The Good Life is rubbish so shop in A5da.

[hmk]

And I am going to try to get 'oligopoly' into a conversation tomorrow Except I really really want to say ogliopoly....

HMK

Oh dear.

I had had a couple at that point. A small celebration had been undertaken....

Don't be sorry! I love new words And I'd be quite chuffed if I could even say oligopoly after a couple of glasses.

Hope the rest of the celebration went well

HMK

[Sophie_Chillie]

I've never read so much dribble in my entire life and as usual it's always the Daily Mail that supplies it!

Stuff and non-sense! 9/10 times it it goning be cheaper to shop at a supermarket because they have the huge buying power but that doesn't mean to say its right or ethical! So for those that can we do what we can - grow veg here, shop local there...

What I wouldn't do to live in the countryside and get my hands dirty but thanks to our culture only the rich can afford the rural life.

[oldjerry]

Hey,I REALLY understand where your coming from,but please don't buy into the idea that everyone that lives in the country is some kind ofmiddle class s------d,in many ways rural poverty is about as bad as it gets.

[Susie]

And don't ever watch Escape to the Country because they all walk round half a million pound houses and slag them off because the ensuite isn't quite large enough to fit a freestanding bath (or similar).

(I know EtcC isn't real life and yes I am ashamed of my encyclopaedic knowledge of trash TV).

[boboff]

And don't ever watch Escape to the Country because they all walk round half a million pound houses and slag them off because the ensuite isn't quite large enough to fit a freestanding bath

Oh I know Darling, it's so ridiculous, and barely room for the Wet Room, Mud Room, Space for the Sofa for Albert the Red Setter, and my jolly gun cupboard, still when Tabatha and Tristain leave home we can convert their rooms into a sewing room and a model train set up! Yaw Haw, don't you just love these Bank Bonuses!

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Hey,I REALLY understand where your coming from,but please don't buy into the idea that everyone that lives in the country is some kind ofmiddle class s------d,in many ways rural poverty is about as bad as it gets.

It's a good point and worthy of discussion. I can't really offer comment on what rural life in Britain is like because it's been a long time since I Ieft the depths of Norfolk, but where I live now I see a lot of poverty.

Few villages have any facilities left (I blame the supermarkets! Actually, there may be something in that.), a complete lack of public transport means that people almost always must have a car to work, which doesn't come free, and where there is work, wages are minimum rate.

Through the work I do with the school, I know how some families really struggle, and a lot of the housing stock is in a terrible state, including some allocated as social housing.

I'm not going to pretend that the urban poor have an easier time of it, but the countryside isn't always a bed of roses.

I've not seen "Escape to the Country" myself, but I have overheard my wife hurling abuse at it

[Susie]

Last night they turned their noses up at a mansion (plenty of room for Albert the red setter!) in Yorkshire because they'd have had to sand down around the plug sockets and refurbish the spare bathroom (note, spare. In a mansion. For two people). I thought, give me that house, I'll bring my own sandpaper. I'm going to stop watching it .

++ this is what it is like in the Fens, no public transport (two buses a week - one out, one back) and dodgy housing stock. People tell me some of the houses in this area didn't get electricity until relatively recently but I don't know how true that is.

[oldjerry]

I 'm sure I'd rather be skint here than in an urban enviroment,but a lot of the stuff coming out of Westminster recently makes me think that prehaps our masters think that the all the people who live in the countryside are like the above mentioned.I've no interest whatsoever in party politics,so I'm not having a go at the present set of faces,but I really fear for the unemployed,those on ESA etc,living in remote rural areas,how d'you run a motor on an income of £70 a week?(2 miles to nearest bus , 6 buses a day),and if you don't go to interviews (nearest place with any semblence of work, Kidderminster 17 miles away) You're going to get hung drawn and quartered and your body left hanging from a tree
.As a result,90% of the people round here are either self employed like me,or signing on,and the 'black economy' is just like Southern Italy..........so on reflection, not all bad then!!

[Sophie_Chillie]

Hey,I REALLY understand where your coming from,but please don't buy into the idea that everyone that lives in the country is some kind ofmiddle class s------d,in many ways rural poverty is about as bad as it gets.

Apologies I wasn't suggesting poverty doesn't affect rural lives as well, I know it does. I'd be the first one stuffed as I don't drive and transport is just one area under-supported (to name but a few). It just seems to me (a life time townie), that getting a place in the country is so out of reach for the average jo - even buying land. Okay, I know we have allotments but many people have to wait an age just to get on the list, let alone get one.

[oldjerry]

Good point,I've got 3 neices in west Cornwall,and though born Cornish,and all with decent jobs,teaching etc,they've got more chanceof winning the lottery than they have of buying a house.It's no different here in England,one of the main reasons for us emigrating is the certainty that in 10 or 15 years my three little ones will have sod all chance of getting a decent place round here,and seeing as I'm not a mutinational food retailer,there's no way I'll get planning to build them something here.

[Flo]

Hmm - if the good life is rubbish, so is shopping in A5da which sure ain't my favourite place to shop.

[Sophie_Chillie]

Hmm - if the good life is rubbish, so is shopping in A5da which sure ain't my favourite place to shop.

I agree!

[flowertotmum]

once again the daily mail does it...bloody twaddle...last time i got my knickers in a right heave-ho coz they said young mums and older mums are bad for the country ..well i have been both and i certainly didn't drain the resources of this land ...now its cheaper to buy food than grow it
1,i'm pretty sure the supermarkets are behind this twaddle...
2, i at least get pure enjoyment and satisfaction from growing my own..
3,my food is organic and not just labelled that way so they can charge extortionate prices..
4,my eggs are always fresh and have no use by date stamped on them
5,since growing my own and eating it my childrens appetites have improved vastly and so have their tastebuds..
6,its not a trend but a way of life for me and my family..
7,only thing the daily mail is good for is lining the bottom of my budgie cage..if i had one...

[The Riff-Raff Element]

7,only thing the daily mail is good for is lining the bottom of my budgie cage..if i had one...

Dangerous.

Could lead to the evolution of a race of extreme right-wing budgies, that.

They'd fly around in perpetual anti-clockwise circles repeating things like "Hitler was misunderstood..." "Hanging's too good for them..." "I blame the single mothers..." and so on and so forth.

[oldjerry]

No chance,surely even a budgie with learning difficulties wouldn't bother opening' The Mail'.