Rant Thread

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GeoffCapes

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14,000
Apparently, you are just one quick phone call away from success...

View attachment 100294


Gotta get someone to answer the phone first!
Then transfer you to 4 different people who have no idea, and then are told to go on line to fill out an application that you need to speak to someone first!
 
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Banking offshore can be a completely different experience.
Immediate meetings in private with refreshments.
But observing good etiquette, like scheduling appointments etc.
is always appreciated.
Very can-do attitude. Minimal to zero red tape. Thoroughly pleasant
people.
There's a lot to be said for it.
 

Phil H

Member
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4,167
As a born and bred UK resident I've had a personal account with a major high street bank for 50 years; they have details of my work history and property ownership, and for over 20 years the bank has been sending correspondence to the address at which we currently live. Out of the blue I received a demand to complete a declaration of my domicile status, along with a questionnaire which asks when I moved to the USA, how long I've lived there, when I intend to return to the UK, and how much time I spend in the UK. Branch staff advised that they know about the questionnaires but have no idea what it's all about so cannot advise customers. I've not received any such questionnaires from other organisations I bank with. The same bank wanted 3 to 6 months to open a business account, whereas one of the other banks did it in 3 weeks.

Yes I know about money laundering, tax liabilities and all that, and admittedly we did holiday in the USA 4 years ago, but algorithms lack common sense and with the rapid reduction of bank staff it's going to get worse.
 
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Ebenezer

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4,496
I always thought it was pronounced Stephé
Exactly! Who know? ! I quite like the ambiguity and have answered to quite a few different interpretations over the years. It gets quite confusing to all except me when different worlds colide
Eb
 

MarkMas

Chief pedant
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8,927
....Out of the blue I received a demand to complete a declaration of my domicile status, along with a questionnaire which asks when I moved to the USA,...

This is a combination of USA overreach and UK incompetent bureaucracy. The US is requiring all banks worldwide to report on any customer who might have a US connection (so they can try to tax them). The UK banks are complying incompetently, by issuing random questionnaires which, in my experience, can just be ignored.
 
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Stevie Nicks and Lyndsay Buckinhgham is very confusing to me
Did you know she was about to marry William Shatner, but keep her name as well as his?
I will leave you to work that one out. Probably should be in the terrible jokes thread
 
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I'm a primary school governor and we have a Shardonai at the school.
I've heard some whoppers of late, but honestly, that takes the whole biscuit barrel.
Do these parents not understand what they're doing? Are they so lacking in awareness?
Jim Jeffries was right. If you're as thick as pig sh*t and your wife/husband is as thick as
pig sh*t. If you breed, gawd help us. Don't expect to produce a brain surgeon any time soon.
In fact, what you do produce is likely to be a major drag on the progress of the species.
 

CatmanV2

Member
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48,788
I've heard some whoppers of late, but honestly, that takes the whole biscuit barrel.
Do these parents not understand what they're doing? Are they so lacking in awareness?
Jim Jeffries was right. If you're as thick as pig sh*t and your wife/husband is as thick as
pig sh*t. If you breed, gawd help us. Don't expect to produce a brain surgeon any time soon.
In fact, what you do produce is likely to be a major drag on the progress of the species.

I think it's quite romantic. They named their daughter after the thing that brought them together.....

C
 

RSM Masser

Member
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2,437
OK, here goes.

Gender seems to be really important to most people. Small children have a strong sense of whether they are boys or girls, and many insults and other parts of language are strongly gendered, “Come one, don’t be a girl, finish your pint” etc. This does not seem to be specifically about anatomical differences – people do seem to have an internal / mental sense of their gender. The very gammons who are saying, “It is obvious, I just know I am a man” are actually being accidentally woke and saying, “Gender is not just anatomy, but a mental construct.”

If you are a trans person, where your anatomical appearance is different from your mental gender, this is very challenging, given the strength of this feeling we all have about gender, and the power of gender definitions in society. The very gammons who are saying, “We must fight to maintain that there are just two genders, men and women!” are actually being accidentally woke and saying, “Gosh, given the weight we put on gender, it must be really hard if you find you are trans!”

English, like many languages, has gendered pronouns (although not adjectives – apart from blond and blonde, for some reason). So calling a man ‘she/her’ or a woman ‘he/him’ is both grammatically incorrect but also quite insulting for most people.

