Is intolerance getting worse on GN?

The last government had to stop face to face decisions and interviews about sickness benefits due to the pandemic, but then never restarted it afterwards, a big mistake.
They replaced them with interviews over the phone but assessors knew that a face to face interview acted like a deterrent ( heard this on the radio) whereas people didn’t mind a phone call.
Then there’s the big rise in approval rates, assessors are paid a bonus to get through as many claims as possible and the quickest way to do this is to approve the claim.Then there’s the fact that interviews on the phone weren’t recorded.
It would be easy enough to get back to personal interviews and record all phone conversations.
Then there’s the fact that it isn’t easy to not receive any more sickness benefits when you then start work and don’t need it.
The DWP tell people they have to wait to be reassessed can you believe! This can often take years as reassessments were stopped during the pandemic and never started properly so down from several hundreds a day to about 50 now.
There were other poor management things but I can’t remember them all now.
The present government need to get back to how things were done before the pandemic.

Norah

Never worked out why people care to their hair. They have hair, are not bald.

Surely more important issues plague the world.

I'm not posting a picture of my hair but it is vaguely rather like these two.
Not such a great colour though. I blame it on being made to eat too many crusts as a child.

suep1953

Allira

suep1953

nanna8

If I wanted to I could actually vote in the British elections as I still have citizenship. I am interested in the mess that is British politics just now because I was born and bred there and have relatives there, including a brother in law and sister in law. I am also very interested in American and New Zealand politics because I have relatives there, too. Is that a crime ? I have never, ever,said Australia is perfect , it certainly isn’t . I voted the current mob in but they are not crash hot, lots of things they do I wouldn’t but then I’m not a politician. If people don’t like comments from overseas, feel free to ignore he , I wouldn’t be offended in any way.

Sorry Nanna8 you can't vote in UK Elections, you need to be registered to vote in the constituency in which you live

commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8985/

Yes, you can vote in UK elections as an overseas voter.

www.gov.uk/voting-when-abroad

Overseas voter eligibility
British citizen living overseas can register to vote as an overseas voter if they meet one of two conditions:

They were previously registered to vote in UK elections, including as an overseas voter, or
They were previously resident in the UK before moving to an address abroad.
How to register
Overseas voters must apply to register in the local authority of the last address they were registered to vote or were resident.

Thanks Allira, everyday is a school day on GN.

😀

I knew because I was trying to persuade members of my family to vote in the referendum but they said no, they felt they shouldn't. My argument was that at least one might want to come back and work in Europe as she had done previously.

Oreo 👍🏻

I've just looked at the Offending Thread and can't see that there was a clique or any mean girls trying to bring the thread to a close, rather an attempt to keep it rather more light-hearted in an attempt to reach 1,000 posts and therefore bring it to a close.

^ I am on the lookout for any dashing new male MPs, but if they are there I haven’t spotted them yet.^
Have you found any yet, Casdon? 😁
I haven't!

lafergar

petra

Galaxy

The ones chanting at Glastonbury fir example will without a doubt think they are the good guys. Sometimes people are wrong about what is good and kind.

I would suggest that the majority of them don’t even know where Gaza or Isreal is.

Why would you think that?

Listening to some of the chanting morons being interviewed.
It was obvious that some of them aren’t the sharpest knives in the drawer.

Paying people to assess disability on a bonus scale is madness.
Therese Coffey was on Peston last week, and she said that the rate of UC is so low that people can't live on it, so they try to get PIP, and instead of using it to help with their disability they buy bread and milk with it.

If that is the case, the obvious answer is to increase UC, but that brings us back to the unfairness of someone on benefits getting more than their neighbour who gets up early to work a hard shift on minimum wage. It's obvious to me why people resent that. I think the rise in the MW is a step in the right direction, but it probably needs to be higher - it's either that or keep claimants in poverty - and I think the top up benefits were a very bad idea. I fully understand that people need them, but that's because employers are allowed to get away with paying too little, and landlords charging exploitative rents. Maybe the housebuilding will help with that, but not if the houses being built are all detached 4 beds instead of affordable ones.

I don't know whether people get PIP too easily. I know a couple of people who get it and really do need it for mobility aids and so on. They both had to jump through hoops to get it and stressed every time the renewal interview was looming, but I also know that a relative of my daughter's ex claimed to have agoraphobia but regularly turned up at their house asking for a lift home after she'd spent the day at the shops and been out for lunch. I also know someone who did an MA whilst claiming enhanced benefits as he'd left work because of stress. I couldn't help thinking that if he could travel in for lectures, do all the required work and cope with the stress of assignments and exams he could have held down a job of some sort.

Both of those people got various grants and discounts as a result of their benefits, which meant that they'd have to earn a reasonable wage to maintain their lifestyle. I think that sort of thing should stop. I'm not sure how it could be done though, as nobody wants to see people with incapacity forced to work and getting worse.

I wonder whether a more 'kind' approach to MH has made people see themselves as disabled when they wouldn't have in the past, and they genuinely believe that they are unable to work? I do know that as soon as anyone says something along those lines, however, they are accused of being intolerant and discriminatory.

