A fair world? Or not?

[Ford Anglia]

I know this is a long one, but bear with it ....................... it could
remind you of somewhere......

HOW IT WORKS, AND SHOULD WORK IN A FAIR WORLD

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long,building and
improving his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer
away.

Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed, the shivering grasshopper has no
food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.
THE END

THE BRITISH VERSION:

The squirrel works hard in the withering heat all summer long,building and
improving his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks he's a fool, and laughs and dances and plays the summer
away.
Come winter, the squirrel is warm and well fed.
A social worker finds the shivering grasshopper, calls a case conference and
demands to know why the squirrel should be allowed to be warm and well fed while
others less fortunate, like the grasshopper, are cold and starving.
The BBC shows up to provide live coverage of the shivering
grasshopper; with cuts to a video of the squirrel in his comfortable warm home
with a table laden with food.
The British press inform people that they should be ashamed that in a country of
such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so while others have
plenty.
The Labour Party, Greenpeace, Animal Rights and the Grasshopper Council of GB
demonstrate in front of the squirrel's house.
The BBC, interrupting a cultural festival special from Notting Hill with
breaking news, broadcasts a multi cultural choir singing "We Shall overcome".
Ken Livingstone rants in an interview with Trevor McDonald that the squirrel has
got rich off the backs of grasshoppers, and calls for an immediate tax hike on
the squirrel to make him pay his "fair share"and increases the charge for
squirrels to enter inner London.
In response to pressure from the media, the Government drafts the Economic
Equity and Grasshopper Anti Discrimination Act, retroactive to the beginning of
the summer.
The squirrel's taxes are reassessed. He is taken to court and fined for failing
to hire grasshoppers as builders for the work he was doing on his home and an
additional fine for contempt when he told the court the grasshopper did not want
to work.
The grasshopper is provided with a council house,financial aid to furnish it and
an account with a local taxi firm to ensure he can be socially mobile.
The squirrel's food is seized and re distributed to the more needy members of
society, in this case the grasshopper.
Without enough money to buy more food, to pay the fine and his newly imposed
retroactive taxes, the squirrel has to downsize and start building a new home.
The local authority takes over his old home and utilises it as a temporary home
for asylum seeking cats who had hijacked a plane to get to Britain as they had
to share their country of origin with mice.
On arrival they have tried to blow up the airport because of Britain's apparent
love of dogs.
The cats had been arrested for the international offence of hijacking and
attempt bombing but were immediately released because the police fed them
pilchards instead of salmon whilst in custody.
Initial moves to then return them to their own country were abandoned because it
was feared they would face death by the mice. The cats devise and start a scam
to obtain money from people's credit cards.
A Panorama special shows the grasshopper finishing up the last of the squirrel's
food, though Spring is still months away, while the council house he is in,
crumbles around him because he hasn't bothered to maintain the house.>He is
shown to be taking drugs. Inadequate government funding is blamed for the
grasshoppers drug 'illness'.
The cats seek recompense in the British courts for their treatment since arrival
in UK.
The grasshopper gets arrested for stabbing an old dog during a burglary to get
money for his drugs habit. He is imprisoned but released immediately because he
has been in custody for a few weeks.
He is placed in the care of the probation service to monitor and supervise him.
Within a few weeks he has killed a guinea pig in a botched robbery.A commission
of enquiry that will eventually cost £10,000,000 and state the obvious, is set
up.
Additional money is put into funding a drug rehabilitation scheme for
grasshoppers and legal aid for lawyers representing asylum seekers is increased.
The asylum seeking cats are praised by the government for enriching Britain's
multicultural diversity and dogs are criticised by the government for failing to
befriend the cats.
The grasshopper dies of a drug overdose. The usual sections of the press blame
it on the obvious failure of government to address the root causes of despair
arising from social inequity and his traumatic
experience of prison.
They call for the resignation of a minister. The cats are paid a million pounds
each because their rights were infringed when the government failed to inform
them there were mice in the United Kingdom.
The squirrel, the dogs and the victims of the hijacking, the bombing, the
burglaries and robberies have to pay an additional percentage on their credit
cards to cover losses, their taxes are increased to pay for law and order and
they are told that they will have to work
beyond 65 because of a shortfall in government funds.

THE END

Since this was written, the squirrel has decided that enough is enough and has
sold up everything he owned and has sodded off to Spain! ( I was going to say France, but that might have been stretching it).

[Tresco]

I didn't think it was possible to loathe this any more than the first time I read it (about 2 years ago - though it's been around much longer).

If you really think it's satirising the true situation in England, then perhaps could consider a move to your own private Island. Neither France, nor Spain will suit you.

[Pierre ZFP]

So where is it written that life has to be fair?

(Liked the story though [:D]   )

[Renaud]

So was it a red or grey squirrel?

[marina]

A pink fluffy one probably.

