Off Topic Thread 4.0

Squidgy Black

Did anyone see the proposal from Davis? A 16km wide "special economic zone" along the border. With essentially a hard border on the other side of it.

stephen_n

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Labour decided not to back the Lords' EEA proposal this week precisely because they think they can remain in the single market without accepting freedom of movement. They are living in a fantasy world.

It would appear that is a widely shared belief for the Tories too.

Squidgy Black

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Did anyone see the proposal from Davis? A 16km wide "special economic zone" along the border. With essentially a hard border on the other side of it.

I think it was rejected by everyone pretty much instantly.

Davis has no political capital outside the Tory party. He broke agreements early in the negotiations in a very public way so he is being treated in bad confidence by all parties at this stage.

Podge_irl

Deleted User wrote: »

I have a bit of time for him because he does things that are unpopular because he believes in them - but he isn't capable of leadership because he isn't capable of compromise. He is a fanatic.

This has always been a bugbear of mine. It's actually significantly easier to be a fanatic than it is to compromise. "He has always stuck to his beliefs" is a bloody nonsense reason to support anyone.

Podge_irl

Those who suggested the UK could get a "better" deal outside the EU are fanatical weirdos essentially. Still obsessed with empire and the UK's great position in the world. If they had come out and said they would get a slightly worse deal but it would lead to other opportunities I could almost stomach listening to them. Instead the rhetoric was that they held all the cards and would get a great deal.

****ing morons. And unfortunately they aren't the ones who will suffer because of it.

Podge_irl

Podge_irl wrote: »

This has always been a bugbear of mine. It's actually significantly easier to be a fanatic than it is to compromise. "He has always stuck to his beliefs" is a bloody nonsense reason to support anyone.

Not in politics.

Varadkar is being championed because of his change of position on Abortion. That change of position was very likely politically motivated and based on polling data, it's not like his understanding of abortion changed because of new information - he's already a doctor.

So I can admire someone for taking an unpopular stance because they believe in it and I can not admire someone for taking a popular stance because it gains them votes.

Corbyn could probably be Prime Minister right now if he was more political, I can admire that he sticks to what he believes even when it's unpopular. It's not his beliefs I take issue with - it's his inability to reach a middle ground that earns him the label of fanatic. He could stick to his beliefs but still move left or right to reach a consensus, he refuses to do that to the continuing damage of his country.

Podge_irl

Deleted User wrote: »

Not in politics.

That I will agree with. My bugbear extends far. We get the politicians we deserve.

I still think, in general, "sticking to your guns" is way, way easier than compromising and I have no time for anyone who gives someone platitudes for it. It is literally the easiest thing to do - just be an intransigent bastard and you're away.

In life, politics, everything it is so much easier to stick to your viewpoint. Being flipfloppy to whatever the person talking to you believes is equally poor. But they are basically the same thing.

awec

mfceiling wrote: »

That's all of Ireland in a nutshell. We had the young ones communion a couple of weeks ago.
I warned herself about going overboard with food and drink. As usual I was over ruled because the "shame" of running out of ANYTHING would be too much to bear.
Now I'm not too bothered about wine and beer as they can be polished off anytime, but when you're throwing the best of food in the bin 2 days later it really gets on your goat.
You would think after 2 previous communions and a confirmation that the penny would have dropped? No.

Obviously you didn't invite enough people.

Synode

We just had our eldest's Communion. Cost an arm and a leg but it was a lovely day out with all of our family. That's the only reason we done it. Not religious in the slightest

MaybeMaybe

Synode wrote: »

We just had our eldest's Communion. Cost an arm and a leg but it was a lovely day out with all of our family. That's the only reason we done it. Not religious in the slightest

Surely there's better ways to spend an arm and a leg.

If the church was actually interested in obtaining genuine members (or what ever they get called) then they'd do some sort of verification on whether children and parents attend regularly. Instead, all they are interested in doing is padding the numbers to prolong their relevance.

ScrubsfanChris

Synode wrote: »

We just had our eldest's Communion. Cost an arm and a leg but it was a lovely day out with all of our family. That's the only reason we done it. Not religious in the slightest

Could you not just have had a family get together and good day out?


I'm not religious either but going through with a communion for no reason just smacks of making a mockery of the ceremony.

Synode

Personally I like a lot of the teachings of Catholicism. Jesus was a cool guy who spread a message of love so I have no problem with my kids learning the same things I did. They'll make up their own minds when they're older.

