Symptoms

I reckon 'old Fritz' is looking enviously (and nostalgically) at the Chinese manufacturing situation ... camps/gulags containing forced or slave labour used to make stuff. Of course, those folks who are in paid work there can't complain about pay and conditions because they'd be branded as enemies of the state and shipped off to the camps.

What did I say HPW about the Thatch apologists? Blighty better off because of her regime? Just look at the rump that's been left to limp on, and most of that's now owned by a few foreigners. Yep, welcome to Thatch's 'brave new world' and tell the kids how wonderful it all is!

Yep, HPW ... dark forces could be at work here. Thatcher apologists are everywhere, they lurk in damp corners ready to spring, with erasers in hand, to the defense of her legacy. Mad fools the lot of them!

As I'd never heard of the 4H Club I Googled it ... seems like a worthwhile organisation for young folks. What I liked about it was that there was no God Bothering so I suppose it could attract a more diverse group of people to engage; I'm not sure we have anything like it here. Most youth organisations in Blighty seem to have 'faith' links and appear to do their stuff in isolation from one another. Plus there's always the ever present 'cold hand' of 'elf & safety in Blighty to stuff those wanting to contribute like those kids in North America. Yep, I know the Scouts, Sea Cadets, Brownies, St John's and others do sterling work for the community but their efforts seem to lack that 4H type 'national' co-ordinated organisation. Oh, and 4H seems to be getting Government funding!

Same with me Paul ... had to trawl the memory bank for that long forgotten word (bowke). Also, I have a vague memory of the tops being collected for a 'Guide Dogs for the Blind' appeal back in the 60s (maybe organised via Blue Peter ... but I may be wrong about that detail) - anyway, they were collected during our 'supping sessions' in class. Can anybody else recall this?

Oh yes ... the milk-discs at the Co-op, although my Mum called them "milk-tokens". I seem to remember her using tokens maybe 10 to 15 years ago but don't remember why she stopped using them; for the last years of her life she got the stuff in plakka flaggons. Are Co-op tokens still used? Ah ... gills of milk at school (Vic, these were 1/4pint) - always something to look forward to at morning break. The trick was to become the class milk monitor - just before break you'd go to fetch the class crate and always snaffle a couple of extra bottles for personal consumption. School milk was a fantastic benefit for us kids ... I wonder why it was stopped. Oh, yes - that vile witch Thatcher the Milk Snatcher ... stop, stop, stop now Sym! Keith, after a lifetime of guzzling proper sippin' milk what's your waistline like and are your tubes not all blocked-up? My Granny, who lived 'till she was in her mid-nineties, always drank 'Jersey milk' and had what she called "best butter" on everything. This "Nan's best butter" phrase has entered our family lexicon, especially when Mrs Sym argues that Flora, that vile smear, should be the order of the day for my toast.

Emulsion paint! Wallpaper! Wallpaper paste .... luxury! We had distemper on our walls and the walls were made of cardboard

When I lived in London (I moved from there nearly four years ago) I alway used to get my milk delivered. Nothing unusual in this you might think, but it was. For years there were at least four 'milkies' from different daries delivering to just about every house in my street and gradually the number reduced to one as most folks just got the plakka flaggons from the supermarket and daries closed; in the end I was the only one left getting the stuff delivered. I didn't mind paying the extra for the convenience and to keep the tradition alive. Keith is spot on with top colours. When I was a kid in Bedders my Mum got a couple of pints what she called "Jersey Milk" on a Saturday and it had the gold tops ... this milk was a weekend treat. For the rest of the week we had the 'ordinary' milk (now known as full milk) and this had the silver top ... the modern stuff is 4% fat but I seem to think the boyhood stuff had much, much more cream on the top - I can remember a good couple of inches of the stuff at the top of the bottle, not like the modern whitewash. I have no memory of semi-skimmed (silver and red top) being available 'back in the day'. I have fond memories of the bottle tops being pecked through by the birds in Winter. Our milkie in Bedders delivered by horse & cart. Oh, and the orange juice my Mum got had an orange (not gold) top ... I think you can still get this. No milk deliveries where I now live so the plakka flaggons are bought in the supermarket; I get 'full milk' and Mrs Sym gets 'semi-skimmed' (Yuk!). Bottles of Jersey Milk, complete with the gold tops, are still available and I often sneak one into the house for my corn flakes ... Yum, Yum.

Parish budgets, bus stops, Tescos are all very well Mal, but what's your position on Trident, the situation in the Middle East, the EU, and breakaway Jockoland. We need to know!!!!

The Post Office Savings Bank proposals may mean 'it's the last man standing' in Bedders. Ah, it brings back memories ... the 'old' Post Office bank, the Giro Bank (I think that's what it was called) was my first bank as a teenager and into which went any cash birthday/Chrissy presents. I'm sure I have the old paying-in book somewhere ... obviously cleaned out years ago! Of course, the arguments regarding these bank closures are well known, but it's tough luck if you're not online, are old or disabled and can't travel to a branch in another town, and are poor. But, hey, they need to cut costs so that bxxxxxds like Ricci Rich and Bob Diamond can trouser fortunes.

Oh dear! Poor old Sym is going to be spending his valuable time playing with this ... it looks brilliant full screen.

