The Tube Drivers Strike.

[Red Lead Ted]

Hi Terry
I survive on a small pension. They take £100 a month off me in Income Tax, then I have to pay Council Tax of £1,500 a year,
That is a total tax deduction of TWO AND A HALF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS out of my Pension. A Big Hole.
The Jobless on Benefits do Not pay Income Tax even tho` they get more income than I do. some can get up to £27,000 a year TAX FREE. also with Housing Benefit they do not pay Council Tax. So now £2,500 better off than me on a pension.
The neighbours round me who are on Benefits are far better off than me, `Heyou` who lives next door has two cars a new Mercedes and a Toyota for the wife. He has never worked since he arrived in this country Nine years ago, he is 45 years old and laughs at me.
He gets everything, he got a new Gas Boiler and new radiators last summer, for free, I applied, NO CHANCE, because I am not on Benefits I am a Tax Payer and Tax Payers cannot claim a penny of anything.
My Gas boiler is 15 years old, I cannot get a free one. So my taxes go to support Bums like this in comfort.
This is why I get peed off with people on Benefits,
Brian.

Brian, I don't only sympathise with you I believe you, You think you have done the right thing saving for your retirement all your life and look at the way you are treated, I will email you something very interesting when I get it in black and white from the D.W.P. Its for your eyes only it has nothing to do with politics' it is a loop hole I worked out for myself took on the D.W.P. and won. It may be of assistance to you because like you I have worked and paid into pensions all my working life. One other thing I would mention Brian, Which is applicable to any Merchant Seaman who done his 7 years to make A.B. Think about approaching Trinity house through your nearest Seaman's Mission at your age you deserve a lot more in assistance than you are getting you are not pulling the wool over anyone's eyes and don't think that way. When the Titanic went down back in 1912 Ismay started a fund with a £1,000,000 for Merchant seaman its now known as shipwrecked. Any padre at any Seaman's Mission can access the fund on your behalf, That's something that isn't an option to your colonial neighbours and is not means tested. Look into it Brian its a Merchant Seaman's fund you done your time you deserve all the help you can get very best wishes Terry.

[j.sabourn]

Brian when I was made redundant the first time from the North Sea, I applied for benefits in between jobs on the advice of Numast. I got this for 6 days until I was re-employed again deep sea. On returning to the North sea 11 months later I got a letter from the DHSS saying I owed them this 6 days payment back as I was not entitled to it. I refused on principle to return. They then threatened that if I didn't they would deduct from my old age pension on reaching retirement age. I took this to the citizens advice bureaux and they told me they were talking as usual a lot of crap. However this was another nail in the coffin on my thoughts of retiring in the UK, I think I made the best choice when I got out of what was to me a country going fast downhill. I am now in a position if it suits me to go to UK whenever I feel like it knowing I can return to more conducive life conditions. I don't think I could live in UK now as would probably be arrested for anti social speech. Each time I do return I try and keep well clear of immigrant flooded areas and keep to those I once knew of old. The UK is still a beautiful place in parts but those parts each time I return are slowly being destroyed, as a visitor I see this as those who live there all the time probably don't notice so much. We have immigrants out here in fact we are all immigrants, however it seems to work better here where they are assimilated into the society better and most enjoy the Australian way of life and its laws. The UK had a consecutive run of very poor governments mostly those who think they can control the people of different beliefs and background, they are that stupid along with their branch of the equal rights brigade that they fail to see the writing on the wall and the problems they themselves have caused by their own stupidity and ignorance of life in general. The many thousands flooding into Europe now how do these do-gooder describe them, I notice in the papers now they are described as migrants and not those who are fleeing persecution as once was. They are mainly self seeking economic seekers looking for all the handouts they know are freely available put there by stupid politicians. Your Blairs Browns Wilsons Heaths were all poor examples of being able to sustain a British way of life. I see another bit of scandal re Heath coming up even though he is dead, I always suspected he was a fairy but not into child molestation as is being suggested. Cheers John S

[Jim Brady]

One other thing I would mention Brian, Which is applicable to any Merchant Seaman who done his 7 years to make A.B. Think about approaching Trinity house through your nearest Seaman's Mission at your age you deserve a lot more in assistance than you are getting you are not pulling the wool over anyone's eyes and don't think that way. Any padre at any Seaman's Mission can access the fund on your behalf, That's something that isn't an option to your colonial neighbours and is not means tested. Look into it Brian its a Merchant Seaman's fund you done your time you deserve all the help you can get very best wishes Terry. [/QUOTE]

Terry I know lots of guys who are getting that few bob yearly from the mission here,not only money but brand new furniture,fridges and washing machines paid for.I was fed up different ones telling me to get to the mission and apply for it.Anyway Eddie Dean called to my house (did you tell him my address no harm done)with a form to apply for this money etc so I filled it in and popped into the mission.I seen John Wilson manger it seems they don't have Padre's running the place now,he arranged for me to come in with my documentation.The next day I phoned him up and told him that I no longer wished to apply for this charity.I pop into the mission sometimes on my way home from having a pint on a Sunday John Wilson seen me and was adamant that I apply.Arranged a meeting with him filled out the forms and I was knocked back so don't say it is not means tested Terry because it is.I've met guys since who asked do you get the few bob from the mission when I tell the I got KB'd they come up with "you told him to much you shouldn't of told him that etc.I feel that embarrassed about it I haven't been in the place,I knew I should never have applied.
By the way that young lady that does the cleaning there knows you I think,I knew her dad and grandad her grandad was a survivor of the Lusitania.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[john sutton]