Also, the Communion service itself was great. Real Community feel to it

Squidgy Black

Synode wrote: »

We just had our eldest's Communion. Cost an arm and a leg but it was a lovely day out with all of our family. That's the only reason we done it. Not religious in the slightest

I understand why you did it and it is a nice day, but that's sort of the whole point.

Not religious in the slightest but your child taking part in a religious ceremony for the sake of a good day out.

mfceiling

awec wrote: »

Obviously you didn't invite enough people.

27....my representation was my mum and dad.

awec

mfceiling wrote: »

27....my representation was my mum and dad.

27 people in your house?

You and your missus are nuts. It was you who had the crazy birthday party or something with like 60 kids wasn't it?

awec

awec wrote: »

27 people in your house?

You and your missus are nuts. It was you who had the crazy birthday party or something with like 60 kids wasn't it?

Well not quite, just his corporeal body - his soul took off years ago.

mfceiling

awec wrote: »

27 people in your house?

You and your missus are nuts. It was you who had the crazy birthday party or something with like 60 kids wasn't it?

Yep...I'm an anti social git. Herself would invite everyone in the world in case someone got offended. Classic irish case of "fear of being talked about".
2 of the people who came were "m" who she worked with 8 years ago (71) and her sister "b" who is 76...reason being "ah sure they always send the girls a card at Christmas"!!

molloyjh

mfceiling wrote: »

Yep...I'm an anti social git. Herself would invite everyone in the world in case someone got offended. Classic irish case of "fear of being talked about".
2 of the people who came were "m" who she worked with 8 years ago (71) and her sister "b" who is 76...reason being "ah sure they always send the girls a card at Christmas"!!

I’d be vetoing the s*** our of that carry on. Not a hope would I allow it. I put the foot down at the wedding too. Put serious limits on who was invited. I’m not arsed dealing with a load of people I don’t know or like. Both our parents were like “oh you have to invite X and Y because their kids invited us to theirs and then there’s the neighbours etc”. I told them they could invite 2 people each, but think carefully about who the 2 are, because they’ll be responsible for keeping them entertained for the day.

Life’s too short to be bothering other that stuff.

mfceiling

molloyjh wrote: »

I’d be vetoing the s*** our of that carry on. Not a hope would I allow it. I put the foot down at the wedding too. Put serious limits on who was invited. I’m not arsed dealing with a load of people I don’t know or like. Both our parents were like “oh you have to invite X and Y because their kids invited us to theirs and then there’s the neighbours etc”. I told them they could invite 2 people each, but think carefully about who the 2 are, because they’ll be responsible for keeping them entertained for the day.

Life’s too short to be bothering other that stuff.

It's the mothers influence behind a lot of it. "You have to do this or else this might happen"
She knows my feelings on it!!
It must be an Irish phenomenon of inviting the world to everything.

I must admit she freaks out at me being blunt half the time. My girls do speech and drama at home with a lady once a week (has helped their school work a lot). I normally make her a cup of tea and a biscuit every week. Last week I had no biscuits in the house so I handed her the cup and says "I've no biscuits and I can't be arsed going out to get any...I'm sure you'll be grand". Herself almost had heart failure!!

Jaggo

mfceiling wrote: »

Last week I had no biscuits in the house so I handed her the cup and says "I've no biscuits and I can't be arsed going out to get any...I'm sure you'll be grand". Herself almost had heart failure!!

Ahh, I see what you did wrong, the polite thing to do would have been to give her €2.50 and send her to the shops. She could have picked you up a newspaper while she was there as well.

molloyjh

mfceiling wrote: »

It's the mothers influence behind a lot of it. "You have to do this or else this might happen"
She knows my feelings on it!!
It must be an Irish phenomenon of inviting the world to everything.

I must admit she freaks out at me being blunt half the time. My girls do speech and drama at home with a lady once a week (has helped their school work a lot). I normally make her a cup of tea and a biscuit every week. Last week I had no biscuits in the house so I handed her the cup and says "I've no biscuits and I can't be arsed going out to get any...I'm sure you'll be grand". Herself almost had heart failure!!

We had a couple of friends out at the weekend to meet the baby. One was over from the UK for the first time in years. That morning the wife said she was going to pop out to the shops to pick up a few things. "What should we get for later?" she says, referring to snacks for the guests. "Ah we don't need much" says I. "We're popping out for dinner with them and they won't be here until at least 5pm, so there's no point in getting much. Get some choc biscuits and some crisps or something small like that".

