Paul Brownjohn @Paulos_the_fog@social.cleverlibre.org
Retired software engineer & woodworker.
Anglo-francophone.
Detest tories. Subscribe to green, leftish radical politics but not to any particular political party!.
Love the EU and all it stands for, moreover, I spent the last 10 years of my career working at an EU agency.
Enthusiastic photographer, especially wildlife and most especially butterflies.
Slightly knowledgeable gardener.
Atheist; loathe almost all religions and pity the people deluded enough to follow them. I make exceptions for Buddhism as it isn't really a religion in the strictest sense of the word as it doesn't postulate the existence of any god, and Jainism which is the epitome of peace.
For anyone who is interested, my header photo is of the most stupendous sunset I have ever seen. On the right is the waterfront of Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on the left is Thailand and in the middle, acting as the border between the two countries is the mighty Mekong river.
Joined Nov 2022
Whilst I was very relieved when was I told at the High Courts of Justice in London that Mr Justice Jacques (memorable name as I was living in a French speaking country at the time) had declared me bankrupt whilst I was having a jolly nice lunch at the rather quaint pub over the road, I felt a pang of guilt for all of 10 seconds as I could have paid the debt off had they only been sensible about the sum I owed and accepted an arrangement. However, my hatred for the gobby clerk assigned to my case was much amplified when I phoned their office and told them that I had been declared bankrupt to which she replied "You can't do that - I won't accept it"
I couldn't help saying "So you, a jumped -up, low grade civil servant, consider yourself a higher authority than the High Court in London. You carry on with your nonsense and I'll contact the Official Receiver"
Many years ago, just after the Y2K problems had (or in some cases hadn't been) solved, I couldn't find any computer contract work in the UK as most companies had exhausted their IT budgets fixing Y2K. I was offered work in Brussels so I took it.
Anyone who has done it, will know that moving from one country to another is highly stressful and very disruptive. Somehow, in the process of doing that I forgot to put in a tax return and in due course I was contacted by someone claiming to be the inland revenue. In fact it was that lowest, foulest scum of the earth, a firm of debt collectors! The were working for the Inland Revenue but the way they phrased their spiel, they made it sound like they were from the HMRC. More or less every time they phoned, I said I was unable to pay the sum they were asking for immediately but would be happy to pay the sum off monthly which offer they invariably refused, parroting the phrase "if you don't pay immediately, we will bankrupt you". This went on for several years.
They kept on adding sums to what I owed them including adding tax 'estimates' for years when I hadn't even been living in the UK; finally they sent local bailiffs to my house in Belgium. When I spoke to my accountant in the UK about it he said they are claiming you owe them £50,000+, in reality you owe them less than £10,000 however the time I will need to spend to prove that to them will cost you another £5,000, so do you have around £15,000 looking for a home as, if not, I'd bankrupt yourself then you don't owe them a penny piece.
That's exactly what I did and, as the High Court of England have no jurisdiction outside the UK I was never obliged to pay them a single penny!
The thing that really annoys me is that I offered repeatedly to pay by instalments and that offer was refused not by HMRC but by the foul scum working for the debt collectors pretending to be HMRC. By the time, found out that the debt collectors were not, in fact HMRC it was too late, they had already put the bailiffs in; that left me with no choice other than bankruptcy.
However, my accountant at the time said that HMRC are frequently irrational, stupid and stubborn. They often refuse offers of arrangements to pay even when it is abundantly clear that the exchequer would be far better off accepting such an arrangement than by bankrupting the debtor. I'm sure in many cases this is exactly what is happening today!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
Okay just one more #MastoAge poll for now. People keep on expecting a parlor trick, and this is about as close of one as I think I can manage, if all goes well. (It probably won't.)
Select your birthday.
The problem is very simply solved by allowing would be refugees to apply for asylum in any British Embassy and/or to set up a branch of the Home Office in Calais where asylum applications could be processed in a safe and civilized manner! The French would never allow that, I hear you scream! Well in reality, the French offered just exactly that but the British rejected the offer!