But I was one of the 'uppity' posters (and that word says it all really) who objected to the way a group took it on themselves to decide that they would close the thread by 'chatting' and excluding anyone trying to make points of their own. In fact, I was the one who used the term 'mean girls', and I got several PMs thanking me for saying it.

I've just looked at that and yes, recollections definitely do vary.

a group - what group? Are you accusing posters of being in a clique? Sending private messages to each other?
I got several PMs thanking me for saying it. 🤔

I'm struggling to see how turning the thread into a rather daft chat was wrong and also how some posters were excluded from that by others How can one poster stop another posting?
Unless they report them and they get banned or suspended, of course.

As I say, opinions differ. Which is fair enough, is it not?

I didn't send PMs, but it seems that they were sent by the people who escaped is aware were annoyed at 'uppity' posters expressing their opinions.

It is very easy to exclude others - you just ignore them and carry on the conversation as if they aren't there until the thread runs out of posts. It's happened more than once that I've seen.

And as I said, I didn't report anyone. Anyway, as has been pointed out, this could easily become a TAAT which will not help anyone. Maybe I shouldn't have responded, but the passive aggressive tone of escaped's post about 'uppity' posters and a group of disgruntled people who were trying to get the thread to 1000 posts goaded me into doing so.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.

Well, I say never been reported, but I mean of course never been deleted. Do the moderators tell you if you are reported and but not delete?

My own personal opinion is that people who chat amongst themselves and deviate from the topic are disrespectful and when someone's dares get back to the subject of the original post they are ignored.
I really do not find it acceptable to do this, it's rude and bad manners.
I agree with Doodledog opinions differ on this.

The subject was in Chat, as is this one.
The entire thread, mostly revolved around the subject - the trouser suit. Even the final page 40 is full of pictures of garments and discussion about Cefinn and other styles. No one deviated much at all, other than some weird talk about kittens?? 🐈 Very few vilified AR.
Rudeness to other posters was not evident from the majority because for most, that is unacceptable.

However, I do apologise for my use of the word "uppity" on this thread, because thinking about the word afterwards, I got it very wrong. (Put it down to being in France for weeks and speaking only French!) I meant "irritable" . At least on GN when I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong.
But I think, as Oreo said, enough is enough or tolerance here from readers will go out the window.

Wyllow3

It’s actually very bad form to bring up comments made months ( possibly years? ) ago on an entirely different thread - but if you must insist on doing so perhaps include exactly what you said too - for context.
And I doubt anyone is. ‘too scared’ to report as no one knows who’s reporting- it remains anonymous.

So yes, "righties", do do some things that are difficult to handle - and upsetting. def not just "lefties", of which I am one, but I have never ever been reported

Well I’m reporting you now for bringing up a thread about a thread.

Wyllow3

I recall so clearly just after I had joined criticising Farage in broad terms ie not mocking, but his politics, the connection with the right in the USA.

Kandinsky retorted "get a life".

I was too afraid to report it as I was new. Clearly an unknown at that point, as I didnt of course know anyone else either

So yes, "righties", do do some things that are difficult to handle - and upsetting. def not just "lefties", of which I am one, but I have never ever been reported.

Why would you report that?

Raficha, conversations in real life deviate.

In 1987, I wrote xxxxx and xxxxx retorted xxxxx, and we got reported for xxxxx, but we made up and lived happily ever after, just occasionally bringing up irritations 40 years later!
Sorry, Magenta8, I'm not really getting at you and the introduction of ATAAT.
It's very hot here. Going to get 37° today.

Why would you report that

She’s calling me a ‘righty’ and referring to me as not a very nice person.
It’s a personal attack.
But HQ can decide. I’ve left it in their hands.

We should probably leave the other thread now. People can read it and decide for themselves, and although some posts have been deleted it’s clear what went on. Posters can interpret that in their own way and reach their own conclusions one way or another. A good reason for non-deletion in my view.

Kandinsky

*Why would you report that*

She’s calling me a ‘righty’ and referring to me as not a very nice person.
It’s a personal attack.
But HQ can decide. I’ve left it in their hands.

I might be wrong but I think Kittylester was asking Wyllow why she would report your post Kandinsky ?

Ah right - ok thank you.

As regards my controversial above re a retort of "Get a life, I've asked the mods to change it to "a right winger".

Believe me I was scared, and very, very upset: of course, I tried for. some time to find the thread.

May I say, of course there are many posters like myself at that time, new, very needy of community and interested in the subject: but of course since the post, as it ^immediately followed mine, refereed to my post.

I can't ever forget it: talking me to "get a life", it felt cruel to a newby.

If we say something like "get a life" should we not think of the effect?

When I first joined I was badly rebuked by a very popular poster who is now deceased, some will know who I am talking about I felt terrible and like a shy little first day at school girl I actually didn’t post for a very long time something like a year after that so I think it always been so

Wyllow3
What thread did I say this on? I’d like to check it myself.

Snap, Bluebelle. I can't even remember what I said.

But, I don't think so many people did similar things.

And, it seems more personal now.