FIRETHORN1
Members-
Content Count
713 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Community Reputation
52 NeutralAbout FIRETHORN1
-
Rank
Registered User
Recent Profile Visitors
The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.
-
No, El Cid, I wouldn't necessarily want to switch places. My resentment and bitterness is not towards my friend personally, it's towards the system, that rewards people for not working. I think your wife's case is different, because I do believe that it often makes sense for one parent not to work and to care for a child full time. It doesn't necessarily have to be the mother - a stay-at-home father can be equally beneficial at raising a child. However, both my friend and I are childless - and I do think it's morally wrong to pile benefits onto a single, childless person who is perfectly fit and able to work. I'm quite happy for my taxes to support stay-at-home parents, or disabled people, or people who are full-time carers to a sick family member & who are genuinely unable to work, but I balk at paying people who don't work just because they don't want to. My friend's attitude has always been "why should I use my time going to work when working fools like you can keep me in everything I need"? Maybe she has a point, but I would have felt embarrassed to spend my whole life leeching off the backs of working people when I was perfectly capable of supporting myself. Choosing to live off benefits just because you can, not because you need to, is morally indefensible. People who can work should be made to do so, or their benefits should be stopped - then surely there would be more "state" money available to increase the benefits to people who really need and deserve help?
-
The taxing of state pensions is deeply unfair - it punishes people who have worked and paid taxes and NI all their lives and yet rewards the lazy loafers who've lived all their lives on benefits. I turn 66 in May this year and have been told recently that my state pension will be £884.80, paid every 4 weeks - which equates to £221 a week, and £11,060.00 a year. I will have to pay the full 20% tax on my entire state pension, because I am already over the personal tax threshold , as I also receive a "final salary" pension of just over £13k a year from my previous employer. I worked and paid taxes and NI since I was 16 years old. I also paid a chunk of my salary into my employers pension scheme. I own my own flat and the mortgage is fully paid off. I have never claimed a single penny off the state in my entire life. By the same token, my old school mate, who turns 66 in April, will get exactly the same state pension as me - £884.80 every 4 weeks. She has always lived entirely on state benefits - she has never worked a single day in her life and has never paid a single penny in tax or NI. She lives in a Council Flat & has always had her entire rent and Council Tax paid by the state Now that we are both 66 years old, I am knackered from a lifetime of hard work and she is full of beans from a life-time of loafing. There's no reason why she couldn't work - she just chose not to - and the state has never cut her benefits - or encouraged her to find work. Our current situation is that we will soon both be receiving our £221 a week state pension, I will pay £42 a week tax on my state pension and will get no state help at all. My old mate will pay no tax at all on her state pension. She has also been granted "pension credits" on Universal Credit. Her entire rent will be paid Her entire council tax will be paid She gets £1.200 a year @cost of living payment She gets free dental treatment She gets free Opticians treatment a free glasses She gets vouchers to food-banks....and even to a pet-food foodbank, so she never has to buy food for herself or even for her pet dog! This all seems so very, very unfair to me. My mate just thinks I'm jealous and bitter.... and she's right about that! I'm indeed very jealous...and very bitter!
-
I think the pub you mentioned at the bottom of Cambridge St, near the back entrance of John Lewis (or Cole Bros, s it was then), may have been The Barleycorn pub. My mates and I used to have a drink in there in the mid-70's, as part of our Friday night town-centre pub crawls. It had a bit of a bad reputation at the time, but as teenage lasses, we always found it quite friendly. The posh book shop in West St was W. Hartley Seed.
-
What Are You Having For Dinner Today?
FIRETHORN1 replied to The_DADDY's topic in General Discussions
Sound sdelish echo beach!. I enjoy reading your posts on this thread. You seem to enjoy your food and you seem to make some very nice, tasty and mouth-watering meals. I must confess that I even pinch your ideas from time to time! I had my home made prawn curry for my dinner tonight. I made the curry at the weekend, with all the trimmings - naan bread, pillau rice, saag aloo etc. Tonight, I just ate the rest of it, with a green salad, some mango chutney and a bit more naan bread -
When I was akid, I absolutely hated gravy and insisted on eating all my food 'dry' - even roast dinners and Yorkshire pudding! I started to love gravy as I reached adulthood - and now I'm in my 60's, I love lashings of gravy on everything . I've never acquired a taste for olives though. I thought they were disgusting when I first tried them in my teens - and I still can't bear the taste of olives even now - more than 50 years after I first tried to eat an olive! Black or green olives - it makes no difference to me - I just can't stand the mere taste of olives - they taste really acrid to me... like rotting flesh ...or something going seriously 'off'!
