I was at a political debate a while ago with two of my local MPs, and I asked the question - "why isn't food free?" Lib Dem - "Because they gave food away in the roman empire" Labour - "Because they used to make people work for food in the workhouses" Neither of these answered my question at all. I was wondering if anyone here could answer my question. My reasons for asking being: Farmer's are subsidised (by the tax-payer), coincidentally, approximately the value of the food they produce. We then pay twice this value to buy food because of the inflated prices caused by the subsidies. Add on to that the mark-up by the supermarket, and the added cost to the taxpayer of paying out benefits so the unemployed, sick, disabled etc can afford to buy this over-priced food. Wouldn't it just be simpler, to pay the farmers TO produce food, and make food free? There must be some reason why this can't be done and I'm sure one of you smarties can tell me what it is.
free food would be good there's only one problem - the lot of an englishman is only to work for low wages, receive a low education, pay taxes and die in poverty. anyone who does have any nous or education and has no money usually escapes the country never to return. in theory when VAT was introduced it was decided that it would be imprudent to tax food at the 17.5% rate - i mean after all if all these characters were meant to be working for low wages what would be the point if they couldn't afford the food, plus they would be too weak to be of any use. i suspect that this rule is still in force, count yourself lucky that they don't tax food more heavily. my advice to all uk residents of sound mind is to leave the country, i did and i still thank my lucky stars i could.
Oh if only I could. I travelled the world from the age of 17 to 20 (well, most of it was in France but it sounds more glamourous to say I travelled the world) and totally agree with you. England, or at least London which is the only place I have any real experience of, is a shit hole. Where were you? Where are you now?
in some respects i have a history similar to yourself. i too travelled around the uk a bit and over to israel/ palestine for a while from 17-23. i was lucky enough to have an australian passport. one day i looked out the front window of my parents house and realised that if i didn't move i was going to die in the uk, cold, lonely and stupid. i looked around and basically saw a cultural wasteland tended carefully by 15 years of rule of the conservative party. australia 10 years ago was almost a different country and was only just making the same destructive decisions of the conservatives. thankfully australia is such a large country that no matter how stupid the government it would be difficult to destroy it. australia still offers free education- and amazingly if you want to learn a trade you can do so for free at something called TAFE (tertiary and further education). if you have a trade you should try and apply to immigrate, the government here needs a heap of skilled workers because a number of years ago they followed the uk model of destroying apprenticeships. no matter hard i tried in the uk i couldn't be trained for anything although i had sat iq tests for various jobs and receiving respectable scores i was only fit for the dustbin in the uk. here in australia i'm fit to become a technician and other stuff. if you can't get out of the uk you will need to become educated- check out tafe nsw for some on line education- this means education in the sciences and maths, this is the first step. you will need to try and make contact with similar people in the uk-work as a team. i'll continue at some other point.
Hahaa, I have a New Zealand Passport . However my wife and son can't get citizenship because I've never lived there (well, I went on a sixth month working holiday but that doesn't quite qualify). Very annoying but not quite worth leaving them behind. We'll get over there at some stage, or we might just go to France. Just not England.
strike whilst the iron is hot, theres no better time than the present. carefully plan what you need to do. it may be that your family can go over with you and be on resident status. you might find that since you are relatively young this may be possible, if you leave it too long it may get harder to get out. i suppose you should check out new zealand-it maybe that you can learn a trade there. time is of the essence. i suppose france could be an option, traditionally the english have gone there as exiles, oscar wilde, princess diana too many to mention! learning a trade their could be a problem because of the language (assuming you don't know french) and it could be that the french have adopted the english model. moving country can initially be a culture shock but in the long term it will do wonders for your health.
hi guys.. NEAt. i agree england is s hit hole but something just keeps me here. . because i realized there are always worse places. Denmark has minimum 50% income tax ,. i think 25% VAt but free education inc uni... so you win some you lose some. On the matter of free food. i just went blackberry picking and got free dessert. also last week scored heap of m and ms from nice sample people. if you want free food try being self sufficient. .? grow your own
And the thing is, it should be so much more free now. Now that a handful of people can produce enough food for thousands.
