Parafox

If I were you I'd find his dog and kick it anyway.

Me too. I really don't want him to go to another club, especially PL even as a bit part player. He is ours, our GOAT, our talisman, our favourite, the chest busting feeling when he scores and the commentator shouts VARRDDDYYYYY. I don't want any other fan of any other club to have that feeling.

Didn't sing a single song, disappointing.

I was considering us to get a double relegation such as Luton have done, but after today, it's more likely to be Southampton. They were a different level of bad.

Assuming you mean the MAGA supporters, why would they be surprised?

No-one is really surprised by this, sadly. The weak, vulnerable, poor are being trodden under the boot of the hawkish government that Trump brings. And Trump and his acolytes don't care. Anyone reasonable person who watched the clip of the Trump cabinet meeting should be appalled.

I use to like him, now I'm indifferent. He married a gold-digging nonentity who wanted to be a "princess". That went well, huh? He's now almost estranged from his Dad and the rest of the family. Of course his life is his own and what he chooses to do with it is up to him but he needs to stay out of the British limelight and make his way in America. I believe that if it wasn't for Megan, he'd be a more grounded person.

I believe they do care but because so much of what local people are concerned with is largely ignored by those they are represented by, or by a greater political power, the default position then becomes "why bother, it makes no difference" This translates into wider politics and a national vote where people can't be arsed as they see nothing that will make a big difference to them as individuals. If local voting makes no difference, why think that national voting will?

I thought that to be the case and that is further proof, for me anyway, of his narcissism. The man has no knowledge and/or no acceptance of anything outside of 'Murica. I seem to recall something his mother supposedly said about the young Donald about him being stupid and ignorant and hoping he never goes into politics.

I'm not sure how that squares with the initial point in that how do we support an ageing population that provides little or no contribution. That post suggests that the elderly are a burden on us. Birth rates have nothing to do with what LcFcSmiv was suggesting.

But by "we" does he actually mean "us" as in the allies supported by the USA? His use of grammar is not great and posting a tweet requires no intellect.

Is "threat" the term you actually meant? Surely you meant "societal problem" or "political/economic issue". I hope so. I account for it by suggesting that, as a 1st world society, we're pretty much bound by decency to look after the ever growing elderly population. The irony is, that as an advanced society, we have been able to develop diagnostics, treatments, highly advanced interventions and operations, medicines that keep people living longer. Many of us will have the experience of seeing someone so frail that they are all but deceased but physically still alive due to the clinical/medical science. Nursing homes are full of them. The things that would have killed us as little as 60 years ago are now things of the past as we advance our knowledge and understanding. There's no way back and surely it's a good thing to advance. I would take issue with the phrase "put very little back into the economy". What would you like them to do? Many, if not most of the very elderly people now would have worked, paid taxes, and contributed to the economy in far greater terms in the past than those on the benefits system today. What would be your view on the state paying for the care of the many currently able bodied claimants when they become frail and decrepit in the years to come as they have paid nothing into to the economy? Just say no? Of course not. I get the fact that the longer people live the more interventions they need and there's a cost involved. How that is addressed is for the future decision makers in Governments across the developed world.

I think the actual epitaph is " I Told You I Was Ill" although I suspect you knew that.

Is that Bighead in French?

No problem. It didn't.

When I was at work, I was at work and I had to separate that from anything else otherwise it would affected me and my home/family life. Fortunately (?) I'm the kind of person that sees things in black and white and I was able to detach the tragedy, trauma and sadness of other peoples lives, from my own. That's not to say I wasn't affected in the long term and those experiences still haunt me from time to time. I might drive past a location where I attended a fatality or past a house where someone had tragically died and recall the whole incident. (I'm writing this and finding it difficult to express 34 years of random involvement in other peoples crises, trauma and distress, be it serious or relatively insignificant). My immediate family only know what I chose to tell them because Mrs P would never want to hear about it, so the most grim, sad, emotional, unpleasant and sometimes horrific stuff I've experienced, I keep in a closed box in my head, but yeah, I could tell you some stories. I hope that answers your question, at least in part.

I watched the news report on it accompanied by the footage. Toe curling stuff. Then I watched Newsnight and the "interview" with Carla Sands and that was worse.

IBS. When you gotta go you gotta go and there can be very little warning. It's only recently afflicted me and I'm still getting used to the signs. However, I take your point about the rarity of being in that situation.

That's fair enough and I get it from that aspect. I guess I hadn't given it wider consideration other than a personal priority in a difficult and embarrassing situation where I had no choice but to defecate in front of people because I couldn't access an unoccupied, locked toilet. And that was dehumanising for me. It's not just about the space and associated facilities, which is unarguable. It's about the needs of all. Men's toilets aren't locked to keep women out and vice versa. Having toilet facilities for the disabled is absolutely the right thing but to make a functioning toilet inaccessible to the majority for the sake of a minority is unfair and discriminatory.