Of course there is a difference between the cruel, personal and targeted triumphalism displayed earlier and the general joshings meated out by both factions and enjoyed as such. I'm content with the posting of 3 -0 repeating, but when stuff get really personal it's wrong. "Rearrange the following well known phrase Sym ...... Pipe .........It ..........stick ........up ........your .....it .......smoke ... and!†is targeted and has no place when joshing. By all means the mackems here should bathe in the warm glow of a rare win (first in 13 years I think) and continue to crow but should limit themselves to attacking the Toon and their craven surrender, and not named Members here! I've been looking for some historical parallels for the events on Sunday, especially with zee newly installed High Command Group East Wear now plotting their version of Ostsiedlung and would suggest similarities with the Battle of Stalingrad. After an early success during the campaign in 1942 (Sunday's match) the mackem forces of darkness and tyranny were unable to sustain their effort and lost their strength; further strategic victories (the rest of the Premiership season) proving impossible to attain. The mackem Axis forces resistance finally ceased, they were routed, destroyed and defeated in 1943 (last day of the season). Now that's fair joshing.

A story has leaked out from the Ritz hotel. Apparently, her stroke happened whilst she was reading a letter from Atos declaring her "fit to work" and stopping her Incapacity Benefit.

keith - Millne's (or Milne's?) had a record section at the back of the store (left-hand side) with the racks of records and further back a 'listening section' (I can't quite remember if there were booths or just headphones). You picked your record, the sales assistant would stick it on the behind-the-counter deck and you'd go and listen to it. If you were happy with your selection you then bought it. LPs and singles were sold there. When my old Mum died six years ago I found a few of the old 45s bought in Millne's in her record collection of LPs ... They were in good nick as I doubt they would have been played since the 60s. There was an earlier thread on here which did include some of these tales about Millne's ... perhaps do a search for more info.

Keith - would it not have been Millnes in the Market Place? That old record player you mention was probably a Danset, not a Danzig.

Here's today's offering from the wonderful Steve Bell: but I think this image is nearer to the truth:

75% of the Guardian taken-up with Thatch stuff this morning, plus a special pull-out section. I objected when there was a bit of a spread when Betty Windsor's old Mun croked, I'll go bonkers when they fill the paper with the life & times of Betty when she goes, but for some reason I didn't object to all the Thatch stuff this morning. I read every word and basked in the warm glow of my wide, wide grin. I read reports on the Beeb site that folks had street parties last night to celebrate ... any in Bedders? Perhaps one should be organised for next Wednesday.

Maggs - you obviously saw this in our beloved Guardian this morning, Steve Bell's latest:

GGGG - "I don't have an exact date for the older part but I'm digging." They're not that old surely?

"... the selfish who followed her spiteful rantings, and now their silly heirs ..." are still at it. On the same day she crokes the Bullingdon elite trigger the grab for the crutches and wheelchairs of the disabled under the guise of suggesting that these benefit claimants are involved in some sort of Philpottian plot. Same old Tories. I hope that the kids of today are influenced by stories of Tory behaviour towards the weak and how their Blitzkrieg across the industrial North wrecked lives and communities. GGG, you know fine well this isn't "... ultra-left propaganda ...", just go to any high street in any 'old' industrial community to see her legacy; it really wasn't the NUM, GMB, Aslef, and a host of other Unions who did the distruction - they NEVER had the power to do it. Anyway, I felt so elated after hearing the news that I took the woof out for a walk on the beach, it was ESPECIALLY sunny and we both had a strange spring in our step ... Oh, the joy! Mods ... thanks for stitching the two threads together but I reckon the better Topic Title is mine.

"Really shabby Sym!" Not at all GGG. You can't pick and choose; surely you're not suggesting that when monsters get old they should be given a free pass. How about mourning, Pinochet, Franco, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong, Hirohito, Hess, and so on. "You also show an intolerance to the rights of countless millions of people who believe that what she did was very necessary to the survival and long-term well-being of our country." Guilty as charged ... the countless millions (???) of poor deluded souls did swallow that tainted bait and have gagged on the foul taste of it ever since. Of course, the selfish who followed her spiteful rantings, and now their silly heirs must be distraught, but for all 'right-thinking' folks the Sun is burning really brightly today.

I'VE JUST BEEN ON THE HOTLINE TO LUCIFER AND HE'S MAKING SURE THE FIRES ARE WELL STOKED FOR HER ARRIVAL. HE TOLD ME HE IS GETTING THE COALS FROM ONE OF THE PITS SHE CLOSED (HE CAN MINE FROM BELOW YOU KNOW) AND HAS NOW PLENTY OF STOCK TO ENSURE SHE BURNS FOR ETERNITY. I HAVE RESERVED SEATS UP HERE FOR ARTHUR SCARGILL AND TONY BENN FOR WHEN THEY ARRIVE IN THE FUTURE SO THEY CAN BASK IN THE GLOW; MICHAEL FOOT HAS ALREADY TAKEN ONE OF THE FRONT SEATS. LET THE SHOW BEGIN.

I said elsewhere on the Forum just a moment ago, "Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice! Off to Hell she goes. Poo, you beat me to the post by seconds Maggs.

Rejoice, Rejoice, Rejoice!

Yep, and look what happened at Chelski. For more info look at the David Miliband thread.