[Durham Giant]

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:42 am  

Big Graeme wrote:

I used to think he was a prick, now I know he is...

Which bit do you diasgree with then.

The analysis which is factually correct

"I am unable to watch the Olympics due to the blustering jingoism that drenches the event. Has England ever been quite so foul with patriotism?

"The 'dazzling royals' have, quite naturally, hijacked the Olympics for their own empirical needs, and no oppositional voice is allowed in the free press. It is lethal to witness.

"As London is suddenly promoted as a super-wealth brand, the England outside London shivers beneath cutbacks, tight circumstances and economic disasters.

"Meanwhile, the British media present 24-hour coverage of the 'dazzling royals', laughing as they lavishly spend, as if such coverage is certain to make British society feel fully whole."

Or the polemic/ headline grabbing

"It could almost have been written with the British public in mind, because although the spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain, the 2013 grotesque inevitability of Lord and Lady Beckham (with Sir Jamie Horrible close at heel) is, believe me, a fate worse than life."

I find the BBC news fascinating at the moment. Since the Olympics started the news has become a Celebration of British sports news. Seems to me to be no different to watching SKY sports.

No coverage of cuts, the effect they are having ,the Tories continued plans for dismantling the welfare state, the NHS and any attempt to maintain a meritocratic education system.

I love the whole debate about sport in schools as well. No one sems to have mentioned that most schools have been cut back so much that many teachers cannot VOLUNTARILY give their time to promote sport. The main criticism seems to be that State schools do not support competitive sport due to namby pamby lefties.

Meanwhile in Co Durham we have had SEVEN sports centres closed or cut to the bone they provide hardly any services. Even Durham constabulary have shut their GYM/ sports centre/ rehab centre.

How many times have you seen Wills and Kate at the olympics. I have seen them at Tennis, Gymnastics, Athletics and Rowing. They must have been very lucky on the ballot for tickets

Nothing like a bit of patriotism to get the brits to fall asleep again and swing behind the " Nation". Still at least the Tories are using the Olympics to make everyone forget. Thatch decided a war was the best way to go. Nice little boost if you were wanting to call a snap election

Still at least Morrisey recognises the Greeks have got it right.



WAKE UP

[Durham Giant]

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:50 am  

here is a bit of news you may have missed http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-19151918 http://allnurses.com/nursing-news/man-d ... 60974.html still who cares about health cuts when we are winning medals. Come on Jess

here is a bit of news you may have missed http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-19151918 http://allnurses.com/nursing-news/man-d ... 60974.html still who cares about health cuts when we are winning medals. Come on Jess

[Durham Giant]

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:53 am  

maybe £10 milion pounds per medal is a good price to pay.

"When Great Britain went to Beijing, the team benefited from £235m investment in training programmes in the years running up to the Olympics - that's a fourfold increase on what was spent [in the run up to Athens]," says Prof David Forrest, a sports economist at the University of Salford.

"We spent an extra £165m and got 17 more medals, so that's about £10m a medal."

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 8:57 am  

Sal Paradise wrote:

As for libraries I struggle to understand your vex, books are cheap to buy especially second hand or download - perhaps we need virtual libraries - oh I forgot you can already download books for your local authority.

Two points - eBooks are not cheap to download, in fact for some bizarre reason they are more expensive than the paper version - and not many local authorities offer downloadable free library eBooks like Leeds City Council do.

Secondhand books are indeed cheap to buy and the best source of these for me locally is Oxfam, most cities will have a specialist Oxfam books shop and they are quite excellent, however they are still not as numerous as the free public libraries and it would be a real shame to diminish that resource and just leave the commercial sales of books as the only method of reading, in fact I can't think of another single most devastating blow to the nations literacy levels.

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:09 am  

JerryChicken wrote:

it would be a real shame to diminish that resource and just leave the commercial sales of books as the only method of reading, in fact I can't think of another single most devastating blow to the nations literacy levels.

Especially if the supermarkets continue to drive business their way, at the expense of local independent bookshops. Even the chain bookstores are feeling the pinch but I have little sympathy for them, if for no other reason than they attempted to do to the independents, what they now complain supermarkets are doing to them. It's bad enough asking someone in Waterstones to point you towards a suitable book, it will be even worse asking a minimum-waged, Tesco employee to do the same.

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:21 am  

cod'ead wrote:

Especially if the supermarkets continue to drive business their way, at the expense of local independent bookshops. Even the chain bookstores are feeling the pinch but I have little sympathy for them, if for no other reason than they attempted to do to the independents, what they now complain supermarkets are doing to them. It's bad enough asking someone in Waterstones to point you towards a suitable book, it will be even worse asking a minimum-waged, Tesco employee to do the same.

When I was about 12/13 there was a tiny little secondhand bookshop near where we live, run by a guy on his own working his backside off 6 days a week every week. When I went in he couldn't have been more helpful and knowledgable. He took the time to find out what kind of books I liked and my interests and so sold a shed load of books to me over the next few months through his knowledge of books and what I might like, and it got me onto the Hornblower books which really sparked an interest in history in me. Sadly his shop only lasted a few months as he couldn't compete with Waterstones and the supermarkets on price and also them being open 7 days a week.

On a related note, I used to know a guy who ran his own music shop, until HMV came along.

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:24 am  

cod'ead wrote:

It's bad enough asking someone in Waterstones to point you towards a suitable book, it will be even worse asking a minimum-waged, Tesco employee to do the same.

Did you mean an unemployed person on "work experience" stacking shelves for Tesco's for free?