I was asked a specific question by @Tommy G in the "New Mattress" topic which took an unexpected turn as you'll know if you've looked at it. Following a few posts about abandoned mattresses etc, in front gardens on council estates and then my response, as follows: "We mock but going into such homes and seeing the existence therein would need a whole new topic to describe the squalor and neglect I have personally experienced and I wasn't even a social worker, just a passing presence in an emergency". Tommy G then legitimately asked what was the worst I'd seen with regard to squalor and neglect? I posted this, which I think needs a wider viewing than a mattress topic just to accentuate that poverty and squalor are not that uncommon and are distressing for all involved: Tommy G: Whats the worst you've seen? My reply: A baby born on a filth encrusted sofa that had recently been the birth place of a litter of kittens and was still damp from the animals placenta. The baby had the umbilical cord intact but separated from the mother. Mum was still bleeding onto the sofa, The human placenta had been delivered. Two dogs were sniffing around it. There was no electricity or central heating. The walls in the room were bare plaster that had the old wallpaper scraped off to burn in the fireplace and had subsequently been smeared with animal excrement. Dog and cat food and bodily waste was trodden into the "carpet" and had hardened off so it was more like lino. It was a while ago now but I seem to remember there were 3 adults and 5-6 kids ranging from toddler to young teen also living in the property as well as a number of "pets" including reptiles in tanks. I recall being told that the adults slept downstairs as the floorboards in the main bedroom had been ripped up for firewood. The same reason that were no doors or architraves. The baby girl was born healthy, a good weight and size and was full term. We took baby and her mother to hospital for the baby's safety and made a safeguarding referral. I have no idea what became of any of them but it was so tragic and overwhelming at the time. A part of the real world that not many of us see or experience first hand. Edited 3 hours ago by Parafox

A baby born on a filth encrusted sofa that had recently been the birth place of a litter of kittens and was still damp from the animals placenta. The baby had the umbilical cord intact but separated from the mother. Mum was still bleeding onto the sofa, The human placenta had been delivered. Two dogs were sniffing around it. There was no electricity or central heating. The walls in the room were bare plaster that had the old wallpaper scraped off to burn in the fireplace and had subsequently been smeared with animal excrement. Dog and cat food and bodily waste was trodden into the "carpet" and had hardened off so it was more like lino. It was a while ago now but I seem to remember there were 3 adults and 5-6 kids ranging from toddler to young teen also living in the property as well as a number of "pets" including reptiles in tanks. I recall being told that the adults slept downstairs as the floorboards in the main bedroom had been ripped up for firewood. The same reason that were no doors or architraves. The baby girl was born healthy, a good weight and size and was full term. We took baby and her mother to hospital for the baby's safety and made a safeguarding referral. I have no idea what became of any of them but it was so tragic and overwhelming at the time. Hand Avenue. FWIW.

Disabled toilets that are locked when you're desperate and the able bodied toilets are either occupied or shut. I can't understand why they lock disabled bogs which requires a "radar key" to get access, when we all have to go at some point, sometimes urgently. That's inhumane.

I think he forgets most of it. Can you recall every tweet you put out? And I imagine you're not in the early stages of Alzheimer's

I only found out recently that US police are trained to empty an entire clip, which I think is 7 rounds, into a person if they feel under threat. I think the difference with our firearms officers is that are less likely to be shot at from close quarters whereas in America, most criminals carry and will shoot at police at close range thereby posing a greater threat to life.

My daughter who I have spoken about often on here has now been further diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. There's now way back from this and her life will likely be a roller coaster of sectioning, release into the community, sectioned again and so on. It's heart-breaking to look at the photos we have of her as a child, generally happy yet somehow sad behind the eyes, who we knew had difficulties but never thought she'd be destined to have these MH struggles which we know now will never end for her. For several years she lived pretty independently, had a flat she was proud of, had a companion cat she still loves dearly and was outwardly, doing well. We used to go on weekly shopping trips me and her, dad and daughter together, a coffee and cake or maybe a cooked breakfast. A chat about stuff. She always said she was proud of me being a paramedic and she wanted to do good as well. She worked as a volunteer in a nearby charity shop and a wellbeing cafe for a while. Then over the last few years everything started to go wrong for her, threats to the neighbours, thinking they were breaking into her flat when she was asleep and damaging or stealing her belongings, serious self harm, serious threats to others, outbursts of anger, paranoid thinking and so on. And now were where we're at. We can't have direct contact because of the threat she poses because she hates us and wants us dead and has said she'll stab us if we ever go near her again and in a paranoid schizophrenic phase that's not impossible albeit unlikely. So for now, she is still in a secure MH unit. We don't really know what comes next but to watch someone you have loved from a child to become this kind of "demon", is emotionally indescribable. It's a struggle and more so as I (we) get older and less able to step in. I guess we just have to hand the majority of her life over to the professionals. Not that I have much faith in that prospect.