the right skills, but for me I love the big big cities (not London) so I am off to seek my fortune elsewhere.
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May 6, 2014 15:24
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JFairfax posted:Everywhere is terrible. It's being terrible on my own terms. Fair enough you've obviously put a lot of thought into it and are doing what's best for you personally. To be honest I'm currently working abroad myself and am likely to look to other countries rather than the UK as my first choice for my next position (though this has as much to do with the availability of funding rather than thinking they are better places to live), I just wanted to caution against people thinking that neo-liberalism isn't going to be a problem the world over.
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May 6, 2014 16:22
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Coohoolin posted:
My supply agency keeps sending me teaching opportunities at primary schools in Moscow and St Petersburg (English speaking international schools), but they're fixed term contracts to begin immediately and I'm too much of a coward to take them. I'd be really interested to hear how you get on over there.
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May 6, 2014 16:26
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My Ex did a year teaching English in Romania and loved it. But she already knew some Russian. I tried to learn some Serbian for a stupid reason a few years ago and those Russian languages have about 7 cases? is that right? Rather complicated to get your head around but would be easier to learn living there full time. Personally I think it's important to engage with a country you're living in and my cousin and a good friend of mine have taught english in Spain and Japan for a number of years and both absolutely love it. The key to living abroad is to get stuck in and engage with the local community. You go crazy if you just hang around with Ex-Pats - at least from what I've seen. I've never lived in a country where I don't speak the language, but the people who have done learn it and you really have to be up for that to have a good time.
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May 6, 2014 16:31
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Saki posted:If you think Britain is a genuinely terrible place then you're kinda weird. It's actually relatively pretty good. I know I'm going to get pilloried here, but I agree. Things are poo poo for a chunk of the country yes, but things are poo poo for a chunk of every country's population. It's not like the UK is some outlying state that inflicts a unique rightwing approach to it citizens, which the rest of the world condemns us for. This is a neoliberal planet, and the problems you get here will be identical over the world. Very few if any countries have a moral high-ground to lecture the UK. Honestly I find it laughable that leftwing posters here are considering/moving to the US and Russia after complaining about the conditions here. To complain about the UK being unequal/ homophobic/ right wing and everything else that's poo poo about a centre-right country and then move to a brazenly-right wing country that would unashamedly call the UK relatively leftwing is baffling. Its not like UKIP is a uniquely British affair either, there are similar parties springing up and doing well all around Europe (including Scandinavia).
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May 6, 2014 16:34
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HortonNash posted:My supply agency keeps sending me teaching opportunities at primary schools in Moscow and St Petersburg (English speaking international schools), but they're fixed term contracts to begin immediately and I'm too much of a coward to take them. I'd be really interested to hear how you get on over there. I'm gonna try and keep a blog while I'm there (if I can stay sober long enough), but basically it's a volunteer program I'm taking on because I withdrew from uni this semester and needed something to keep me occupied before going back to finish fourth year in September. It's a three month course where the first two months are daily Russian language lessons, and then the last month (once you've reached "intermediate" apparently) they give you a bunch of teaching materials and tutoring and set you up giving English lessons. I'm a bit scared, but quite looking forward to it. My course starts on Monday and I'm still waiting for my visa to arrive. EDIT: JFairfax, yeah I made sure the language course would work for complete beginners and apparently it's fine. I've been doing a bit of rosetta stone to prepare and I'm pretty good with cyrillic after a few months but nowhere near enough to actually chat with anyone. I'm already fluent in Italian and German and can do conversational French and Spanish so it looks like I've got a knack for languages. I'll be sure to integrate (already have a pal in Spb ready to show me around) and ideally I'll come back in August a Russian speaker. Coohoolin fucked around with this message at 16:40 on May 6, 2014 |
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May 6, 2014 16:36
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Much like Hitler, right wing parties gain traction easily by blaming all the problems on something irrelevent. In hitlers case it was jews. In UKIPS case it's a joint combo of FOREIGNERS from the EU.
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May 6, 2014 16:37
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Yeah, Britain is pretty drat good in comparison to the majority of the rest of the world. Especially when it comes to things like female sexual health, gay rights, race relations. It's not perfect, but loving hell compared to a lot of places we are extremely progressive. I mean look at that attitude to racism on the continent and over here in the states. There's been an influx in Bristol of Spanish people as a result of the economic downturn and I was seeing an Italian woman who lamented the state of that country at the moment. Britain isn't perfect, but it could be a lot loving worse.
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May 6, 2014 16:41
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Coohoolin posted:EDIT: JFairfax, yeah I made sure the language course would work for complete beginners and apparently it's fine. I've been doing a bit of rosetta stone to prepare and I'm pretty good with cyrillic after a few months but nowhere near enough to actually chat with anyone. I'm already fluent in Italian and German and can do conversational French and Spanish so it looks like I've got a knack for languages. I'll be sure to integrate (already have a pal in Spb ready to show me around) and ideally I'll come back in August a Russian speaker. I am jealous of people who can pick up languages. I think I am just too lazy for it to be honest. That sounds pretty good, hope you have a good time over there.
