I have a lot of fond memories as Toys'R'Us as a kid (even then, never bought anything) but I went there last year because I had to get a board game for somebody and I thought it'd be a good excuse to take a look around again. Honestly, hadn't changed at all. Apart from more LEGO, it was the same as it was in 1999. The layout, the decor, the tills...it was astonishing.
I only really visit town centre high streets maybe 3 or 4 times a year (i.e. pedestrianised strips that run from one end to the other and tend to include an increasingly empty and run-down shopping centre, rather than say a village or small town that's adjacent to a road) and they seem to get worse every time I go. As a shopping experience they're awful. You're in another bloody Tesco Express or M&S Food or whatever and it's fine. You step outside and it's grim. Poundland, PoundWorld, Wilko, Pound Stretchers, Cash Converters, Iceland, a million betting shops, Chicken Cottage for when even KFC is just too extravagant...I use these discounters, the bargains can be exceptional, but even the most optimistic person has to admit as a shopping experience...I never get any joy from being there, let's put it that way.
I know someone who wanted to move their partner and child to London. She doesn’t earn a lot a year (about £5,000, if not less) but owns her own house (worth at least £425,000) and has savings of £50,000. He’s also worth a lot (American), but that’s exempt. Wasn’t enough! The savings threshold demanded was now in excess of £62,000 in her bank account. Mind boggling.
They’ll get there in the end (I’m sure he’ll give her the money and then she’ll have to sit on it for 6 months or come in on some other visa) but if you’re not hitting the £18,500 yearly pay threshold (more I think with a kid) the system is clearly broken and needs to be reworked. There is no logic to it. That you can effectively be worth combined well in excess of half a million and still be considered a potential drain on society or be deemed incapable of funding yourself is preposterous.
Did anyone else in the South East receive UKIP's latest piece of propaganda? It was a small booklet complaining about career politicians ruining Brexit and how Teresa May has agreed to an exit bill with nothing in return yet guaranteed.
Of course it had a picture of Farage grinning smugly on the back page; totally undermining the point it was trying (and failing) to make. Shame a decent percentage of people in my area won't have the intelligence or will to see the irony.
Last edited by Drumstick on Fri Dec 22, 2017 8:33 am, edited 2 times in total.
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