Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

I also try to use the main roads only. I was 50 when I learned driving here in the UK coming from a 35 years bicycle history.
I learned to handle Wiltshire’s hills and are able to master stop and go on a 10% hill. On Saturday, it was the last bit of Gay’s Hill that was really a no go. But all together, I’m not a brave driver, and don’t like the small countryside roads. I always avoid towns as I am not used to them.

 

Satnavs and online maps are pretty hopeless here so I tend to check routes before leaving and have relevant maps in the car. Via Michelin, Google maps etc can't find our house which has had a number and street name for over a dozen years now. The car's satnav doesn't have all sorts of new roads on it either and, when I drove to Genoa last summer, it didn't have anything for Italy. Who wants to go there??

Fortunately I remembered the way after years of going to the beach in Tuscany but navigating Genoa itself was new and using a mobile phone whose signal disappears betwwn gorges and high buildings was a challenge, not to mention mad Italian drivers and bewildered tourists (raodworks, diversions and lack of signage) who are more unpredictable and undisciplined than anything I ever met in London, Belgium or France.

I learned to drive when I was 30 after we moved to a house in Harrow with no public transport between us and the office so traffic isn't a problem for me, especially after moving to Belgium in 1991 and having to navigate Brussels on a regular basis. Mad road rules and all those furriners for the EU, NATO, WTO etc.

Hills not a problem either, or narrow roads, as my dad lived up in the Lakes and I loved driving up there. Hills are also much easier now we have automatics after slipped lumbar discs 20+ years ago led to weakess in my left leg when changing gears.

 

I have never driven an automatic, and I am used to my gear system, but with just 60ps, not be able to turn slowly…. No chance. Not by chance asked this woman to stop the traffic in either side because you literally need a catapult start into the “dark”.

 

The advantage of an automatic @simone_in_wiltshire is that you can move very slowly if needs be and have both hands free for steering and signals. Modern systems also allow for rapid acceleration out of trouble.

I don't function at 4am @shiney. Definitely not a lark.

 

Crikey, @simone_in_wiltshire, my heart was beating faster just reading your post! Horrible situation. I would have been shaking like a leaf for ages afterwards.

Defo let the train take the strain next time.

 

I have a cousin in Bath @simone_in_wiltshire. I've driven there twice - those roads are definitely an endurance test . I hope you've recovered and that the party was enjoyed by all .

 

I've been listening to the radio this morning and they've been discussing the government's new child care arrangements where parents can get free childcare from 9 months until 4 years now while this is good for parents isn't it time that people such as a single 63 year old male gets something back from the system

 

To be fair, you could say exactly the same about any of us without children of whatever sex and married or single.

 

Exactly they have chosen to have children they can't afford but us tax payers have to then keep them

 

It always makes me laugh, or cry, when they come out with the story that the birth rate is falling and we need more people in the country to be working and pay for all the oldies who are sitting around doing nothing, (retired).
Then we hear that something close to 10 million people of working age aint working.

Then the answer to that is to allow unrestricted migration to get people more people paying taxes.

I'm no genius but I dont think any of these ideas are a good long term plan, using peoples taxes to pay peoples pensions should never have been viable option in the first place.
Something needs to radically change.

 

There is a critical shortage of childcare workers which will scupper the governments plans. There has been a decline in childcare qualifications, coupled with low staff retention making it difficult for nursery's to take on any more children.

In Poland they increased the child benefit from 500 zloty to 800 zloty per month per child. the Family 800 relates to £162 per month per child. In the UK it currently stands at £26.25 for the eldest child per week and £17.25 for each additional child, but I think it is currently capped at 2 children, so £174 per month for 2 children compared to £324 per month in Poland for 2 children

In Poland, if your a foreign citizen, then to qualify for child benefit, you must be working and paying taxes, including EU citizens.

This is where I have the problem, when the EU expanded there was restrictions imposed on the free movement of Romanian and Bulgarian nationals for 7 years, imposed by the EU which we were still apart. They needed a job and would be issued with a work permit, so they had to be working to have any access to public funds.

In the first 3 months of 2015 when the 7 year restriction was lifted there was 169 thousand NINO registrations to Romanian nationals alone, you need a NINO to work, but also to claim. In that year the DWP paid out more in benefits to countries that joined the EU from 2004 with the biggest increase seen from the 2 countries that joined in 2007 than the the rest of the EU countries combined.

Prior to the expansion of the EU in 2004, a non EU citizen needed to be in the UK for 3 years before they could apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain which then and only then allowed you access to public funds, you then could apply for citizenship. From 2005 that was increased to 5 years and they have been mooting about increasing to 10 years, yet the DWP still hands out more in welfare yearly to EU citizens than non. Should take a leaf out of Poland's book as they clearly have seen it been an issue.

 

Investing in good child care and education for all is an investment in any country's future. Parents do better if they know their child is safe in a nurturing environment - less stress, more productivity and no worries about how to pay for it. They may even have more children if caring for them is easier - you now, it takes a village to bring up a child.

The knock on effect on any sensible economy run by civil services and politicians with a few brains, lots of common sense and empathy for others (idealist I know) is then that more resources become available for other vulnerable groups. Improving education and socialising children form an early age leads to a better, kinder, society.

Older people also deserve good care systems including health and support to remain active and healthy and not be a drain. No-one should be made to feel guilty for needing help but we all need to learn to help ourselves by maintaining family/friendship/activity connections and a decent diet.

A 63 year old man should still be in posession of enough faculties to help himself @mac12 and to keep contributing to society and not expect handouts.

 

While I somewhat agree that times have moved on with all the child care and things.

But kids in general dont seem to come out of it as better people in the end IMO.
I dont think a small child gains much by being shoved into being looked after by strangers from age 9 months, no wonder family life doesn't exist anymore, it never actually starts.
Its the kind of thing rich people did with their kids many years ago, and look how a lot of them turned out.

Surely child care has just become a necessity because these days both parents have to work, or in some cases want to work.

 

At 63 I am still in possession of my factulies and work and pay tax to help myself but if people can have children I shouldn't be the one to pay for them