Lawson/Saatchi Verdict

Lona and Elegran to you both. What for? For having common sense to spare and for making me

It is very easy to condemn everyone else for not caring and not doing anything. To involve them and present your concerns to them in a way that inspires them to be concerned too, enough to make changes, is much harder.

It means putting yourself in their place and asking yourself what will motivate them to take possession of the problem and do something about it, then constructing posts, articles, speeches, to get your view over to them without alienating them.

That takes a lot of hard work and tact - by the time you have perfected the technique you become a statesman, like Nelson Mandela.

I agree - are we meant to" sharpen up our act "just in case "he" is watching - a bit like a Mum keeping an eye on the kids to make sure they are playing nicely!!!

The problem with some posters is that they don't actually discuss anything, just make a flying visit, have a rant about us not discussing serious issues then fly out again!

There are about half a dozen, usually men, who do this

I think he has a point about ife in general, but a rant is not the way to encourage people to discuss the more serious issues.

If I want frothy, then I read the appropriate posts. Equally, if I want serious, then I read the serious ones!

Granted he's being a bit vague but where does he say this post or this forum? I see his comments as being a generalisation about society, not GN specifically...

We don't all do frothy and trivial but are still entitled to an opinion, I think.

Well said Elegran.

Then, Mollie I'd say the way to go about redressing the balance would be to keep posting conversationally about serious matters and add to the threads and posts on that side of the equation, rather than getting all aeriated about what people discuss in "frothy" exchanges. That just puts backs up and ensures that people stomp off and discuss nothing.

In real life normal people talk about unimportant things a lot of the time - listening to conversations on the bus you would think that TV soaps and football matches were life and death affairs. That is what human beings are like. But asking questions about politics and social problems gets the subject out and considered, better than condemning them for being human.

I don't think he means the forum or thread specifically, just media and our general obsession with this sort of stuff generally... I'm with him on all that generally, society is obsessed with all the wrong stuff in my opinion and we overlook the more important things.

You don't sound very happy - HappyMan

And if this thread is 'frothy' why are posting for a second time?

It is possible, you know, to spend some of our time on "trivia" and some on serious topics. If you read more threads than this one, you will see all the things you have mentioned, and more. Likewise in the press. Publicing and debating national and international concerns should not mean completely ignoring individuals.

Society is people. Single units matter as well as institutions.

AAAHappyMan, if we want to concentrate on "this trivia", we will do.
If you don't like it, you are at liberty to look elsewhere for your rants entertainment.

Each to their own.

also but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do!

.com

Having enjoyed the post World War (?) 2 social consensus, we are gradually declining into the early 20th and late 19th centuries, with our SatNavs set on the 16th C and earlier.
Unfortunately we are taking the motorway route, missing out on the pleasant benefits of the great social reformers, benefactors and campaigners.
We are in raw capitalizm, where:
* There is no such thing as society, everyone should be for themselves - cheating, lying and stealing to get what they want;
* Money 'men' rip off personal pension & annuity dependants with vast fees;
* OUR NHS is being sold off to multi-nationals, private equity holders and Sovereign Wealth Funds ('Foreign' Nationalized finance Coys).
* The Royal Mail has been sold to the market at an eye watering discount [£3.30 ==> £5.60 / share]
* Water, gas, electricity, transport, telephones, .... (Our fundamental requirements in a civilized society) are now in the hands of those same overseas, un-accountable (to even our own MPs), profit oriented cyborgs.
* Even the Co-op bank is suspect.
This whole Sachi / Lawson / Grillo affair, is Bread and Circuses, froth on the top of the bitter coffee of the Market Economy, run by anarcho-capitalist. We should be concentrating on how we are being cheated, lied to and stolen from every day, not this trivia.

Your post is rather cryptic Anniebach but I think I get your drift.

You are far from being alone, just in the minority on GN.

I feel quite alone in all this. For Nigella read Diana and here we go again, none of it was my fault.

I was PA for 16 years to a family who were a good deal wealthier than these two. I had the use of their card to make online and telephone purchases for them and a chequebook to pay bills, but there is absolutely no way that I would ever have used their money for anything personal, whether they had given permission or not. To do so in that position would be insane - apart from the fact that it would go against every moral instinct I have, even if I had been given permission I would have felt incredibly uncomfortable : a very dangerous path and one which leaves you, the employee, incredibly vulnerable (it so open to misunderstandings or they could deny they gave permission). On top of that, if it all came to grief, all your experience and professional acumen would come to nought because no one would employ you again. A sad story for everyone involved.

Total , total mess, and all because of the whim of some Ego-centric .

I'll do my best to memorise your posts in future, Iam64

Yes Merlotgran, you are so right. Well, I would say that, because I posted a similar comment on the other thread.

Nigella has a tremendous amount of support but I dread to think what's going to come out now that the Grillos have been 'whisked off' by the newspapers who are no doubt paying them shedloads to dish the dirt.

They've obviously been very close to Nigella over the years. They are acknowledged in her books and one of them has appeared in TV clips. The huge amounts of money they spent were not an issue until Saatchi threw his toys out of the pram. I feel a bit sorry for them as well because they've been used.

Saatchi's daughter must be having a horrible time because I think she was also used by him to criticise Nigella when they split up.

What a horrible man

As a bookkeeper I dealt with corporate credit cards and looked at the statements every month, querying anything that looked wrong. To go years without querying expenditure is unbelievable. Someone must have seen the monthly statements and accepted them.

So the women were correctly found not guilty of theft imho. I would query their ethics and greed, but these are not legal matters. Their father was a mafia criminal and did 15 years for a brutal kidnapping; this came out after the verdict.

Tales of the rich and shameless, eh?

As they have been found innocent that would mean what they have said on the stand as true facts. So has everything Nigella Lawson said on the stand a lie including the denial that she takes cocaine ? I felt so sorry for her as she stoically went into the court to be torn to pieces - that and the fact she appeared to have been married to a violent man.