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May 6, 2014 16:42
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Like everywhere, Britain is poo poo if you're poor, and great if you're wealthy. I would say that even a poor person gets a better deal here than most places in the world, but that's no excuse for the situation that the British poor are finding themselves in these days, because it's so easy to ensure that everyone gets a decent quality of life but there's just no desire at all to do it.
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May 6, 2014 16:42
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Private Eye posted:Honestly I find it laughable that leftwing posters here are considering/moving to the US and Russia after complaining about the conditions here. To complain about the UK being unequal/ homophobic/ right wing and everything else that's poo poo about a centre-right country and then move to a brazenly-right wing country that would unashamedly call the UK relatively leftwing is baffling. If this was directed at me rest assured moving to Russia is not my failsafe "get out of neoliberal shithole" card. I've already mentioned starting to work on Norwegian. Worst case there's always Ireland.
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May 6, 2014 16:43
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Private Eye posted:I know I'm going to get pilloried here, but I agree. Things are poo poo for a chunk of the country yes, but things are poo poo for a chunk of every country's population. It's not like the UK is some outlying state that inflicts a unique rightwing approach to it citizens, which the rest of the world condemns us for. This is a neoliberal planet, and the problems you get here will be identical over the world. Very few if any countries have a moral high-ground to lecture the UK. The scandanvion counttrys are supposed to be pretty great arent they, lots of co-ops etc?
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May 6, 2014 16:44
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"Shut up, you haven't got cholera, yet!" - the thread this last page. Truly the high point of the UKMT 
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May 6, 2014 16:45
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Also in Britain it's fairly unlikely that you'll be literally murdered for your political or social beliefs.
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May 6, 2014 16:45
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JFairfax posted:I am jealous of people who can pick up languages. I think I am just too lazy for it to be honest. I was lucky enough to be born to multilingual parents and raised in a country with 8 million people and 4 national languages, 3 of which are taught at school throughout all levels. That's probably got more to do with it than any innate linguistic ability.
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May 6, 2014 16:47
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KKKlean Energy posted:Like everywhere, Britain is poo poo if you're poor, and great if you're wealthy. One key thing is the NHS, being poor in the US is a whole other ballgame because you could literally be bankrupted instead of getting the treatment you need. It's not perfect but really it's a massively positive thing about the UK and it should be something to be proud of not cut back to the bone.
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May 6, 2014 16:48
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Lord Twisted posted:Also in Britain it's fairly unlikely that you'll be literally murdered for your political or social beliefs. No but you can be detained for no loving reason- see all the students and potential protesters that get lifted the day before any big event is launched.
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May 6, 2014 16:49
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Private Eye posted:I know I'm going to get pilloried here, but I agree. Things are poo poo for a chunk of the country yes, but things are poo poo for a chunk of every country's population. It's not like the UK is some outlying state that inflicts a unique rightwing approach to it citizens, which the rest of the world condemns us for. This is a neoliberal planet, and the problems you get here will be identical over the world. Very few if any countries have a moral high-ground to lecture the UK. JFairfax posted:Yeah, Britain is pretty drat good in comparison to the majority of the rest of the world. Especially when it comes to things like female sexual health, gay rights, race relations. Both of you are right but you both also miss the point. I'd rather be pissed on than be shat on but ideally I'd prefer neither. Things are still not adequate, and we owe it to ourselves to continue to draw attention to areas that require improvement and change. It's cowardly and ignorant to just say 'well, could be worse, guess I shouldn't moan'. But yes guys don't move to the US or Russia because Britain is a rightwing hellhole that's just really stupid. You're also right on Scandinavia - some really sketchy right wing types emerging there, but in a very Scandinavian way. They're still committed (ostensibly) to the Scandinavian model which is still hugely progressive compared to the rest of the world. In fairness they may be doing this in the same way that the Tories are still committed (ostensibly) to the NHS. They might want to dismantle it but saying that outright would be political suidice so they have to wrap it all up in the terminology of 'efficiency' and 'choice'.
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May 6, 2014 16:49
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The trouble about going somewhere in the EU is really you probably have to speak the language. I don't know about you lot but I got a C in GCSE German which means I might just be able to make myself understood, barely. To actually become fluent you have to go immerse yourself in the country for a good while. So you cant just apply for a developer job in Spain or whatever because you wont be able to talk to half the people until you have been there for 6 months or something. I tried learning Spanish for a laugh and I'm poo poo, its not a skill I possess.
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May 6, 2014 16:54
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Seaside Loafer posted:So you cant just apply for a developer job in Spain or whatever because you wont be able to talk to half the people until you have been there for 6 months or something. I tried learning Spanish for a laugh and I'm poo poo, its not a skill I possess. I disagree with that, I worked with a spanish company (as essentially a contractor via my UK employer), and while there were language troubles, they had an english speaker or two there, and when I went over there to do some intensive time with them, it was possible to work with them quite easily, and I felt that I'd probably have picked up bits of the language pretty quickly if I were to work with them physically for more than a few days. The source code was all in english (well, american) anyway, as was 99% of the documentation.
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May 6, 2014 16:58
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Thrasophius posted:Continue jumping ship? There's bound to be a good boat out there somewhere. Just don't try Australia. They're stopping the bats.
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