Things you never could have predicted

[Zincubus]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

That my precious vinyl collection that I was persuaded to more or less give away would make a comeback

[Arran]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

Blaming Blair is disingenuous because the plan for freedom of movement of people in the EU was hatched back in the early 1970s - if not earlier - and Ted Heath fully well knew about it at the time. After the fall of the Berlin Wall it would only be a matter of time before eastern European countries would be accepted to join the EU - when rather than if - and their citizens would have an open door into Britain.

[amethyst]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

I blame Tony Blair for the surge when he was PM.More & more sneak in by all means,it is not about being RACIST but REALISTIC.We simply cant go on like we are.With the living wage introduced next april at £7.20 if we do not control then we will have more wanting to come to soft touch BRITAIN.Making it more difficult for the born & bred to find work

[Arran]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

This is probably a bit of a contentious issue...

The torrent of eastern European immigrants who have arrived in Britain over the past 10 or so years. Back in 1972 when Ted Heath proudly announced that the Common Market was only a trading arrangement and eastern European countries were firmly behind the Iron Curtain nobody thought for a moment that 40 years later hundreds of thousands of eastern Europeans would come swarming into Britain and the British government couldn't stop one of them because of EU freedom of movement of people legislation. If there was going to be an invasion from eastern Europe from a vantage point of the 1970s then it would have been the Red Army. Fast forward to the 1990s after the Berlin Wall has fallen and still nobody in Britain has predicted mass immigration from eastern Europe.

The comparison between 21st century eastern European immigration and New Commonwealth immigration during the 1960s and 70s is very much a like vs unlike comparison. The New Commonwealth immigrants came from the former British Empire and were up against immigration controls. The eastern European immigrants come from countries that Britain has had little to do with and walk into Britain through an open door.

[HG]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

Boom and bust in the housing market

Seriously?

[amethyst]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

Boom and bust in the housing market

[Richard1978]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

Team GB medals at the London 2012 olympics

I knew there would be a home advantage, but not exactly how much.

Mine would be the tabloids being able to brainwash otherwise normal people into believing stuff that is obviously complete lies.

[amethyst]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

a brit winning wimbledon

Team GB medals at the London 2012 olympics

[darren]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

a brit winning wimbledon

[Richard1978]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

I never thought the VCR would be so short-lived.

30 or so years is a good innings.

At one time it was only going to be a recording medium, with pre-recorded all being on laserdisk, but people didn't want to buy 2 machines to do this.

[goodbyetomaria]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

I never thought the VCR would be so short-lived.

[screamqueen]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

Lol it's true. The terms get longer and longer. I'm pretty sure that one will soon become LGBTASEOTS (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Asexual or Somewhere Else On The Spectrum). I work in an environment where people are ridiculously PC and get right on their high horse if you don't say the latest term. I once got into trouble for calling school kids 'children' instead of 'young people'. Sheesh!

I'm a lesbian myself and I can't remember all the acronyms, I think the current one is QUILTBAG ...

I wouldn't have ever thought self-employment would be as widespread as it is now, when I was a kid the only self-employed people I knew were tradesmen and now so many of my circle have become contractors in different fields

[Trickyvee]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

That the daughter of one of my high school teachers would end up teaching me burlesque! Did not know she was his daughter until a couple of weeks ago. I remember him going on paternity leave when she was born!

[amethyst]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

Health and safety conscious I read how much money has been paid out to pupils who have a fall in school etc.One instance a boy went into a goal posts had a small pay out for that, a child was pushed into a window and got £10,000 compensation.There was no sueing when I was in school if you had a fall you just put up with it

[victorbrunswick]

Re: Things you never could have predicted

It's this sort of nonsense which, I believe, is deliberate: Arbitrarily declare some innocuous term to be offensive, then keep changing the "accepted" term for something every couple of years so that nobody can possibly keep up with it all (even if he wanted to). Then they can just keep pointing the finger and shouting "Witch!" every time somebody just uses the normal English language he grew up with.

That's the problem. The rules keep changing, often in midgame, that you never even get a chance to learn the old rules.