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:33 am  

Durham Giant wrote: ... No one sems to have mentioned that most schools have been cut back so much that many teachers cannot VOLUNTARILY give their time to promote sport. .. They have. There's nothing wrong with a bit of patriotism. It is not a synonym for nationalism and/or jingoism. And since you're on about brands – great avatar: the brand symbol of an anti-semitic, right-wing, anti-worker, anti-union McCarthyite. Durham Giant wrote: here is a bit of news you may have missed http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-19151918 http://allnurses.com/nursing-news/man-d ... 60974.html still who cares about health cuts when we are winning medals. Come on Jess Obviously this will be difficult for you, but some people can enjoy the sport – and still be aware of and care about these things. We do not all have minds that are incapable of dealing with more than one piece of information at a time. Do you have trouble remembering anything else because you occasionally enjoy a bit of RL and are cheering on your side? If not, why do you presume to pretend that people enjoying the Olympic sports aren't as clever as you? JerryChicken wrote: Two points - eBooks are not cheap to download, in fact for some bizarre reason they are more expensive than the paper version - and not many local authorities offer downloadable free library eBooks like Leeds City Council do. Secondhand books are indeed cheap to buy and the best source of these for me locally is Oxfam, most cities will have a specialist Oxfam books shop and they are quite excellent, however they are still not as numerous as the free public libraries and it would be a real shame to diminish that resource and just leave the commercial sales of books as the only method of reading, in fact I can't think of another single most devastating blow to the nations literacy levels. And that's without mentioning all the other services that libraries provide. cod'ead wrote: Especially if the supermarkets continue to drive business their way, at the expense of local independent bookshops. Even the chain bookstores are feeling the pinch but I have little sympathy for them, if for no other reason than they attempted to do to the independents, what they now complain supermarkets are doing to them. It's bad enough asking someone in Waterstones to point you towards a suitable book, it will be even worse asking a minimum-waged, Tesco employee to do the same. It's as though there have been full-frontal lobotomies of people who 'think' that the only thing someone working in a shop is good for is taking their money and putting their purchase in a bag. The things I've discovered and learned over the years from staff in independent book shop and record shops, suggesting things, challenging me to try new things: approaches both dependent on their own knowledge and commitment, qualities that we seem to, in general, value less and less.

Durham Giant wrote: ... No one sems to have mentioned that most schools have been cut back so much that many teachers cannot VOLUNTARILY give their time to promote sport. .. They have. There's nothing wrong with a bit of patriotism. It is not a synonym for nationalism and/or jingoism. And since you're on about brands – great avatar: the brand symbol of an anti-semitic, right-wing, anti-worker, anti-union McCarthyite. Durham Giant wrote: here is a bit of news you may have missed http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ma ... r-19151918 http://allnurses.com/nursing-news/man-d ... 60974.html still who cares about health cuts when we are winning medals. Come on Jess Obviously this will be difficult for you, but some people can enjoy the sport – and still be aware of and care about these things. We do not all have minds that are incapable of dealing with more than one piece of information at a time. Do you have trouble remembering anything else because you occasionally enjoy a bit of RL and are cheering on your side? If not, why do you presume to pretend that people enjoying the Olympic sports aren't as clever as you? JerryChicken wrote: Two points - eBooks are not cheap to download, in fact for some bizarre reason they are more expensive than the paper version - and not many local authorities offer downloadable free library eBooks like Leeds City Council do. Secondhand books are indeed cheap to buy and the best source of these for me locally is Oxfam, most cities will have a specialist Oxfam books shop and they are quite excellent, however they are still not as numerous as the free public libraries and it would be a real shame to diminish that resource and just leave the commercial sales of books as the only method of reading, in fact I can't think of another single most devastating blow to the nations literacy levels. And that's without mentioning all the other services that libraries provide. cod'ead wrote: Especially if the supermarkets continue to drive business their way, at the expense of local independent bookshops. Even the chain bookstores are feeling the pinch but I have little sympathy for them, if for no other reason than they attempted to do to the independents, what they now complain supermarkets are doing to them. It's bad enough asking someone in Waterstones to point you towards a suitable book, it will be even worse asking a minimum-waged, Tesco employee to do the same. It's as though there have been full-frontal lobotomies of people who 'think' that the only thing someone working in a shop is good for is taking their money and putting their purchase in a bag. The things I've discovered and learned over the years from staff in independent book shop and record shops, suggesting things, challenging me to try new things: approaches both dependent on their own knowledge and commitment, qualities that we seem to, in general, value less and less.

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:41 am  

Durham Giant wrote:

Which bit do you diasgree with then.

The bit where he fecked off to Rome a few years ago saying England had lost its identity.

The bloke is a knob of the highest order.

[Durham Giant]

Re: That unmentionable sporting event - the madness continue : Tue Aug 07, 2012 9:46 am  

Mintball wrote They have.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of patriotism. It is not a synonym for nationalism and/or jingoism.

And since you're on about brands – great avatar: the brand symbol of an anti-semitic, right-wing, anti-worker, anti-union McCarthyite.

When i find a nice one of Liebknecht or Luxembourg i wil be happy to change it ( assuming i have the technical ability to do it.)

But as you mention my avatar now everytime you challenge one of my posts i might just keep it as it obviously wind you up so much.

Obviously this will be difficult for you, but some people can enjoy the sport – and still be aware of and care about these things. We do not all have minds that are incapable of dealing with more than one piece of information at a time

[/quote].

It would sem that McF and Littlerich did not make the link then as they were quite hapy to laugh at / criticise Morrissey without thinking about his comments..

I would also guess that millions of other people watching round the clock sports coverage on the news about British sports success maybe have had their minds distracted somewhat.