Time to depart...

[SallyAnne]

My tuppence worth

Where did you move to?

[OwlHoot]

We still have large reserves of coal. According to the World Coal Institute:

The UK has proved coal reserves of around 220 million tonnes however total reserves could be well in excess of 1 billion tonnes. Most of this is steam coal, although there are some accessible reserves of coking coal.

Sounds a lot, but I was reading a biography of Admiral Lord Fisher the other month. (Fascinating guy, and we could do with someone like him around today to kick a few butts.)

But anyway, during the first year of WW1 alone the Grand Fleet used 100,000 tons of coal, steaming around the North Atlantic to avoid U Boats. So I'd guess an average coal-fired power station would use at least 10 times that.

So 10 such power stations would only keep us going for around 20 years, and release a vast amount of CO2 (and more sulphur, what with the poor coal quality).

[Flashman]

I don't enjoy my life in the UK. Sorry. We have the best music and broadcasting, and what I read I mostly read in English. But I don't enjoy anything much outside the house.

As for work, I am scraping about to find any in the UK, whereas I am not in some other places in Europe. Depends on the skillset I suppose.

Overcrowding: I'm not talking about immigration. I'm talking about lack of space everywhere in everything. 50 million people is far too many for a country this size*. Everything seems cramped to me; some people may like it but to me it just wears me down all the time.


* I know that's not the population now, my point is that even before significant immigration, there were too many people. For my taste.

I like Sally Annes style. Why give up on your own country?

But sadly 'change' seems inevitable. Timberwolf is about right. I read recently that England has overtaken Netherlands as the most densely populated part of europe. I can easily believe it and the future?

uk pop 60 million now.
2031 71 million (Current Uk Government forecast)
2051 77 million (Current Uk Government forecast)

Most of this pop growth will take place in the south of England (Scotland pop forecast to fall over the same period).

Does anyone actually think this pop growth will improve our quality of life?

No question if you are young or have a young family you should seriously consider emigrating.

New Zealand would be my choice. Excellent quality of lfe. Australians too aggresive for my taste.

[SallyAnne]

Sally. You sound like one of those people proud to be English for no apparent reason. Being born here was a random event AFAIAC I feel no allegiance to this country and no responsibilty for the actions of the morons who brought down the economy Gordon Brown included or any obligation to spread any love/wealth/join the samaritans

No apparent reason? No, I'm proud to be English AND British for loads of reasons! Too many to list here, but here's a few off the top of my head: -




The fact that we'll come together as a society every year to donate millions of pounds to Children In Need and/or Comic Relief - even in a recession.

The fact that we treat every single person as an equal in this country.

The fact that today I watched on the news the parent of that poor kid shot in Liverpool...and their words were thanking the many thousands of people who had written to them, complete strangers who had supported them for no reason other than they felt their pain.

The fact that we can get our tubes and our buses blown up one day, and we'll be there standing at that ******* stop at 8:30am the next morning.

The fact that I can come on here and rant my opinions down everyone neck without having the police at my door.

The fact that the majority of us go to sleep tonight safe, fed, warm.

The fact that a little girl goes missing on holiday and the people of this country raise millions of pounds pretty much overnight.

The fact that the majority of people in this country who in other countries would be left to suffer, in this country wont be.

The fact that if a person collapses in the street in this country they will get taken into hospital and looked after until they are well again - regardless of where they are from or whether they have insurance or not.





However,
The fact that so many of you...the top % of the population....the people who this country relies on to lead the way, to keep financially and morally alive...that so many of you just dont seem to give a damn...that's going to ruin this country more than Gordon Brown or any politician ever could.

[SallyAnne]

We just ran out of coal.

Oh My God

Where on earth did you get that from?!!

Most of our pits were flooded!!

How dont people know this?!!

[SallyAnne]

I'm sitting there with a 900 quid laptop in the table with this boy about to go medieval on a scot rail employee.

All you cared about was your laptop when you thought the train guard was going to get his face punched in?

You disgusting piece of trash.

[mrdonuts]

For generations our ancestors have fought to protect our land - to give us a country where we could live, raise families, and be safe.

i would agree with that, its sick that the country has been given away in the way that it has

[TimberWolf]

Oh My God

Where on earth did you get that from?!!

Most of our pits were flooded!!

How dont people know this?!!

I suspect people don't know this because the numbers sound huge, until you divide them by the amount per person.

Interestingly enough, flooded coal-pits kick-started the industrial revolution. Newly developed pumps enabled us to dig up coal at exponentially increasing rates (not least to run the machines to pump the mines to get the coal to run the machines), until production rapidly peaked in 1910 in the UK. We exported coal and steel and machines all over the globe. Is was a big coal orgy.

[expat]

However,
The fact that so many of you...the top % of the population....the people who this country relies on to lead the way, to keep financially and morally alive...that so many of you just dont seem to give a damn...that's going to ruin this country more than Gordon Brown or any politician ever could.

That's ass-backwards, SallyAnne. We talk the way we do, some of us anyway, just because the country seems not to be ours now (and again I don't mean immigration).

Nobody's looking for me to lead any sort of way. I don't know about the country relying on me to keep financially alive but I rely on other countries to keep me financially alive. As for a moral lead, my values are rarely to be seen on our streets. I do give a damn: I give a damn about where I live and whom I live with, that's why I don't feel like being stuck here. I feel less of a foreigner in Holland or Germany than I do here; and I'm pretty sure I'd feel that even more in say NZ.

[OwlHoot]

.. The fact that we'll come together as a society every year to donate millions of pounds to Children In Need and/or Comic Relief - even in a recession..

Why isn't there a projectile vomiting icon? the nearest I can get is