Bums, hippies and Greenpeace

[neilmc]

An ex-neighbour of mine used to work in the Talbot Centre, and we were talking about Frank over the garden fence one day: apparently Frank used to come in to the centre every so often, to get cleaned up and fed.

The neighbour looked at me solemnly and said "Do you know what Frank used to be?"

I started thinking; University Lecturer? Company Director? The original bass player with Slik?

“I give in John, what was he?”

Still with a serious face, he said: “A van boy”.

[Doorstop]

[banjo]

i thought it was peter mullan in the photo.a van boy. that will have going all day.

[Jockissimo]

yep, i've also heard of a particular beggar in Edinburgh who owns a very large house and has lots of money stashed away. That's why he looks like he's not washed in months and has holes in his shoes...

Until I see said beggar driving off in his luxury car, or have photographic proof, I'm treating it as apocryphal

Various experiences about the holy or should it be wholly cow of homeless folk (before the current captial-anarchist crisis which has made more people technically homeless in the uk than Adolf Hitler)

1) on a bus in Edinbra' (yes sorry to use bad language here) I over heard some drippy type social project manager female saying there were between 9 and 14 folk sleeping rough on a regular basis IN THE WHOLE CITY. At new year there are 10,000 so what? How many millions did they want to hold a roof over a small bunch of drunks?

2) One beggar famous in george square in the 80s, admitted to making up to 30 squid an hour- and pishing it all up the wa' . I had part time jobs for less than 2.50 an hour then and have never really given to beggars since.

3) reforming junkies who all use the same sob story about being first addicted to pain killers after an accident /war injury / old firm game and once the prescriptions dried up, having to try heroin. It is BS: they are wasters, always were and most all of them always will be.


glad we can be a bit un PC here!. There are many people deserving of charity, especially since the finance catastrophy, but not aggressive beggars and marketing companies employing students on commission only to sell charity DDs on the streets.

[shuffle]

What an intelligent man you are. Well done.

[BrigitDoon]

For the benefit of the casual lurker...

Having been driven back to alcohol and then suicide through chronic pain, I have some sympathy for the poor soul who has washed up on the pavement. I've been fortunate enough to be able to find help and understand the psychology behind the causes that lead to such as addiction and homelessness.

Thanks to the kindness of the people of Glasgow and South Lanarkshire, I have a roof over my head and I've been living clean now for some years.

HG is a place where freedom of speech is both cherished and practised, but it is not a free-for-all. The boorishness of Clarkson which we saw last night is unlikely to be suffered here without remark.

[Doorstop]

I'm a bit ambivalent about the whole Clarkson furore actually.

As anyone who knows me (and my Facebook page rants) will testify, I'm no fan of the right wing and their uncaring and unsympathetic attitudes but this one has been blown way out of proportion.

Less than 5 minutes before Clarkson's contentious statements about the strikers being "taken out and shot" he stated very clearly that he was fully in support of the strikers and their strike action but, being a BBC employee, he should be seen to be giving a balanced view on the subject and so should temper his approval by also saying the strikers should be executed.

I am no fan of Clarksons right wing 'peasant bashing' but, in this instance, I think the man has been taken completely out of context and people have jumped on an internet bandwagon to vilify him for something he clearly didn't do.

[Bridie]

Why would anyone take anything that any media dependant person says seriously??

"The public broadcaster issued a swift on-air apology, saying he sometimes overstepped the mark in his quest for "comic" value..."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvan ... -host.html

[jodieohdoh]

Less than 5 minutes before Clarkson's contentious statements about the strikers being "taken out and shot" he stated very clearly that he was fully in support of the strikers and their strike action but, being a BBC employee, he should be seen to be giving a balanced view on the subject and so should temper his approval by also saying the strikers should be executed.

I am no fan of Clarksons right wing 'peasant bashing' but, in this instance, I think the man has been taken completely out of context and people have jumped on an internet bandwagon to vilify him for something he clearly didn't do.

Whoa!! Really?? I had no idea that's how it went down. From Twitter/Facebook/morning news you would never know that. Good grief! I had put it down to early-onset dementia but now I'm thinking that must be on the part of the people (mis)reporting it. Never thought I'd say this but... poor Clarkson. Even if he does wave his gun at me when I walk past his house trying to walk my dog on a public thoroughfare (see what I did there)

[The Egg Man]

We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that Clarkson has a DVD to sell. Right now huge chunks of the media are giving him far more publicity than had he sat meekly discussing road safety or the need for more electric vehicle charging points.

Clarkson and the BBC make a lot of money out of Top Gear and the various internation spin-offs. Right now he'll be sitting in the foothills of the Cotswolds, laughing all the way to the bank.

The BBC know exactly what he's like. An apology here or there is meaningless to them.

[jodieohdoh]

glad we can be a bit un PC here!. There are many people deserving of charity, especially since the finance catastrophy, but not aggressive beggars and marketing companies employing students on commission only to sell charity DDs on the streets.

Was that the noise of a post going down like a lead balloon I just heard?

If you think you've found your spiritual home where you can rail against "PC" and go all Daily Mail on the less fortunate, you've got off at the wrong stop. If on the other hand you want to have a bit of banter, talk about hidden Glasgow, and just about anything else that you're passionate about, take a seat.

[Doorstop]

Hear, hear.

[The Egg Man]

I've just spoken to someone whose bidey-in is a primary teacher in East Dumbartonshire, an EIS member and who voted to strike yesterday.

He tells me she and a number of her colleagues turned up at the council offices at 8.45am yesterday morning and signed a declation that they would have been working had their school not been closed. This means they get paid.

By voting to strike they were in fact voting for a paid day off.

[Doorstop]

Now that IS taking the piss.

[banjo]

exact same scenario in parts of west dunbartonshire council.