The reality is that the British do not want to be seen to be welching on their obligations under international laws and treaties but they are as racist as fück and really don't want to accept all those nasty, dirty forriners! So whilst maintaining the illusion of being a caring country, the British govt does everything it can to avoid taking a single refugee.
As things stand, there is no legal route whatsoever available to any legitimate refugee to make an asylum claim in the UK. Now the govt of tory filth have decided that anyone attempting to enter the UK by an 'unofficial' route shall be denied the right to asylum by law. This means that there is no legal route to claim asylum in the UK at all!
Of course, tory filth only understand tory-speak!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
As the #winter approaches so another screw on the vice of the #NHScrisis looks likely.
So far the #Tories refusal to try & settle the #doctors' strike action looks to have 'cost' the NHS around £1bn... which puts the winter uplift of £200mn offered to the NHS by the Govt. into perspective.
Anyone who thinks the #Tories have any intent other than to wreck the NHS have not been paying attention over the last years.
Much as it pains me to say so, Starmer is a completely worthless fückin PRICK!
In order to 'send them back to the EU', he would have to get the EU's agreement; something that the EU has already refused, point blank!
"In the time it takes you to get the point, I could stone a donkey to death with ripe figs!"
Translated (badly) from the original French but a fine insult just the same
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
@HeavenlyPossum
The one historical precedent that has been repeated over and over again when the environmental status quo of a civilisation gets disrupted is famine.
People need to understand that's what's coming if we don't work to *prevent it specifically* in addition to taking drastic emergency action to stop burning fossil fuels.
Not something hard to predict or easy to imagine wouldn't get you personally, like sea level rise or extreme weather events.
Something simple.
No. Food.
Businesses like yours are the future!
It is abundantly plain that limitless growth is impossible if the earth is to survive. However, most businessmen and management in larger businesses have been weaned on an addiction to growth that is probably going to be more difficult to give up, than a bad heroin habit!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
Tickets please!
Better than what?
I have no idea what the situation is in Ireland but if it isn't good then they are very much an outlier in the EU community!
I live in Luxembourg; I have an electronic vaccination card (and a paper one) and I and I am prompted by email to make an appointment with the appropriate service provider every time a vaccination is due.
Chicken pox vaccine is widely used here as is it's adult equivalent, the vaccine against shingles (of which I am due a dose in a couple of weeks).
All of this, I hasten to add is completely free - unlike most medical services in the USA
In my view, NI should be levied on ALL personal income via the income tax system, whatever the source, with the possible exception of pensions below a certain level.
I don't understand the way mortgages work in the UK. My colleagues in France get fixed rate mortgages (if they want one) for the entire lifetime of the loan! A colleague remortgaged in around 2014 as his current loan was at well about the then current rates and he was offered the new load at 1.15% over 22 years fixed rate for the whole period.
If the French banks can do that, why cannot the British banks do the same?
Because they are crooked venal bastards? No, couldn't be that, surely!
Indeed not but the average diet in most western European countries is way, WAY better that the crap Americans habitually eat. Along with a great many Europeans, I cook everything from fresh - don't eat toxic junk food like McD's and avoid high sugar beverages like sodas.
Obesity is a problem throughout the western world, to some extent, but in the USA it is an epidemic! The French are not often obese nor are the Dutch or the Germans or indeed any other European races!
Paul Brownjohn
boosted
@joekoffee Good Morning Joe☕️☕️☕️ and Happy Monday to you ✌️
Retired software engineer & woodworker.
Anglo-francophone.
Detest tories. Subscribe to green, leftish radical politics but not to any particular political party!.
Love the EU and all it stands for, moreover, I spent the last 10 years of my career working at an EU agency.
Enthusiastic photographer, especially wildlife and most especially butterflies.
Slightly knowledgeable gardener.
Atheist; loathe almost all religions and pity the people deluded enough to follow them. I make exceptions for Buddhism as it isn't really a religion in the strictest sense of the word as it doesn't postulate the existence of any god, and Jainism which is the epitome of peace.
For anyone who is interested, my header photo is of the most stupendous sunset I have ever seen. On the right is the waterfront of Vientiane, the capital of Laos, on the left is Thailand and in the middle, acting as the border between the two countries is the mighty Mekong river.
Joined Nov 2022
