Get It All Off Your Chest!

[Robusto]

Go on, then!

Here's an easy start:

An outright smoking ban in public places was a draconian attempt to stop tobacco in its shoes. Pubs and bars should have been allowed to opt IN to remain smoking establishments - and there should have been non-cigarette smoking bars in towns, too.

[daverave999]

I hate to derail the thread with the second post but I disagree completely with the first sentence. The Government would never try to 'stop tobacco in its shoes' simply because of the the ten billion quid plus per annum taxation it generates. I agree with the rest though.
More likely, this was an incompetent interpretation of European legislation that as I have recently seen, can be made to work elsewhere quite easily.

[whisky77]

Smoking ban.

Robusto,
not sure about the cigarette smoking bars in town, however i would agree that an individual should have the right to choose firstly if he wants to smoke, and secondly there should be a designated area in certain public places which would allow him to excercise these rights.
Unfortunately in this wholly PC country which we live in it seems that sometimes the minority exact their revenge on the majority by implementing these regulations, which have a direct effect on how people live/enjoy their lives on a day to day basis.If the same premis was instigated in relation to alcohol consumtion then i think the peasants would revolt.

Definately a case of the tail wagging the dog.

[RedRum]

My fiancee was involved in the company that did the research for the EU that lead to the ban... she did the Quality Assurance part. The thinking behind the ban is this: it is mainly for second-hand smoking and exposure of staff in smoking places. I agree with this reasoning, as I have worked as a waiter and bar staff when smoking was allowed. The concerns about the health of the smokers themselves, although very prominent, were second in importance in the report.

On the other hand, I am not sure (I will check) if you are allowed to have a proprietor's license, as in the US. If you are the owner of the establishment and you do not employ staff, you should be allowed to have a license for a smoking area. I want to the Occidental Bat at San Francisco, and it was like that (lovely place by the way). The two owners were working at the bar, they did not employ any staff.

[Robusto]

May I say we should change rants randomly?
I want to get on to Health and Safety legislation.

[nicwing]

and another thing!!!!

OK so here's my rant, no reason why we shouldn't have three hares running..
About 4-5 years ago I went to Chelsea to see an international game at the invitation of a supplier. I have to say that what I saw there, in the corporate seats convinced me that I never wanted to go to another football game, ever. The pure hate, bile and the obscene langauge made me wonder why people pay a fortune for a season ticket.

My sister works in Football these days and pointed out the new FA respect campaign witha great advert featuring Ray Winstone, if you have missed it I suggest you go and find it on YouTube, it shows that the attitude I saw at Chelsea pervades to kids fotball.

Then today on the tube in London I saw a loutish dad with his teen age son in tow, giving lip to an eighty year old frail old women because she dared to mention that he had hit her with his bag, and he went on to abuse her.

I have come to the conclusion that it's the discusting behavior that emenates from football fans which is the poluter of this once great country and which is gradually bringing us all down. It extends to road rage and yobs on the streets of England.

How can the US have games as hard as Ice Hockey and American Football without the same malice being spread from the terraces into society at large?

Phew, got that one off my chest!

[daverave999]

Health and Safety legislation.

Good luck

[Robusto]

Cheers Dave lol.

In the 80s and 90s, I took countless coach and minibus trips of schoolkids to France, Holland and Germany. I often drove the minibus myself from Kent. I made intelligent decisions about welfare and insurance cover.

In the naughties, if I need to take a minibus of kids to a competition at another school two miles down the road, I have to fill out risk assessment forms, I have to have the trip approved by the County Outdoor Pursuits team by submitting EVERY detail EVERY time to a malfunctioning website, I have to have letters that cover insurance and the need to have personal permission to tell a doctor he/she can inoculate a kid if necessary.

I have to take a full minibus driver's test regularly.

I don't know. It is probably for the better, but I'm tired of all the form filling, and I take kids out far fewer times on educational trips than I did on the past.

I had to give SIX reasons on a health and safety risk assessment when I took some kids to Dover docks last year and the form said something like 'What would be the dangers to children if you took them to a dockside?'.

I'm not allowed to drive the minibus without another member of staff present, and it should be a woman.

I back all the anti-paedophile stuff, but is a drag to do all this.

[cj121]

The old risk assessment stuff, as Health and Safety in general, is a self perpetuating business isn't it: creating jobs, titles and revenue for all sorts of tw&ts that never existed before. No doubt fuelled by the litigious society we've had thrust upon us from the US "..No Win...No Grin" eh.

