We had our May/Summer Bank Holiday at the beginning of the month. Why another one now? Doesn't anybody want to work anymore? In my working life, work was the pleasure - holidays were the effort and the bores we had to put up with.

I loved making, finding and breaking hits, writing columns and books, making movies, running companies, doing TV and radio... taking time off from doing that? Urgh!

Sitting in for Chris Evans (doesn't work Bank Holidays), Zoe Ball had a Thought for Today explaining this very question (I didn't understand the answer). Then Michael Ball (who clearly reads this Forum) asked the same question. But he clearly wasn't listening to Zoe.

Whitsun? What the fuck is Whitsun?

I think you really know the answer to this JK. Sadly most people don't have your combination of a comfortable upbringing, intelligence and ambition. A lot of people have pedestrian jobs and work only because they have too, or they don't have the nous or drive to advance. So Bank Holidays provide some form of relief from this. I enjoy my job but do appreciate an extra day off now and then..

JK2006 wrote:
We had our May/Summer Bank Holiday at the beginning of the month. Why another one now? Doesn't anybody want to work anymore? In my working life, work was the pleasure - holidays were the effort and the bores we had to put up with.

I loved making, finding and breaking hits, writing columns and books, making movies, running companies, doing TV and radio... taking time off from doing that? Urgh!

Do you think you'd have felt the same about bank holidays if you'd been working in a call center or a factory 6 days a week? lol

JK2006 wrote:
We had our May/Summer Bank Holiday at the beginning of the month. Why another one now?

I do agree that we have too many too close together (Easter / May Day / Spring Bank) with often only a couple of weeks between them.

I would like to see one of these moved, to say the end of October, as after the August Bank holiday there are four months without a break till Christmas.

Cow and Anon - I have no sympathy for anybody doing jobs they hate. Sheer insanity. Life is simply not worth living if you hate your job. And if you say "most people do" that's why democracy doesn't work. Most people are morons and deserve all they get (and vote for).

JK2006 wrote:
Cow and Anon - I have no sympathy for anybody doing jobs they hate. Sheer insanity. Life is simply not worth living if you hate your job. And if you say "most people do" that's why democracy doesn't work. Most people are morons and deserve all they get (and vote for).

It is the easiest and laziest thing in the world to do a job you enjoy and that you have talent for, especially if you have the education and money to get you started, but not everybody is talented, clever or privileged and most have to make the best of their situation to provide for themselves and their families. All heroes in my opinion!

I don't know why it is unacceptable to criticise someone for their skin colour but its fine to make fun of their intelligence when they are born with it just the same?

JK2006 wrote:
Cow and Anon - I have no sympathy for anybody doing jobs they hate. Sheer insanity. Life is simply not worth living if you hate your job. And if you say "most people do" that's why democracy doesn't work. Most people are morons and deserve all they get (and vote for).

Most jobs aren't that much fun, but someone's still got to do them. Could you blame the bin man or the woman that cleans the public toilets for not being overly enthusiastic about their job and being glad of whatever holidays they can get? Who would particularly enjoy those jobs? lol

JK2006 wrote:
Cow and Anon - I have no sympathy for anybody doing jobs they hate. Sheer insanity. Life is simply not worth living if you hate your job. And if you say "most people do" that's why democracy doesn't work. Most people are morons and deserve all they get (and vote for).

Because of EU rules on free immigration many are lucky to have a job at all,let alone one they prefer to do Mr King.

Pattaya wrote:
Because of EU rules on free immigration many are lucky to have a job at all

Then they can take advantage of the EU rule on free migration - its NOT a one way street !

In The Know wrote:
Pattaya wrote:
Because of EU rules on free immigration many are lucky to have a job at all

Then they can take advantage of the EU rule on free migration - its NOT a one way street !

It is a one way street for those (in all countries) that don't have the cash for going abroad. I think this is what causes a lot of the resentment.

honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
It is a one way street for those (in all countries) that don't have the cash for going abroad. I think this is what causes a lot of the resentment.

... but I thought (your side) kept saying these "immigrants" arrived here penniless - desperate to take "our" jobs?

These are simply people moving to find a better life for themselves and their families - something which millions of Britons have done by emigrating to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa etc. In fact you don't have to go that far ! Huge numbers of Scots moved to England to find work (mines / steel works at Corby etc). They used to blame the Irish, and the Jews ... now its the turn of the EU citizens.

There would be no jobs for these people to do if the dolers did them !

You know what will happen next? The moaners and groaners will get their way and then they will complain they can't afford their staple diet (chips !) because the cost of picking potatoes in Lincolnshire and Cambridge has quadrupled !!!!

'Most People Are Morons'.................how to win friends and influence people?