If you are a trans person, where (for example) your anatomical appearance is superficially male but your mental gender is strongly female, you are likely to be referred to as ‘him’, but find this difficult to accept, as it is just as uncomfortable as misgendering anyone else. This is especially troubling if it is done deliberately, so not due to someone’s appearance but as a deliberate rejection of their gender identity.

So trans people, where their appearance does not match their internal gender, really do need to tell (English-speaking) people their preferred pronouns (and other forms of address) in the hope of being addressed in a manner they are comfortable with.

Non-trans people frequently also express what their preferred pronouns as well, which is a bit unnecessary if their visual appearance is unambiguous, but they do it in ‘solidarity’ with trans people so they are not having to stand out as exceptional, if everyone does it.

This is, obviously, nothing to do with some nonsense like, ‘people want to identify as a toaster or other inanimate object’, which is just an insulting ‘straw man’ attack.



Also, yes, vegetarians and vegans are forking wierdos, but the mystery is why people feel they need to insult or attack them, just because they don't want one of your delicious bacon rolls.

point taken
Still don’t get it,
but respect your opinion -PS the vegans went without.
 

Harry

Member
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1,173
If unaware, I was always taught that 'Ms.' was neutral and therefore the correct method. But had someone referred to you as 'Miss' would you have been offended?

C
I wouldn’t be bothered about being called Miss now, but I know I would have been a bit sniffy about it shortly after getting married and then later in my 30’s. Hence why I made sure Mrs was on the correspondence.
 
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I think it's quite romantic. They named their daughter after the thing that brought them together.....

C
More likely to be Buckfast, Concord or Special Brew :eek:
Does anyone remember Concord wine? Last saw it mid-80's. Came in red and white only.
Never drank it myself, but was very popular with student acquaintances at the time.
Never quite sank that low
 
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OK, here goes.

Gender seems to be really important to most people. Small children have a strong sense of whether they are boys or girls, and many insults and other parts of language are strongly gendered, “Come one, don’t be a girl, finish your pint” etc. This does not seem to be specifically about anatomical differences – people do seem to have an internal / mental sense of their gender. The very gammons who are saying, “It is obvious, I just know I am a man” are actually being accidentally woke and saying, “Gender is not just anatomy, but a mental construct.”

If you are a trans person, where your anatomical appearance is different from your mental gender, this is very challenging, given the strength of this feeling we all have about gender, and the power of gender definitions in society. The very gammons who are saying, “We must fight to maintain that there are just two genders, men and women!” are actually being accidentally woke and saying, “Gosh, given the weight we put on gender, it must be really hard if you find you are trans!”

English, like many languages, has gendered pronouns (although not adjectives – apart from blond and blonde, for some reason). So calling a man ‘she/her’ or a woman ‘he/him’ is both grammatically incorrect but also quite insulting for most people.

If you are a trans person, where (for example) your anatomical appearance is superficially male but your mental gender is strongly female, you are likely to be referred to as ‘him’, but find this difficult to accept, as it is just as uncomfortable as misgendering anyone else. This is especially troubling if it is done deliberately, so not due to someone’s appearance but as a deliberate rejection of their gender identity.

So trans people, where their appearance does not match their internal gender, really do need to tell (English-speaking) people their preferred pronouns (and other forms of address) in the hope of being addressed in a manner they are comfortable with.

Non-trans people frequently also express what their preferred pronouns as well, which is a bit unnecessary if their visual appearance is unambiguous, but they do it in ‘solidarity’ with trans people so they are not having to stand out as exceptional, if everyone does it.

This is, obviously, nothing to do with some nonsense like, ‘people want to identify as a toaster or other inanimate object’, which is just an insulting ‘straw man’ attack.



Also, yes, vegetarians and vegans are forking wierdos, but the mystery is why people feel they need to insult or attack them, just because they don't want one of your delicious bacon rolls.

I really don't care much about gender politics. My only preference is that I go to bed with a Ms/Miss/Mrs and don't wake up with a Mr. I'm very much a man's man and women sense this. Women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women,................but I do deny them my essence. ;)

We aren't too far off from science being able to blend humans with machines or other species. Indeed, we already do this, with pacemakers, artificial hearts and prosthetics etc etc. The choice to be non-binary will have vastly more choices as science advances.

Vegetarians, vegans and vulcans are easy. Our stone age brain demands we be part of a tribe. Tribes then, meant food, warmth and protection: Our base needs. Maintaining our position in our tribe requires constant reinforcement and one of those means is differentiating ourselves from other tribes. Our tribe could be the soccer team we support. Where we work. Or both. Or, our tribe could literally be, our tribe.
 
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