-
Lack Of Public Houses On The Moor
FIRETHORN1 replied to Irene Swaine's topic in Sheffield News & Discussions
You just keep on trying love. that comment bove is just so breathtakingly patronising!! -
I'm not an anti-vaxxer. I had the covid jabs and having them has completely destroyed my health for the rest of my life. Being covid-jabbed has also destroyed my brother's health and the health of several other people I know personally. I don't believe that the covid vax protected anyone - it just did no good for most people and actually did harm to many. The only people who benefitted from the covid vax are the big pharmas, who made billions from it.
-
Rhubarb is seasonal, so I think this is the wrong time of year to buy fresh rhubarb. It's at it's best in spring/early summer - like April to June/July.
-
Proposed Bus Changes April 2024
FIRETHORN1 replied to Andy C's topic in Sheffield News & Discussions
Has anyone heard if there are any plans to re-introduce the 52A bus route between Hillsborough interchange and Wisewood/Loxley? My sis-in-law was speaking on Monday to a couple of ladies in the Riva Project cafe at Wisewood and they told her that this much-missed bus route is coming back into operation. I hope so, because Wisewood and Loxley are very poorly served by buses - making it very difficult for the elderly, disabled etc to get out and about - even in the daytime...let alone making it difficult for anyone at all to get a bus anywhere in the evenings -
What Are You Having For Dinner Today?
FIRETHORN1 replied to The_DADDY's topic in General Discussions
Liver and bacon casserole. with creamy mashed potato and sprouts -
I have fairly recently been diagnosed as having RRMS - (Relapsing/Remitting Multiple Sclerosis). It's a very scary diagnosis, but my only symptoms so far have been 3 periods of sight problems. I have had seriously blurred vision on one of these occasions, double vision on another occasion, and most recently, a complete loss of vision in my left eye. All of these relapses lasted no more than a few days, after which my vision returned to normal. At my most recent appointment with my neurological consultant she has urged me to accept a " Disease Modification Therapy" which would involve going on a course of powerful drugs called Cladribine. I am in a real dilemma about whether or not I should go on this course of treatment. There is no cure for MS, but the advantage of this treatment is that it may slow down the frequency & severity of my MS relapses. The disadvantage is that the treatment itself will destroy my natural immune system and leave me wide open to all sorts of other viral and bacterial infections - plus other side effects, lie hair loss, skin diseases, etc ,etc. At the moment I feel quite well and I'm very reluctant o accept a treatment that would make me feel worse. On the other hand. if I don't accept this treatment, I risk my MS symptoms becoming more frequent and more serious. I really feel caught between the devil and the deep blue sea! My question is, are there any more MS sufferers out there who have been on course of the Cladribine drug? If so, what were your experiences? Did it make you better, or worse? I know that, ultimately, only I can make this decision - but I would appreciate feedback from any other MS sufferers who've taken this nasty Cladribine drug. Thanks
-
What Are You Having For Dinner Today?
FIRETHORN1 replied to The_DADDY's topic in General Discussions
Well, it's Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) today - so it goes without saying that I'll be making pancakes for my tea this evening. I prefer pancakes as an afters, rather than as a main course and the only topping I like on them is golden syrup. This is a particularly calorific afters, so I'm going to have a healthier main course of tuna and green salad - then pig out on a couple of syrup-y pancakes afterwards! Yum! -
Why Is Sheffield So Rubbih At Football?
FIRETHORN1 replied to FIRETHORN1's topic in Sheffield Football
oops! The title of this post was supposed to be Why is Sheffield so rubbish at football? -
As a city with 2 footie clubs, we've never really been any good at it, have we? I'm a lifelong Wednesday fan. We've never won the league in my lifetime and apart from doing quite well in the early 60's and reaching a couple of cup finals decades later, ( which we lost), since then, we've had no real success in my lifetime. United are much the same. Both teams have spent more time in the lower divisions than they've spent in the old first division or the premier league. Other big 2-club cities, like Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool etc have had their lean times, but have also had quite a bit of success too. Even the 1-club cities like Leeds, Nottingham. Derby, Leicester etc have had some domestic league or European successes down the years. Both Sheffield clubs have big support and still draw decent crowds, so why don't either of them ever succeed?
-
What Are You Having For Dinner Today?
FIRETHORN1 replied to The_DADDY's topic in General Discussions
A quick, simple and (relatively) cheap tea tonight. Home-made pan-fried gnocchi, served with a couple of rashers of crispy bacon and a pile of broccoli - with some grated cheddar sprinkled over it.