The whole Daily Mail-ishness of it makes me want to vomit.

[KathyF]

The only thing that springs to my mind is what planet was the writer on when he wrote it? [:)] Still, if everyone who thinks like this disappears to foreign parts (the further the better) the Britain I know and love will be an even better place to live.

[Chief]

[quote user="KathyF"]The only thing that springs to my mind is what planet was the writer on when he wrote it? [:)] Still, if everyone who thinks like this disappears to foreign parts (the further the better) the Britain I know and love will be an even better place to live.[/quote]

Correct. Lets just hope they go sooner rather than later.

[Ford Anglia]

Would any of the posters that find it so utterly wrong, care to point out any specifics?

Certainly, some of the stuff rings true at least to me.

[Judith]

[quote user="Ford Anglia"]

Would any of the posters that find it so utterly wrong, care to point out any specifics?

Certainly, some of the stuff rings true at least to me.

[/quote]

Indeed, it does.  Seems that some of those against this have not experienced some of the stupidities which have been obvious for some time now to those of us who still live in the UK .  Over the top of course, and too long winded for true effect, but there is a worrying grain of truth in what it purports to joke about.  I only wish I didn't think that it is scarily nearer the truth than those posters who object to it believe it is.

[Ford Anglia]

[quote user="Judith"][quote user="Ford Anglia"]

Would any of the posters that find it so utterly wrong, care to point out any specifics?

Certainly, some of the stuff rings true at least to me.

[/quote]
Indeed, it does.  Seems that some of those against this have not experienced some of the stupidities which have been obvious for some time now to those of us who still live in the UK .  Over the top of course, and too long winded for true effect, but there is a worrying grain of truth in what it purports to joke about.  I only wish I didn't think that it is scarily nearer the truth than those posters who object to it believe it is.
[/quote]

Thankyou: my thoughts in a nutshell[:)]

[Tresco]

[quote user="Ford Anglia"]Thankyou: my thoughts in a nutshell[:)][/quote]

Well that's handy for you, Ford Anglia, but neither of you have said just what the 'grains of truth' or things that 'ring a bell' are, have you?

 

[Ron Avery]

You don't actaully say where you live FA, are you an immigrant in France?

Do you think that UK being a place where people from other parts of the world aspire to live and risk life and limb and pay fortunes to get to, is something to be proud of or not?

I get really sick and tired of people who trot out this BNP inspired rubbish  A  grain of truth in it?  Oh where exactly in it is there any grain of truth? Who can cite an example of personal experience of anything like that quoted. It is as described a load of the worst excesses of the Daily Mail/Express inspired rubbish, with not a shred of truth or fact in any of it, or perhaps you believe that social services should not intervene when children are being abused and killed, drivers should just be allowed to clog up London and fill it with CO 2, innocent people shot and killed in the UK without any redress by the offenders and political refugees returned to the own countries to face death and torture like happened (Not ) to Michael Howard and his family.  Instead of posting such utter crap FA why not walk tall and be proud of a country that people throughout the world envy and aspire to live in and where there is a haven on this earth where they will not be tortured and abused, but of course they are all just social claiming spongers aren't they[:@].

[Dick Smith]

Well put, Ron.

[Ford Anglia]

Ron: I'm still waiting for either Tresco, who had the first pop, or someone else, to point out where it's WRONG.

When I have a bit more time, I'll go through it and point out some of the truths.

Meanwhile, I'm taking your rant with a pinch of salt: people trying to get to the UK? Sure..........like the Afghanis shown on Breakfast TV earlier in the week, when asked what they wanted from the UK, they replied, " No job, free money, good life........".

And in the same week, the poor old British man who has to go blind before he can get any treatment, since  his NHS trust can't afford, (or won't afford) to pay for his treatment.

Says it all for me.

But then, I'm not branding it Tory, BNP or anything else.

Oh, and North Midlands, and Haute Vienne.[;-)]

[Dick Smith]

It's drivel. There's no need to dignify it with a response.

[Tresco]

[quote user="Ford Anglia"]

Ron: I'm still waiting for either Tresco, who had the first pop, or someone else, to point out where it's WRONG.[/quote]

I admire Ron for taking the time to make further comment, but I'm not going to emulate him.

Ford Anglia, I said I loathed it. That wasn't a 'pop'. It was the comment I made on what you posted. Not what you said, but what you cut and pasted!

You've cut and pasted this without bothering to do even the briefest bit of analysis or even comment yourself, and now you come back and suggest I'm in the wrong for not jumping up and marching to your tune.

Why should I use my time commenting further on something that you didn't even take the trouble to comment on properly yourself?

Why is my time less valuable than yours? When you've had a 'bit more time' to find the 'truths' , and posted them, I might have time to respond.