Absolutely not John, There are a lot of decent people still in the uk that believe we all our youth included deserve a fair crack of the whip, Your the brain here John have you worked out how the trains can run when the third rail is swamped with water, I new the answer to that when I was a school kid, You may have been the best dressed on the school bus that took you to school as a kid, Test me if you think I am talking crap but at the same time give me the answer brains to the question I posed, You cant because you would not even know what to look for on Wiki. There are them that can and them that believe they can you obviously fall into that category. You think you are something special on your yacht in Spain. You wont wined me up fella post what you like but don't pull away from the fact that you are the one who talks crap you don't have the answers I do, The proof is in the pudding produce it

This morning I woke up feeling great apart from a slight hangover .Then it was brought to my attention that I knew nothing at all about the 3rd rail on the tube and my day went to pieces.Imagine at the age of 81 I hadn't gained that piece of knowledge and instead had wasted my time trying to earn a living without the assistance of a union and just concentrated on the bottom line(not electrified) of my business to pay the mortgage and feed the kids and save up enough money so I could be something special on my yacht in spain(don't have one any more got a house now.Is that allowed as I know nothing about the 3rd rail).
As far as being the best dressed on the school bus.Dr Barnardos didn't supply a school bus and if it did there wouldn't be anyone on it that was best dressed.Maybe if there had been a school bus I could have got to school early and,like terry,learned about the 3rd rail instead of the 3Rs and perfecting my skills at talking crap.
Terry .You probably have never had any real hardship in your life. I,ve Been skint really skint,slept in the streets worked on rigs at 40below freezing and put in 20 hour days hauling pipe out of the ground or moving drilling rigs from one location to another and you want me to sympathise with someone on 50k a year who might have to spend the odd night away from his family in return for a generous bonus.If you want to side with the underdogs side with the people in London who will lose money through not getting to work.
As far as thinking I,m something special.I don't think that I know it.I,m still around at 81 haven't worked for 19 years(of course that's not special in the UK)Have enough money saved to give me a decent lifestyle through investing in a pension when I could have used the money for some kind of instant gratification.Dont you think that I,m entitled to think that I,m something special having started with nothing including family.
get a life terry.Theres more to life than the 3rd rail

[John Gill]

Oh Dear. Seems the original theme of discussion( tube drivers) has gone the way of all flesh and morphed into realms of (1) opinionated prejudice,(2) the British benefit system,(3) racism and political scandal- eg former pm= faggot or paedophile? We should be focussing on Matters Maritime rather than the fate of impoverished Metropolitan Train Drivers.And as for the 3rd Rail dilemma, it's hardly the riddle of the Sphinx and who gives a toss anyway!
Gilly

[cappy]

Oh Dear. Seems the original theme of discussion( tube drivers) has gone the way of all flesh and morphed into realms of (1) opinionated prejudice,(2) the British benefit system,(3) racism and political scandal- eg former pm= faggot or paedophile? We should be focussing on Matters Maritime rather than the fate of impoverished Metropolitan Train Drivers.And as for the 3rd Rail dilemma, it's hardly the riddle of the Sphinx and who gives a toss anyway!
Gilly

###whats the riddle of the sphinx.....cappy

[Ivan Cloherty]

#144 John, you will always find that because you have something people will assume it was given to you or you inherited it, the thought that you worked for it, sacrificed for it never enters the equation, only envy in all its disguised forms, whether intentional or unintentional. Have been down the road where-in formed my own company after been made redundant at 48, and was told by others, on salaries and pensions, that they envied me, they didn't envy me enough to get up at 0500 hours to deal with Eastern companies or envy me when I was still dealing with the Americas at 2300 hours and inbetween dealing with European companies, it was all handed to me on a plate. They didn't envy me when I had to put up my house, on more than one occasion, as security against equipment I had to purchase or to secure my employees wages, they didn't envy me travelling the world to try and secure business in countries that had no rules, what they did envy was the times, very few, where they saw me laying exhauseted and mentally beaten sunning my self in a deckchair in my garden, telling me I had it easy, whilst I was planning ways of increasing business to keep my employees employed and safe whilst abroad in dicy areas. Life was just a bowl of cherries!

#145 words of wisdom Gilly, but alas will go unheeded in the wider spectrum of things

[j.sabourn]

Ref 145... It is maritime the mentioned person had a yacht called Morning Cloud and used to sail it and call himself a sailor as well as a fiddler. I very nearly met him as used to dine at the same restaraunt near Southhampton when doing a business mans course on the inert gas systems for tankers and their initial costing etc. I may have even saved his life as in a previous post I mentioned about finding a suspected IRA book on a target, it may of even been him as the target and his yacht. Such is life. I could have been the cause of the change in History, we may not even have been in the Euro now. Great oaks from little acorns grow. He was too impeccable in his whites to be a proper sailor anyway. Cheers JS

[John Gill]

#146- not worked that one out yet Cappy, still trying to open that plastic pyramid George Robey sold me in Alex in 1956.

[j.sabourn]

If its like the camel I bought was packed with blood stained bandages from the 6 day war. JS