Winter of Discontent Do we need to buy in the candles ?

[Frederick]

 

 I remember the last one . If you didnt live on a power grid to a local hospital ..Out went the lights in the middle of Eastenders 

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/neilobrien1/100053476/are-we-heading-for-a-second-winter-of-discontent/

[woolybanana]

Just to be on the safe side, yes!

[AnOther]

Candles and a small generator have become standard stock items in France where EDF seem incapable of keeping the power on in anything in excess of a minor rain storm !

We've had more cuts in our 3.5 years in France than in our combined lifetimes in UK [:'(]

[Quillan]

I think there's a bit of confusion and blending one thing in to another here.

First came the three day week under Heath which started in January 1974 till March 1974 to conserve electricity because of the miners work to rule resulting in coal stocks nearly running out.

Next came The Winter of Discontent (Winter of 1978 to Feb 1979) under the Callaghan government (the term was used by The Sun newspaper and was taken from Richard III play) when the public sector went on strike after Callaghan tried cap pay rises to 5%. It was possibly more remembered because of the dustmen strike as waste piled in the streets because it was not collected and up north the gravediggers also went on strike.

Eastenders first hit UK screens in the early part of 1985.

As pointed out on the BBC news today the phrase has now become more common as nearly every year for the last two decades, the TUC at its annual conference talks about it happening again that year.

Personally I don't think it will happen. This is all political maneuvering because you have a weak (in number) coalition government, Labour leadership elections and forthcoming cuts to the public budget resulting in lose of jobs. It's all huffing and puffing by the TUC.

I guess I could claim the same as AnOther with regards to power cuts because we just didn't have any in the UK during my adulthood where I have lived. Here we have had one pre-planed one for maintenance and another due to a cable breaking in a storm and not being fixed for three hours. Apart from those two occasions and a few flickers of the lights (we seem to have lot more here in France) I can't really complain. I mean there have been cases in the UK over the last 10 years where people have lost power for up to and even over a week and the same in other parts of France, perhaps I am lucky.

[woolybanana]

There and is a lot at stake, Q, I think there will be a good scrap with democracy at stake. The idea being to discredit the coalition to try and force a general erection and get Labour back, to stop the cuts and reinstate those who live off the backs of others at £200000 pa and don't even apologize for their extravagance or, in the case of the head of tax, for their incompetence.

[krusty]

Has the forum been re branded from Complete France to Complete England ?

[woolybanana]

Nah, but it is nice to play in the sandpit sometimes![6]

Though the rhetoric on both sides of the Channel is very similar these days.

[idun]

We were always well equipped in France I cannot remember how many power cuts we had leading to those candle lit / storm lamp evenings. So I have no reason not to be well equipped on the other side of the channel.

Our new house will have alternative heating and cooking and I always have candles in. So what ever the future may hold, we'll be OK.

[Russethouse]

[quote user="krusty"]Has the forum been re branded from complete France to complete England ?[/quote]

We're in ' Other topics'  [:)]

[Théière]

[quote user="krusty"]Has the forum been re branded from complete France to complete England ?[/quote]

Having a "Norman" moment Krusty [:)]

[Quillan]

[quote user="woolybanana"]There and is a lot at stake, Q, I think there will be a good scrap with democracy at stake. The idea being to discredit the coalition to try and force a general erection and get Labour back, to stop the cuts and reinstate those who live off the backs of others at £200000 pa and don't even apologize for their extravagance or, in the case of the head of tax, for their incompetence.[/quote]

Next Mondays Panorama Wooly if you can get near a TV with BBC 1. They are planning to 'expose' the ludicrously high rates of some in the public sector earn.

I see the current government as a one sided 'bent' football match. There's Labour trying to wedge the LD's away from the Tories to get another election from both inside and outside 'the house'. Miliband is rubbing up with the unions to win the leadership probably by telling them things will go back to as they were which is why the Unons may do something. The thing Labour needs to remember is when this happened to them, when they had the Lib Lab pact, and the Tories tried the same Labour got back in with a bigger majority. This could happen with the Tories, another election called and they win hands down especially if the Electoral Reform bill has not been passed in time. It seems clear to me that none of the politicians really care about the people they just want the status and the power of being in charge at any cost.

[krusty]

[quote user="Théière"]

Having a "Norman" moment Krusty [:)]

[/quote]

[:D].........yes [Www]

[Patf]

Not sure if Frederic is referring to UK or France, as he lives in both.

But anyway thanks for the reminder - I've put "candles" on the list for tomorrow.

After the big storm of Jan. 2009 all the shops sold out of candles and we were down to tea lights for emergencies only, and managed to borrow a generator for a couple of days.

We had no electricity for 10 days.

[Bob T]

I would not worry too much about spending cuts in the UK. The BBC news has just said that the visit by the Pope over the next week will cost the UK taxpayer £10 to 15 million, not including policing. What a waste of money.

[Frederick]

I wont see him ... I will be in Gi Fi next week buying a couple of boxes of candles .

http://www.gifi.fr/boutique_GIFI.aspx?l=bougies&cat=45664

[Théière]

[quote user="Bob T"]I would not worry too much about spending cuts in the UK. The BBC news has just said that the visit by the Pope over the next week will cost the UK taxpayer £10 to 15 million, not including policing. What a waste of money.
[/quote]

The vatican should pay for the pope's holidays not us [:@]

[Dog]

There must be a very dodgy travel agent in vatican city if they can persuade an old man to go on holiday in UK.

He'll get hypothermia if he visits a beach - I wonder if he nips down and puts his pectoral cross and mitre on the sun lounger before breakfast.

I bet he's going to Scotland first to get a trip around the Buckfast Abbey brewery and then going to shoot up to Glasgow - then feasting on deep fried Mars Bars.

I bet he'll be sending some interesting postcards back to the boys in vatican city.

 

 

[woolybanana]

Oh Dog, Dog, Dog, you shameless leg lifter and shiffer of backsides, where is Buckfast Abbey? Take 1000 lines: Buckfast Abbey is in DEVON, in some of the finest country in the world, where the deer and the antelope play and nothing is heard but the sound on merry maidens giving themselves to happy lads in the swarthe, though mainly in Polish these days. Why do you think the monks went there in the first place, as opposed to cold nasty Scotland where all they have is gruel and deep fried mars bars inside haggis to eat?[6]

[Quillan]

Well you can thank Brown for having to cough up the money for the visit as it was him who made the actual invite. I suspect Blair also had something to do with it what with his conversion to Catholicism back in 2007.