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I agree with Richard Littlejohn...

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
This scares me, because I agree with a large part of this opening part of his column

Clicky

I'm off for a lie down now, and not in one of the queues.

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I’m not being insensitive to the plight of the genuine poor and the elderly on dwindling fixed incomes.

    But most people can find some painless economies in their discretionary spending.

    John Redwood has been mocked unfairly for suggesting people switch to fresh veg instead of expensive processed food, and wear a jumper indoors during the winter, so they can turn down the thermostat to reduce heating bills.

    Savings can be achieved without major sacrifice in most households.
    What prevents so many people from tightening their belts is the extraordinary sense of entitlement which has grown up over the past couple of decades.

    So true!

    People take things for granted and expect to have a right to things that people could only have dreamed of years ago.

    Yes you have a right to buy an I phone if you really want to, but im sure that gives up your right to complain if the going gets tough.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    MoK wrote: »
    This scares me.

    I think you would lose the fear if you focus on the message and ignore the messenger.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I think you would lose the fear if you focus on the message and ignore the messenger.

    Usually what he says gives me a mix of chills and blood boiling. Hence why it's scares me that I might be starting to agree with things he writes.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    G wrote: »
    Yes you have a right to buy an I phone if you really want to, but im sure that gives up your right to complain if the going gets tough.

    I think that the point which he's trying to make is that £500 is £500. If you haven't got it, then you can't really afford an iPhone. If you do have that much disposible income then the tax changes aren't that much of an issue, really...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Richard Littlejohn allegedly gets paid £800k per year by Associated Newspapers to write twice a week for the Daily Mail about how crap this country is. Problem is, he's not in this country for a fair chunk of the time, by his own admission. So he's not the easiest of people to agree with.

    In the context of MoK agreeing with Littlejohn, in the man's own words, "you couldn't make it up".
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    This is surely a sign of the impending apocalypse, is it not?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I disagree with him.

    First, who says we should buy things we need? What defines need? Second, he just sounds like a Luddite who despises technology. and to his own admission owns a computer lol.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    2 words. Credit Card.


    I sincerely doubt 600,000 people who ordered an Iphone 4 have dropped £500 in cash on one. The majority will either have bought it on credit or taken out a stupidly long contract to get it cheaper.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I lived with somebody on Employment and Support Allowance (sick benefit), who was apparently always broke and couldn't afford basic food, but then who had an iPhone and paid £40 a month for a contract. :rolleyes:

    I think the fact that RJ gets paid a lot of money doesn't really change his point. I don't know what background he's from or if he's ever experienced poverty, but I also don't get why some people complain about being hard up, like having an iPhone or going abroad is a necessity.

    If it's such a big deal, how did our grandparents cope?

    Though I expect most people queuing to pay for an iPhone probably weren't these whingers anyway.

    So what is poverty?

    I spent a lot of my childhood below the UK poverty line. So couldn't afford new clothes, had free school dinners, couldn't afford to heat the house, or go out places outside of school. I saw my Mum really struggle, just to pay for the essentials and remember once she got angry because I had a full glass of orange juice and called me 'decadent'.

    I used to think my childhood had been really shit... But in 2006 I fundraised with some friends and we went to a third world country to do some voluntary work. In some countries, people live without running water and electricity. We witnessed a family who lived in a kind of box... Where a wall dropped and they'd open it in the day and serve tea, their only source of income (to adults and a child living in the space about the size of the inside of an ice cream van). It really opened my eyes to how much I had... Even if a lot of my toys were from a jumble sale, at least I had toys.

    I'm not saying that people in the UK don't struggle... The biggie with stress is often bills people can't afford to pay. Debt can be a killer and living hard up is horrible...

    But I have found a lot of people complaining about things like not being able to go on holiday certain places, or be able to afford to run a car in London (one guy I know did have a car in London, went on holiday to Fiji and still complained about being hard up, poor guy)...

    A holiday and a nice car in the city is not a human rights, it's a privilege.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    kira wrote: »
    I disagree with him.

    First, who says we should buy things we need? What defines need? Second, he just sounds like a Luddite who despises technology. and to his own admission owns a computer lol.

    Because there really are people out there who need a new iPhone...
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