 

[Chief]

[quote user="Tresco"][quote user="Ford Anglia"]

Ron: I'm still waiting for either Tresco, who had the first pop, or someone else, to point out where it's WRONG.[/quote]

I admire Ron for taking the time to make further comment, but I'm not going to emulate him.

Ford Anglia, I said I loathed it. That wasn't a 'pop'. It was the comment I made on what you posted. Not what you said, but what you cut and pasted!

You've cut and pasted this without bothering to do even the briefest bit of analysis or even comment yourself, and now you come back and suggest I'm in the wrong for not jumping up and marching to your tune.

Why should I use my time commenting further on something that you didn't even take the trouble to comment on properly yourself?

Why is my time less valuable than yours? When you've had a 'bit more time' to find the 'truths' , and posted them, I might have time to respond.

[/quote]

Bang on..........................Lets hope this forum can be kept at the intelligent level of debate that we have all come to expect and enjoy. I second Tresco.  Think out what it is your wanting to say/debate/whatever, and then come back and post it for debate FA

[marina]

I agree with Tresco too.

I merely likened it to the sort of stuff you read in the Daily Mail. I hate the Mail and strongly disagree with its politics. But plenty of people read it, so presumably they like it and agree with it. I have no problem with that, we dont all think the same way. But when I disagree with something I would much rather say so rather than just keep quiet because my view may be unfashionable in certain circles.

It is probably significant that David Cameron has allegedly quoted the same story on his web site. It's only what I have heard, I have no wish to visit a right-wing web site (so I wonder why I am here).

 

[RumziGal]

[quote user="marina"]

I agree with Tresco too.

I merely likened it to the sort of stuff you read in the Daily Mail. I hate the Mail and strongly disagree with its politics. But plenty of people read it, so presumably they like it and agree with it. [/quote]

I don't think they do necessarily agree with it, Marina.   They just read it.   I know quite a few people who read the Daily Mail but couldn't even identify it as being right wing.   It's just the Daily Mail!

Made me laugh though, your comment about the forum being right wing.  I'm surprised no-one's commented on it before!

 

[Cat]

[quote user="marina"]

It is probably significant that David Cameron has allegedly quoted the same story on his web site. It's only what I have heard, I have no wish to visit a right-wing web site (so I wonder why I am here).

 

[/quote]

Will's almost right, it is on his website, but it wasn't him that posted it (  http://www.webcameron.org.uk/blogs/blog-public-category-9-5   for anyone that really wants to go there). 

 

[TreizeVents]

My problem with this story is two fold.  The second bit is really stupid, full of exaggerations, sad attempts at jokes and levels of maliciousness and selfishness that are beyond the limits.  I guess its just silly.  The first part, The Rest of the World, is simply not true.  In most of the world there are families, communities, welfare states, friends etc who make sure that someone who for reasons of frivolity, reasons of bad luck, reasons of bad health or even reasons of being a bit lazy, do not just DIE.  Depends a bit on the level of wealth whether there is state action or only community and family action.  So the whole story is basically nonsense.  And not even very funny.  Ford Anglia thinks rings with truth.  I suspect he has a tin ear. 

Does he not know anyone in his family who is a bit lazy?  Should they die?  Does he not know anyone with serious illness?  Should they die?  Does he not know a single human being who is happy to live on very little money rather than work at a stupid meaningless job for a bit more money?  Has he never met an actual immigrant person who works hard and sends money back to family?  Does he really believe all that stuff?  Does he realy think that all immigrants come to countries like France or Britain for the welfare benefits?  What world does he inhabit?  

And I freely admit there are some sleazebags who take advantage of any system, whether it is families, communities, state welfare or whatever.  So what!  Me, I am glad the world is not full of selfish individualists.

[Ford Anglia]

OK, I bow to all you superior-knowledged beings.

But you know what they say? "There's none so blind.........."

[Judith]

A grain of truth - from someone who actually still lives in the UK (I see several posters seem not to do so - how can they know in comparison to those who still do live in the UK other than by hearsay) - it is part of my job to keep myself informed about the social problems the UK is facing, and whilst I am quite happy to admit the bias often shown by the media, it is also part of my job to analyse what I find for quality and accuracy to the best of my professional abilites.  Unfortunately what I read, hear and analyse (and in some cases experience personally) is why I made my original statement in support of FA - bias apart - it IS scarily nearer the truth than one would like.

[KathyF]

Is it an urban/rural divide then, Judith?  I see you live in WI and I'm in Mid-Wales.  From my perspective the original diatribe bears no relation to reality at all, but it's possible that in London things look different. Mind you, from my perspective, life in our big cities seems far more foreign than life in the French countryside.

[Dick Smith]

[quote user="Ford Anglia"]

OK, I bow to all you superior-knowledged beings.

But you know what they say? "There's none so blind.........."

[/quote]

I think it may be wise to consider that if no-one agrees with you, it might be you that is out of step.