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StephenA3's bio
What to say here? Well I’m from the North East of England, married, father of two and grandad of one (so far). I ran my own business for many years but have now managed to downsize my client list so that I’m essentially retired but still do a little bit of consultancy to keep my hand in. Apart from my granddaughter and living vicariously through my children, I enjoy travelling, reading, Suduko and DIY and being semi retired means I get to do All of these things in the company of my long suffering wife of almost 30 years. -
StephenA3's latest comments
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29th Oct 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Should over 70s be banned from voting on the country's future?Ah yes but when they fought they were the young people of the time. Not many 70 year olds were climbing into the landing craft on D Day lolViewDate:
29th Oct 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Should over 70s be banned from voting on the country's future?Ah the arrogance of youth. I remember it well, looking at all those old fuddy duddies in the senior management, keeping us young Turks from claiming the top jobs to which we were entitled. Now of course I am an old fuddy duddy and look at the naive youngsters trying to reinvent the wheel and thinking their new ideas will revolutionise everything when in fact they are just variants of things we tried 30 years ago. It’s a sad fact if life that old people DO understand young people because we were young ourselves but young people rarely appreciate old people because they haven’t walked in their shoes YET.ViewDate:
28th Oct 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Should smart motorways be scrapped?We drive on the M1 and A1(M) on a regular basis and several sections are “smart” As far as we can see they are designed to cause tail backs and congestion. A typical scheme dreamt up by traffic planners, sitting in their offices, who love bikes and busses but hate cars and lorries. One section of the A1 has a 50 limit on it as an accident reduction scheme, there is inevitably a tail back to enter the section at peak times, sometimes several miles long, it’s simple maths, if a section if road carrying its full capacity of vehicles at at 70mph comes to a restriction where speed is reduced to 50mph then vehicles arrive at the entry point faster than they can go through the restriction, result queues and tail backs.ViewDate:
23rd Oct 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Was Prince Harry right to bare his soul on television?why “Far right extremists” there seem to be plenty of far left extremists, climate change extremists, religious extremists, republicans, monarchists, vegans, etc, everyone is an extremist these days but of course ‘far right’ is the ultimate, unacceptable extremism isn’t it? I blame Margaret Thatcher/Tony Blair (*delete to chose your own bias)ViewDate:
23rd Oct 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Was Prince Harry right to bare his soul on television?This couple lead a life of unimaginable privilege. Let them try living on the breadline, have to chose between paying the rent or eating, see their children dressed in second hand/charity shop clothes rather than designer gear and worry about affording a week in a caravan in Skegness rather than a private jet to an exclusive private island. BUT there is no such thing as a free lunch, they have the luxury and the privilege, the platform to express their views and the ability to lecture us lesser mortals so they have to accept the scrutiny that comes with it. I have no sympathy for any of them. Just man up and get on with it.ViewDate:
23rd Oct 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Would you like a general election?I want a general election but I don’t want a second referendum. We have had one of them and the result was leave. I don’t have the words to describe the loathing and contempt I have for our political class, they are all self serving, pond life in my opinion, including Nigel Farage, but I will vote for a Brexit Candidate if we have one in my constituency, which voted overwhelmingly (70%) to Leave and yet has a Remain supporting MP supposedly representing us. Democracy in the U.K. is a sham and needs to be totally revised. Get rid of the House of Lords and replace them with 100 elected Members and who are banned from standing on Party tickets but stand as individuals. Replace first past the post for the House of Commons and introduce a meaningful system where every vote counts. The Scottish Parliament system looks good. First past the post in elections to Westminster in Scotland produces a massive SNP Bias, the same electorate for the Scottish Parliament returns a much more balanced mix of representativesViewDate:
29th Aug 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Do you support Boris's decision to suspend Parliament?Love the use of the rhetorical in your post. Ask a question (but without using identifying punctuation) and then answer it. I totally disagree with your first answer. Boris is not afraid of the democratic process, he is afraid of Parliament using devious ways to undermine democracy and deny the legitimately expressed desire, in a democratic referendum, to Leave. I totally agree with your second answer. What kind of politicians do we have in this country? I too despair of the choices we are offered in this country. Politics is now an exercise in choosing the least bad option. There hasn’t been a party that I can identify with for many years, I’m a middle class, self employed, white, heterosexual male living in the North east of England. I feel every party despises me and at best sees me as a useful source of tax income which needs to be squeezed dry.ViewDate:
29th Aug 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Do you support Boris's decision to suspend Parliament?I am ashamed that politics in this country is now so corrupt and the political class so out of touch with many of the people they claim to represent that the Remainers are still resisting the results of a democratic process because they didn’t get the result they wanted. Many people voted Leave because they saw their future and their children’s future as hopeless and so ANYTHING was better than continuing on the path this country was currently on, All political parties in this country represent the ruling class and none represent the ordinary man or woman in the street. Tories look after old money and Labour new money, no one looks after the people with no money and they all hate the middle class.ViewDate:
29th Aug 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Do you support Boris's decision to suspend Parliament?The entire Remainer campaign has been an abuse of democracy from the moment the referendum result was announced. To complain about Boris’ tactics is total hypocrisy from the remainers who still don’t accept they lost the referendum and still treat Leavers like children who need to be protected from their own stupidity. Sadly I think the wounds inflicted on this country by the Remainers spitting out their dummies will take longer to heal than any damage Brexit might cause. Even after we leave the remainers will continue their attempts to destroy this country so they can say they told us so!ViewDate:
6th May 2019StephenA3 commented on:
What is your main health concern as you get older?Well let’s face it, something is going to get us in the end! All those people who eat sensibly, exercise regularly and follow all the healthy lifestyle advice still end up just as dead as everyone else. All you can do is delay the inevitable !!ViewDate:
1st Mar 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Does the UK need another political party?A massive change of faces? There maybe individuals who come and go but the parties would continue and the people who came in would be the same as the people who left. The end result of the change, business as usual for the professional politicians. Of course don’t forget that many of those faces that do go from the House of Commons then just reappear in the House of Lords or get highly lucrative Quango posts where they can continue making decisions for the rest of us but without even the superficial level of a accountability givn by an election every 5 years.ViewDate:
1st Mar 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Does the UK need another political party?They don’t care what their voters want? They are selfish? Of course they don’t care and of course they are selfish. They are MPs so having total contempt for the people who vote for you, being totally selfish and looking out for your self interest are key parts of the job description. Sadly if these individuals did resign and a by-election was held then the electorate (who bothered to vote) would just send another equally detestable candidate to Westminster based on the colour of the rosette they were wearing.ViewDate:
1st Mar 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Does the UK need another political party?Politician is now a career choice. Politics no longer attracts people who want to give something back or make a contribution. It attracts those who want to get as much out of it for themselves as they can. This of course is often not just money (although as our society uses wealth to measure success then they do acquire as much cash as they can get their grubby hands on), it attracts the egotists and those people who want to be in charge and who know better for everyone else what is good for them. I’d do away with elections all together. Every five years select 200 people at random (use the NI Register maybe) and make them MPs for 15 years. After this they get a pension for life but can never be involved in public life again or enter any government building. I’m fairly sure a random sample like that would be more respresentative of the general population than the current group of public school old boys and oxbridge graduates who are increasingly the pampered offspring of politicians who are making seats in Parliament a family business.ViewDate:
28th Feb 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Have motorists forgotten their manners?There was a classic series of experiments using rats that showed the problem with density. Four families of rats were placed in a large square enclosure. In the centre was a pile of nesting materials, food and water. Each family took a corner and stared nest building. The central “store” of food, water and nest materials was kept constantly full so there was no competition for them. The four families coexisted quite happily until the nests grew close enough to touch each other. There then started a constant battle between the four, So drivers are just rats competing for inadequate space on the roads. This is why building more roads isn’t the answer. All that does is produce more cars. Motoring is effectively too easily available. Make petrol a £100 gallon and the roads will empty overnight.ViewDate:
28th Feb 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Have motorists forgotten their manners?I’m a BMW driver and I don’t lane hog or tail gate, I always acknowledge people who let me out of a side road (well I will the first time someone does) and I leave a gap at roundabouts and road junctions even when there isn’t a yellow box telling me I should (do they still teach learner drivers about yellow box junctions? They are one thing very few drivers seem to know about these days).ViewDate:
28th Feb 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Does the UK need another political party?We had a referendum on the voting system back in 2011. We were offered the choice between the status quo and a meaningless change that would effective,y make no difference. The two main parties hate PR as it would cost both of them seats. The Liberal Democrats promoted PR until they got into power and did the maths for themselves, all of a sudden PR was replaced by “Alternative Vote” The only thing you can 100% rely on with politicians is that the central driving force of every single one of them is self interest.ViewDate:
8th Feb 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Brexit - what happens next?Well my vote is to get out and negotiate any deals afterwards. The longer we stay in the longer the uncertainty will last and the longer we have to anticipate what ifs and maybes. Let’s leave, like we voted to, then we can deal with actual consequences not what might happen.ViewDate:
8th Feb 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Brexit - what happens next?Not sure what my age has to do with things? As We are exchanging views on a SilverSurfer message board then over 55 is probably a safe bet. You are right about not working in the car industry though, do you work in the coal mines, steel works or ship building ? All industries in the area where I live that very few people are concerned about losing their jobs since there are no jobs left to lose. The industrial policies pursued by all governments over the last 50 years have led us to where we are today. If you think these policies have brought us to a good place and things have been getting better for all this time then you are in a minority amongst my family, friends and acquaintances. I equate staying in the EU with Einstein’s definition of insanity “continually repeating something over and over again and hoping for a different result from the last time” we have tried 50 years of the EU, time to stop the insanity and try something different. It’s the only way things can get better. Staying in the EU is just more if the same and a continued decline.ViewDate:
8th Feb 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Have motorists forgotten their manners?I think your awareness point goes right to the heart of the matter. Very few people seem to look ahead and try to anticipate situations like blocking junctions. I remember the TV ads for “yellow box junctions” telling people how they should be used. The tag line was “yellow box junctions - making us all do what the good drivers have been doing for years” As regards use of rear view mirrors and looking behind then there are even few people doing that than there are looking ahead. We live close to a busy hospital and so blue light ambulances are fairly common on local roads. Blue light in the rear view mirror and and two tone horns have me looking for somewhere to Pull over to let them past. However, these days this quite often results in an angry honk of the horn from the car behind, them overtaking and making rude hand gestures as they pass. They then bock the ambulance! However, I’m in my late 50s so as a grumpy old man I shouldn’t be allowed on the roads anyway!ViewDate:
3rd Feb 2019StephenA3 commented on:
Brexit - what happens next?Without doubt the whole process has been handled very badly. As soon as the referendum was over the Remain campaign started to attack the result. Project fear failed to get the Remain vote they expected but they went into overdrive afterwards, producing more and more lurid predictions and acting as a fifth column weakening the UK negotiating position by playing politics and undermining us from within. Now they want leaving delayed so a second referendum or a general election can be held. A perfect example of political double speak. Business is being damaged by all the uncertainty (they tell us) so let’s prolong the uncertainty a bit longer, so business can be even more damaged I presume? Theresa May should just say 29 March is leaving day, we go with the best deal we can agree. If we don’t agree a deal then No Deal is the default. That’s it. On March 30th we are then dealing with what HAS happened, no uncertainty, no “what ifs”, no predictions or possible effects and no more uncertainty. -
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