Can't and don't agree........Most people are a very small part of a much much larger ecosystem of people.....worker ants

Sometimes, a worker ant can get promoted to a 'foreman', some get promoted to be a 'soldier ant'.......very few of us are born as 'Queen' ants and so if you happen to be a Queen ant, your view of the world is obviously skewed against what you perceive to be 'morons' in the lower ranks............

The Moron argument can only be used if you also agree that people should not be allowed to move upwards in rank, if you believe that there is a set place for the 'workers' and if you believe the 'received education you have' is worth very very much more than any other individual who hasn't had the same education.........

Using you same very direct approach of stating a phrase like 'Most people are morons', I'll state the equally direct phrases of all 'convicts in jail are worthless', 'nobody in jail with a sentence of guilty should be allowed to vote'...........

Now, do I really believe that? Are there exception to be applied? Are some people in jail through circumstance? Is removing a voting right they way to go to rehabilitate? I have views, some are arguable............

Now, think again? 'Are most people morons?'

Never been too bothered by either winning friends or influencing people Mr Reason but I do think - and have always felt - that most people are morons. They don't think in depth, give no consideration to facts or opinions other than simplistic slogans, lead dull lives, have little or no interest in learning or thinking and vote by what simplistic headlines tell them to do.

They are generally totally selfish (and why not). I also feel most people are decent, honest and kind. More tolerance would come through greater depth of thought.

But letting the majority decide anything except what directly affects their lives is a mistake.

JK2006 wrote:
Never been too bothered by either winning friends or influencing people Mr Reason but I do think - and have always felt - that most people are morons. They don't think in depth, give no consideration to facts or opinions other than simplistic slogans, lead dull lives, have little or no interest in learning or thinking and vote by what simplistic headlines tell them to do.

They are generally totally selfish (and why not). I also feel most people are decent, honest and kind. More tolerance would come through greater depth of thought.

But letting the majority decide anything except what directly affects their lives is a mistake.

If "most" people are morons then that is normal and it is you that is out of step.

In The Know wrote:
honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
It is a one way street for those (in all countries) that don't have the cash for going abroad. I think this is what causes a lot of the resentment.

... but I thought (your side) kept saying these "immigrants" arrived here penniless - desperate to take "our" jobs?

These are simply people moving to find a better life for themselves and their families - something which millions of Britons have done by emigrating to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa etc. In fact you don't have to go that far ! Huge numbers of Scots moved to England to find work (mines / steel works at Corby etc). They used to blame the Irish, and the Jews ... now its the turn of the EU citizens.

There would be no jobs for these people to do if the dolers did them !

You know what will happen next? The moaners and groaners will get their way and then they will complain they can't afford their staple diet (chips !) because the cost of picking potatoes in Lincolnshire and Cambridge has quadrupled !!!!

What do you mean, "my side"? I largely agree with you about immigration actually. I was happy enough to work all over Europe myself so why shouldn't others do the same if they can?

I don't think I have ever said that immigrants are penniless. It has got to be expensive to move abroad wherever you are from, surely?
I suspect that some immigrants have worked and saved very hard to get here, and I don't think people here have the incentive to do the same when everything is provided for them.

We need morons to do the mundane work that the rest of us don't want to do. We pay them lowly wages and, to keep them happy, the law stated that everyone is entitled to certain days - Bank Holidays - off. Since then EU law has determined everyone is legally entitled to a further 20 days holiday.

In today's society there is no logic is making them particular days, and, in many industries - hospitality, retail and essential services - they don't get to take the specified days as holiday.

But it seems to work ok, but is by no means perfect!

In The Know wrote:
Pattaya wrote:
Because of EU rules on free immigration many are lucky to have a job at all

Then they can take advantage of the EU rule on free migration - its NOT a one way street !

It's a lot easier to move here from a poor country,than for us to move there.
I won't go into technicalities,but I've lived and run businesses in many places abroad,and never once got any help with rent etc.However there are ways round the government's ban on benefits to new immigrants,they can get help instantly if they do it right.

OK. Not going to argue, you explained, I offered an alternative view.......

Maybe this issue is the word 'moron'......most definitions define a 'reduced mental capacity'......your point of view doesn't suggest mental incapacity, it suggests a selfish thought process and a view of life dependant upon thier social mobility...........Morons is not the term

Maybe try Dullards? Ignoramouses? Working class? I'd like to propose 'Pleb' but I'm not sure that fits.................and it would be more trouble than its worth, even if I didn't say it

Mr Reason wrote:
OK. Not going to argue, you explained, I offered an alternative view.......

Maybe this issue is the word 'moron'......most definitions define a 'reduced mental capacity'......your point of view doesn't suggest mental incapacity, it suggests a selfish thought process and a view of life dependant upon thier social mobility...........Morons is not the term

Maybe try Dullards? Ignoramouses? Working class? I'd like to propose 'Pleb' but I'm not sure that fits.................and it would be more trouble than its worth, even if I didn't say it

I think of "moron" to mean someone who is being deliberately stupid.