Symptoms

GGG, I'm with you on the Evan Davis question ... hopeless!

The World 'aint big enough for folks to live long lives; we need sizable numbers to regularly croke to help keep the numbers in check. In the so-called developing world they have all sorts of 'natural' plagues to do the thinning-out, all the developed world has to offer is 'self-induced' death ... snouts, various STDs, sugar, pies and cakes, etc. To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, 'let them all get the flu'.

They're going to get free flu jabs now!!!!!!!!!! More wasted NHS resources.

GGG wrote: "Curiously not one article I've seen even mentions the old twelve-sided thrupenny bit, ..." That's what happens when you don't take the Guardian ... full thrupenny bit reference in their report. Go on GGG, take read the Guardian, you know deep down it'll do you good.

I've posted elsewhere on the Forum about my maternal granny but this snout thread stirred a memory of seeing round metal tins (maybe a couple of inches in dia and about 3" high) packed with tabs in her house ... this would be early to mid 1950s. These were sent to her by her eldest son who was a Commander in the Royal Navy ... I'm guessing here, but they were probably part of his 'free' fag ration sent home to her. I remember them being plain (no paper label) but maybe with a pressed logo on the lid; they probably held 20 to 30 snouts. The tin concept probably made good sense for waterproof packaging on the 'high seas'.

Pacific Islands .. ... they worship Phil the Greek as a God. Just about sums it all up!

"... the Queen because many Labour supporters (including Sym) want her deposed?" Remember the Romanovs in Ekaterinburg?

Maggs, just as well you had hot and cold running water to hose down those ankle-biters once you got home. A couple of generations ago it would have been a cold tap in a communal yard bounded by hovels owned by Tory slum landlords. A decent result to that challenge, me thinks!

The hospital quacks routinely prescribed Mackeson to their anemic patients; I don't know when this stopped ... maybe the 1980s. Pete is correct about the bottle size as I remember my Dad being given the stuff after an operation in the General in the early 70s.

Cor blimey! pil. Sounds a bit like life in a grand old manse in the gentile Cotswolds.

There's no excuse for sloppy writing, poor grammar and dodgy spelling ... unless, unless, unless, what's been produced has been created on a piddly little phone; the small keys/fat finger combo.

Maggs - I always had you figured as a snuff snorter or even a chewing baccy muncher ... a bit like those good 'ol boys gals often seen of Yankee films of the Deep South. Picture the scene: Maggs, with elbow on the bar in the Red Lion, booted foot on the brass rail, clearing the baccy juice into the spittoon via a deep houk'n-up & hocklin' oot, then downing a stiff shot of sourmash. Yeehaw!

Seven years old ... cousin and me nicked our Grandad's baccy tin from the hearth beside his chair and went into Grandma's bathroom. Lit up one of his roll up we found in the tin with his petrol lighter (which he made during WW1 whilst in the trenches ... made from an .303 cartridge case). Coughing and spluttering we were heard by Grandma who made us open the door ... "have you been smoking in here" she asked, "no" we said emerging from the fog. Captured good and proper, wacks from Grandma but a smile (which Grandma didn't see) from Grandad. Grandad used to flake his old dog-ends into the tin to re-use and to save lighter fuel/matches had a box of spills on the hearth. Frog snouts were my tabs of choice when older ... I loved the taste/smell but I haven't smoked in years. The Frogs have changed the recipe of Gitanges so they are now just like most other tabs ... I recently bought a pack in Paris to remind myself of the 'old days' but was so, so disappointed that the distinctive flavour has been removed. Probably the EU's fault (Maggs politics alert).

I reckon all these computer rendered characters in these modern takes on the old classics look very, very creepy.

Before you take-up the stubby pencil in the voting booth you might like to check-out what all the shysters pocket. In the Guardian today there's a report featuring the work of a couple of IT wonks who've created a 'one-stop' website to allow us to check; they also have downloadable aps for those who want to add a button to their browser of choice: www.membersinterests.org.uk I know the info is available elsewhere but this site saves having to mine down through Government sites.

Vote Graphene ... where the real future lies. Je suis hexagonal lattice

Safest place to be after merc has honed the tip of 4H.

Just in case folks missed it I posted the following in the kipper thread (apologies to the all powerful Mods if duel-posting is naughty and Sym is due a spanking) .... "The Bossgreen suffers from the same image problem which infects Millleeeeband ... the voice. A voice perfectly suited to advertising Fosters lager in OZ doesn't sit well spouting off about the evils of fracking or how we'll all grow two heads if we munch GM snaggies. As for Millleeeee ... can anybody take him seriously when he doesn't even honk his hooter into a Kleenex before being interviewed? What's the odds that the fragrantly delightful Caroline Lucas doesn't nudge the OZBossgreen aside to star in the GE telly debates?"

The Bossgreen suffers from the same image problem which infects Millleeeeband ... the voice. A voice perfectly suited to advertising Fosters lager in OZ doesn't sit well spouting off about the evils of fracking or how we'll all grow two heads if we munch GM snaggies. As for Millleeeee ... can anybody take him seriously when he doesn't even honk his hooter into a Kleenex before being interviewed? What's the odds that the fragrantly delightful Caroline Lucas doesn't nudge the OZBossgreen aside to star in the GE telly debates? 6000 complaints to Ofgerm about the C4 kipper battering ... I didn't know they had that many members to dragoon.

Well, I watched Meet the Ukippers on the iPlayer and to be honest I thought it was one of those spoof things the Beeb does so well ... Twenty Twelve (the Olympic thing) or W1A (the Auntie management skit). But no, it wasn't a mockumentary but the real deal. I am now convinced that the rest of us have nothing to fear from the kipper battalions. All these middle-aged/old fatties would certainly find it difficult to mount a version of the beer hall putsch and mount a torchlight parade waddle to power. The Swiss Red Cross don't have enough defribrillators and oxygen tanks to revive the weezing columns during the anschluss of Westminster. Je suis Sym.

Remember what I wrote above: "...all politicians are shysters and cheats, none of whom can be trusted." Rifkin (Tory) and Straw (Lab) suspended today from their parties for 'trousering the monthly manilas'

Pete, to paraphrase Harold Macmillan and Oscar Wilde: consequences dear boy, consequences. Cameroooony back in No10 ... run for cover if you're poor or ill or just about surviving whilst in work; cheer if you're some posh, rich fat cat bleeding the rest dry. Don't waste your vital vote on the kipper vanity project. For years I've stated here that that all politicians are shysters and cheats, none of whom can be trusted. The basic measure that folks can take is who is more likely to ensure what's best for my family (or folks like me). Who's more likely to lend support in times of stress/hardship/illness and who's likely to stiff you good and proper, with a blunt stick, up the jacksy? Europe and/or immigration really hasn't much negative bearing upon most of us ... these issues only interest those with a particular axe to grind.

What's that saying??? Oh yes .... vote kipper/jocko and let the Toryscum back in. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

It was yesterday.

No need for wise old Sym to subject himself to examination by GCHQ. My score would be 100% Socialist and 100% Feminist.