My part-time post working with da youth on the streets was plagued by risk assessment (RA) a few years back. The pressures to produce such has eased over the years as 'generic' RAs are applicable to certain 'off-site' activities and service providers often have their own.

I remember when things first started heating up (about five years ago) and it was RA this and RA that. We even had to consider the risks in going to a local park with young people, and we MET them in the park. Faarked up or what?

Nice pic Bryan BTW

[daverave999]

It's likely that very little is down to legislation. It's the insurance companies that dictate what you can and can't do, and what forms must be filled out before they will cover you. It's the compensation-culture that has brought this about, not a huge raft of regulation from HSE.

H&S law is pretty broad but not very prescriptive. If the law is so risk-averse, we'd never have anything as dangerous as nuclear power stations or the like would we?

I wanted to get THAT off my chest.

[G-man]

OK so here's my rant, no reason why we shouldn't have three hares running..
About 4-5 years ago I went to Chelsea to see an international game at the invitation of a supplier. I have to say that what I saw there, in the corporate seats convinced me that I never wanted to go to another football game, ever. The pure hate, bile and the obscene langauge made me wonder why people pay a fortune for a season ticket.

My sister works in Football these days and pointed out the new FA respect campaign witha great advert featuring Ray Winstone, if you have missed it I suggest you go and find it on YouTube, it shows that the attitude I saw at Chelsea pervades to kids fotball.

Then today on the tube in London I saw a loutish dad with his teen age son in tow, giving lip to an eighty year old frail old women because she dared to mention that he had hit her with his bag, and he went on to abuse her.

I have come to the conclusion that it's the discusting behavior that emenates from football fans which is the poluter of this once great country and which is gradually bringing us all down. It extends to road rage and yobs on the streets of England.

How can the US have games as hard as Ice Hockey and American Football without the same malice being spread from the terraces into society at large?

Phew, got that one off my chest!

Sorry to say there are fathers in The U S A that have been caught on tape at a peewee football game tackling the other team kid .All because he want his kid to win < Now thats fu_ked up. Go to a phillie Eagles football game and wear another teams jersey and more then likely U will get your ass handed to U. Not beat up but maybe put in the hospital.
Go to a baseball game and cheer for the other team and U will most likely wear all the food in the ball park home.
A nephew on my wifes side was comming home from school and was in his own yard when a pack of 12 Afro Americans attacked him because he was White , beat him up and hit him with a 1" x 3" across his back and head till he got to his front door and let the German Shepard out. There are more strories but I get so F_ckin pissed of when I think I need to have a licience for my dogs.And some people are allowed to Breed with each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! F_ck them.Sorry

[Boss Hog]

Sorry to say there are fathers in The U S A that have been caught on tape at a peewee football game tackling the other team kid .All because he want his kid to win < Now thats fu_ked up. Go to a phillie Eagles football game and wear another teams jersey and more then likely U will get your ass handed to U. Not beat up but maybe put in the hospital.
Go to a baseball game and cheer for the other team and U will most likely wear all the food in the ball park home.
A nephew on my wifes side was comming home from school and was in his own yard when a pack of 12 Afro Americans attacked him because he was White , beat him up and hit him with a 1" x 3" across his back and head till he got to his front door and let the German Shepard out. There are more strories but I get so F_ckin pissed of when I think I need to have a licience for my dogs.And some people are allowed to Breed with each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! F_ck them.Sorry

Dont apologise, that's what it's here for.
Count yourself lucky our "pack of 12's" carry knives and will shank you at the drop of a hat just for gang credits.

PS. " Go the Mets!!!, Yankees can kiss my arse!"

[G-man]

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a F up world.

[Robusto]

Internet Forums for musos.

Thank God we carry on soberly here. I've just read this on a musicians' forum and copied and pasted it. The whole thread is appalling, and I'm thinking of chucking it in.

This is just a snippet from one 'musician' to another:

Oh and wanker since you're blaming me for something I aint done I've passed on your House details on to the a splinter republican group who will be taking the measures they promised when that photo appeared on Redwatch a couple of years back. Aint life grand. It only took a phone call to find out where you live. Make threats be prepared for the backlash son. Oh and don't go running to the old bill either I've kept this thread as evidence if needs be. Watch your back son. Boom Boom!

I got my band place through this site, but any two-bit flautist starts to think he's on the set of Scarface.

[cj121]

Edited: Just done a bit of general research around that area and ooh, heavy stuff isn't it. All new to me that malarky.

Give it a wide berth mate.