RANTS!, SERIOUSLY though

Wanna deal, matey?

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spiv2Well I dunno – it’s all got a bit Barra-Boy spivs smoking tiny cig-ends leaning against lamp posts in the swirling fog.

What is? The process of buying stuff you HAVE TO BUY, here in the UK.

Take gas or electric. You can find a deal if you search and switch, and then comply with a few restrictions. No-one will offer the lowest possible price to you (taking into account all costs and investments needs) just because it’s a human necessity.

I mean REALLY?   You have to seek out a DEAL on Gas/Electric?

You know, I don’t really want to have to find a deal for something as basic as heating and cooking, or for a legal requirement, or to discover hidden costs, hidden deals, hidden prices.
More, I shouldn’t have to.

Train tickets?   One price somewhere, another price somewhere else, and no doubt there’s a deal to be had somewhere else again.

spivInsurance? (and don’t forget motor insurance is a legal necessity) You’ll get a quote. It will be ridiculous, you get another – no better, you go online, much different – you call the original company, and they (guess?) do a deal – bettering their 1st offer by £100 or more.

 

What does that say?
It says “you HAVE to buy insurance, so I’m gonna fleece you as much as I can – AND I’m going to send officious documents reminding you of your legal duty whist I rip you off.  When I’ve finished doing that, I’m gonna sell your details on to garages, ambulance chasers, legal firms if I discover you might have a need (?) for one of these, AND then I’ll take a cut of their profits”.

 

OK, OK I know – this is the market economy. Competition drives down prices. Competition adds choice, avoids cartels – and it seems to work – to a point.

I think in the UK, we’ve just stepped-over that point where it’s healthy.

For me, it’s starting to feel faintly subversive, with smutty, untrustworthy trickster-land dealing that subverts decent trade and denies reasonable access to fair-priced necessities.

MUSES

Tax Credit cuts

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tax_credits_cuts
It comes to some really serious shit when the House of Lords – let’s just re-type that: The House of LORDS, possibly the largest collection of affluence, position and social standing within one group of individuals – stands against a Government in Power – on the subject of support for low-income families.
From (you might think) a collection of the most right-wing leanings, comes the most left-wing concerns. Amazing.

SERIOUSLY though

losing the plot – UK leads the way

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nhs-staff-abuse-poster
Lets face it – any society that feels the need to put up such posters in doctors surgeries, A & E centres etc – has already utterly and completely lost the plot.

The Poster’s signal is clear – “It’s too late for Posters”

To me it means that so many people that you and I rub shoulders with, in the course of day-to-day life use drama, lies, abuse and threats in some attempt to bend things toward their weird way of living and/or thinking.

Not just in the Surgeries or A & E; on the roads, the pavements, in shops – I am witnessing a steady descent into a sort of low-level lawlessness, a sort of wild-west mentality – in the name of choice, or rights, or freedom of action/inaction.

SERIOUSLY though

China – soooooo sexy right now

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china so sexy
grab it whilst it’s there

Grab it whilst it’s there? Politicians, the Queen, Prince Phillip all jumping into bed with China

– deal on this, deal on that and oh, I forgot to say . . . . could you just fund a couple of Nuclear thingumies for us?

We do seem to be backing a horse just because it has a few pennies don’t we – it feels like the dying gasps of a stricken nation, doing deals wherever it can.

I realise you can’t Tar everyone with the same Paulin – wait until they do something horrible . . . oh no, wait! They have already, you say?

RANTS!

RYANAIR – check-In

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checkin

RyanAir, it seems, really don’t want you to Check-in for a flight at the Airport – they REALLY don’t.

If you DARE arrive at the airport to check-in (so, to confirm your availability is it?   or What?) you’ll be charged an extra £20 or so, and then £15 per boarding pass to print.  If you’ve got more than hand-luggage, well . . . . guess.
OK, so lesson learned, ticket prices are NOT ticket prices anymore – they’re a sort of starting-point, then add about £100 per person.

It got me thinking about this.  We were encouraged to check-in for our return flight, before we’d even got to the airport for the FLIGHT OUT.  It seemed to me (in some dreamy past, I’m sure, and totally unrelated to the real-world no-doubt) that Check-In used to be, “Yes, I’m here – and not been run over by a Camel en-route”  or  “Yes, here, and No, Aunty Frederika’s new illness hasn’t disrupted our travel plans at the last moment”.

How, in the name of God – can you check-in for something, from SOMEWHERE ELSE?

RANTS!

“by Sainsbury’s”

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by_sainsburys

I don’t DO Sainsbury’s very much.

I have nothing in particular against them, just prefer NOT to avail myself of theirs, or Tesco’s, or Asda’s self-proclaimed bargains, price drops, ‘lower’s, or whatever else they snowball you with, the second you’re in through the door.

I’ve noticed (on one of my non-visits, you understand) that everything in Sainsbury’s these days is labelled-up like it’s some sort of highly-designed, desirable, specialist, rare, beautiful . . . thing.

A kettle, some Spread for you toast, a toothbrush – it doesn’t matter how plain, obvious or ordinary – it’s all “by Sainsbury’s” – where this kind of labelling, only 2 years ago, used to be the unique reserve of exotic merchandise.

SERIOUSLY though

“Road Rage” ? It doesn’t exist.

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It wasn’t so long ago Road Rage became all the rage.
Every UK news outlet went through a frenzied period of reportage – “Road Rage” incidents items, just about every week.
This week it’s back in the news, but surely part of the problem is the LABEL.
There is no such thing as Road rage, there is such a thing as CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR.

We live in a society where, unfortunately, some factions find their niche by copying trends, by buying into Labels, by mimicking anything they perceive as ‘now’, and/or employing labels as an excuse.

It’s all crap of course. Road rage is a nothing.
Criminal behaviour is something, and it’s illegal.

SERIOUSLY though

Market Economy, an excuse to rip-off the public at each and every turn.

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customer servicesYesterday vodaphone quoted me for a SIM only deal (having been with them for about 8 years) and singularly failed to offer a deal as good as one they were already advertising.

Very recently an Insurance company quoted me for renewal – then suddenly discovered a ‘new deal’ when I presented them with evidence of better prices elsewhere (for the exact same cover).

News this morning that 2/3rds of UK youngsters now in poverty are living with working parents

If this a “market economy” you can bloody keep it –

never knowingly understated