Half an hour later she comes back with choc biscuits, a couple of bags of crisps, crackers, a full wedge of brie (which neither of us eat), some other fancy cheese concoction that I didn't even bother looking at, grapes, blueberries, wine, prosecco and a couple of bottles of sparkling elderflower. I looked at her and asked what the f*** that was all for. "I didn't know what they'd like so I got some of everything".

We're on one salary at the moment. And nobody touched the f***ing brie.

awec

molloyjh wrote: »

We had a couple of friends out at the weekend to meet the baby. One was over from the UK for the first time in years. That morning the wife said she was going to pop out to the shops to pick up a few things. "What should we get for later?" she says, referring to snacks for the guests. "Ah we don't need much" says I. "We're popping out for dinner with them and they won't be here until at least 5pm, so there's no point in getting much. Get some choc biscuits and some crisps or something small like that".

Half an hour later she comes back with choc biscuits, a couple of bags of crisps, crackers, a full wedge of brie (which neither of us eat), some other fancy cheese concoction that I didn't even bother looking at, grapes, blueberries, wine, prosecco and a couple of bottles of sparkling elderflower. I looked at her and asked what the f*** that was all for. "I didn't know what they'd like so I got some of everything".

We're on one salary at the moment. And nobody touched the f***ing brie.

You’re missing out. Eat the Brie.

irishbucsfan

I'm glad this is a universal thing. In some ways it actually excuses it

stephen_n

Was talking to someone the other day who’s daughter made her communion a few weeks ago. The following week, there was a special mass for all the kids who had made their communion. Which was to be followed by a precession through the area. Of the 32 kids that made their communion, 9 turned up for the mass. The idea of communions being a religious or community thing, is fanciful at this stage. The vast majority of kids are only interested in the money and in a lot of cases it’s status statement, in terms of the parties afterwards.

irishbucsfan

I never made my communion because not only are my ancestors filthy protestants, but my parents are godless heathens. To this day I feel like they owe me that money.

Yeah_Right

mfceiling wrote: »

It's the mothers influence behind a lot of it. "You have to do this or else this might happen"
She knows my feelings on it!!
It must be an Irish phenomenon of inviting the world to everything.

I must admit she freaks out at me being blunt half the time. My girls do speech and drama at home with a lady once a week (has helped their school work a lot). I normally make her a cup of tea and a biscuit every week. Last week I had no biscuits in the house so I handed her the cup and says "I've no biscuits and I can't be arsed going out to get any...I'm sure you'll be grand". Herself almost had heart failure!!

The Irish definitely have a weird obsession with feeding and watering anyone that sets foot in their house. We had a builder come out to the house last week to put storage drawers under the stairs. I was making myself a cup of coffee and did offer him a cup of tea or coffee. I mentioned there was no milk as she had used the last of it that morning. He declined. When I reminded her to get milk on her way home, she was disgusted that I hadn't walked to shops to get some. "How did you make the guy a cuppa?"

She gets her from her mum. Every time we go for a visit I get offered a cup of tea about 50 times. I don't drink tea. No matter how many times I tell her no thanks, 5 minutes later "would you like a cup?" Its like it just doesn't compute that someone would turn down a cup of tea.

Buer

Never underestimate the influence the Irish mammy has on her daughter.

Meh, children have to say confession before they take their first communion and they learn about how God created the earth.

Both of those are completely disqualifying for me. No offence to the priesthood, but if my kids are to be sorry for something they can be sorry to the person who they wronged not some fiction in the sky who tells them they can chant repeatedly to make the badness go away. Honestly, **** that completely, it's a terrible terrible lesson for young kids to learn. And no one is filling my kids heads up with bull**** about creationism.

kuang1

Come on now Venjur.
Off the fence with ya.

dregin

Yeah_Right wrote: »

The Irish definitely have a weird obsession with feeding and watering anyone that sets foot in their house. We had a builder come out to the house last week to put storage drawers under the stairs. I was making myself a cup of coffee and did offer him a cup of tea or coffee. I mentioned there was no milk as she had used the last of it that morning. He declined. When I reminded her to get milk on her way home, she was disgusted that I hadn't walked to shops to get some. "How did you make the guy a cuppa?"

She gets her from her mum. Every time we go for a visit I get offered a cup of tea about 50 times. I don't drink tea. No matter how many times I tell her no thanks, 5 minutes later "would you like a cup?" Its like it just doesn't compute that someone would turn down a cup of tea.