grumpy old men with mercs. will we survive?

[HERBIEMERCMAN]

hi everyone, you may have watched the tv programme about grumpy old men. well i never thought i would be supporting them but recently i have been thinking about the uk. tonight my thoughts were trigerred by a leading american wall street philosopher who predicted we would in time be a nation in comparison to iceland today. mind you if we do get much poorer there will be more old mercs in circulation. jeremy clarkson will have set up "top gear" in china. to be serious our gas and oil are running out, our once rich fishing grounds are fished out ( not by the uk fishermen), our water supplies are owned by germany, the future nuclear power stations will be owned by france, we have very little industry compared to other key nations, our youth do not want to work, twenty years ago we had 20 people working for every one on benefits, currently this is now 7 to 1, brown sold our gold reserves on the cheap, with the best technology we can feed 30m people, we have 62m, our roads are full, hospitals, dentists, schools etc. to survive we must start engineering ourselves out of this mess, we need for the fit but lazy people a work or starve policy, we need to start an emigration plan before our tiny island sinks, herbiemercman.

 

[popuptoaster]

i dont mind if all the grumpy old men emigrate, it'll make more room for us cheery folk.

 

[carlsson20]

I've been trying to get my Lady to move with me to Kefalonia for the last 3 years, the weak £ and tumbling house prices have just about finished that dream off

 

[hairyg]

Of course we grumpy old men will survive, we have the necessary skills.

We were brought up to eat left-overs, we learnt to repair things instead of throwing them away, we remember how to work even if we don't any more.

The cheerful young will be lost when they can't get ready meals from the supermarket, buy a new mobile phone when the old one no longer works or have write a letter because their e-mail has been suspended.

I have been asked "Where is the motor to drive all this?" by a youngster of 40 something when viewing our watermill. The idea that things can be mechanised without using electricity is just one example of what the bright young things need us grumpy old men for.

However, the main reason there will always be grumpy old men is that it is the natural progression from naive young man.

 

[popuptoaster]

dont lump all youngsters in the same, i know a young lad in wickford who built his first trike at 14 and is restoring a mk1 escort at 16, he makes all sorts of stuff, my daughter has just turned 7 and has been helping me modify cars ever since she could stand up, she may well lose interest as she gets older but she'll have learnt stuff by then, i'm sure im not the only one trying to pass these things on to youngsters.

 

[robzrob]

I think there'll be a big panic about oil, so innovation in renewables will really take off and then windmills, solar panels, etc will be so cheap and efficient that dragging a load of oil halfway across the world and burning it to make electricity will be relatively expensive so the price of oil will plummet so we'll be able to keep our Mercs going on and on.

 

[jberks]

Yup, we're all doomed.
Truth is, most of us are pretty adaptable. I'm on my 3rd career (4th if you count taxiing) and if I need a 5th I'll do that too. I watched a "that was the week that was" from the late 60's where Frost gave a monologue about the UK being screwed. "Last one out turn off the lights" was banded about in the 80's. The UK was bankrupt in the 70's. We're still here and have had a few good times along the way.
Watching the news the other night they were on about city centres and how 30% of shops will close in the next 12 months. Apparently the real worry is that unlike the 90's where phone shops and coffee shops sprang up to fill the gaps, there is no white knight on the horizon this time. Isn't hindsight great. Makes it look like we knew mobile phone and coffee shops were going to emerge in 1991. We didn't have a clue. The rise of the financial sector that kept us going for the last 10 years - who saw that coming (or going!). Economists have been predicting the end of the UK and the US for years. There are always new threats. This time its china and India. Lets just say I've worked with both countries and I'm less nervous as a result. The UK and US are all about innovation and new ideas. The east is all about copying.
So, 2 conclusions. 1) we'll be fine - don't know how but we will. and 2) I watch too much telly!

 

[Myros]

there's always a future in Tv for us

I'm the same age as Clarkson, I think I can drive better, and I have to be better looking
( who couldn't be?). I can do grumpy at an international level, and I like cars as well. Any offers.

 

[popuptoaster]

I watched a program about fusion power generating the other night, was very interesting and definately makes the future look brighter, it could end the need for "renewable" energy systems and make elctricity clean, safe and cheap within the next 30 to 50 years, cheap electricty means cheap hydrogen so maybe great cars will be with us for a while yet.

 

[MarkCL]

I watched a program about fusion power generating the other night, was very interesting and definately makes the future look brighter, it could end the need for "renewable" energy systems and make electricity clean, safe and cheap within the next 30 to 50 years, cheap electricty means cheap hydrogen so maybe great cars will be with us for a while yet.

Unfortunately they've been saying this about fusion for the last 30 odd years or more and despite some $30 billion or more in investment it's so far turned out zip in the way of usable tech

Spend the same money on developing things like solar power satellites though and you'd have something really worthwhile. The sun is pumping out more energy every minute than we could ever need, will be doing it for the next 4 billion years or so and it's free! Just need some way of reliably getting that down here. I can't help thinking that if they'd spent that $30 billion on that research we'd all currently already have much cheaper, greener electricity! They had working test models of this technology back in the 60's it's just that no-one has ploughed any serious money in to developing it - looks like everyone was scared off by the large costs of launching them etc despite the huge payback potential. Go figure :roll:

All just MHO of course

Cheers,
Mark

 

[popuptoaster]

the Uk spent more on text mesaging last year than the whole world put into fusion research, the verdict of the program was that there is a 50% chance of a succesfull fusion power generating system within 20 years of serious funding being put into it and the cahnces get much higher in the years after that, its already been proved to work for very brief periods, and the effort now is to get it working longer so that it can put out more power than it takes in.

I'm no expert obvisouly, but they were saying its baout the same techniacl challenge as putting a man on the moon was relative to current technology and only requires money to speed it up.

its on iplayer as it happens, worth a watch, i have seen the presenter in other things and he seeems enthusiastic and fairly unbaised.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hr6bk/Horizon_20082009_Can_We_Make_a_Star_on_Earth/

 

[HERBIEMERCMAN]

popuptoaster is an optimist ( his cups are half full not half empty), it's nice to have this to offset the current gloom. if somone offered you one of the state of the art hydro cars which arni is promoting in california, would you miss your old friend and the noise and smell of your diesel engine. did you know fred dibanah lived close by me and he once said after a few pints that the pleasure he got from his steam tractor going up a steep hill was better than sex and a plate of hotpot. herbiemercman.

 

[Xtractorfan]

Yea old Fred eh.. reminds me of an old guy who used to say when he first got married he couldn't wait to get the knickers of his new young wife, but now as he was much older and wiser he could now wait until she had knitted a pair..

 

[jibcl500]

hi everyone, you may have watched the tv programme about grumpy old men. well i never thought i would be supporting them but recently i have been thinking about the uk. tonight my thoughts were trigerred by a leading american wall street philosopher who predicted we would in time be a nation in comparison to iceland today. mind you if we do get much poorer there will be more old mercs in circulation. jeremy clarkson will have set up "top gear" in china. to be serious our gas and oil are running out, our once rich fishing grounds are fished out ( not by the uk fishermen), our water supplies are owned by germany, the future nuclear power stations will be owned by france, we have very little industry compared to other key nations, our youth do not want to work, twenty years ago we had 20 people working for every one on benefits, currently this is now 7 to 1, brown sold our gold reserves on the cheap, with the best technology we can feed 30m people, we have 62m, our roads are full, hospitals, dentists, schools etc. to survive we must start engineering ourselves out of this mess, we need for the fit but lazy people a work or starve policy, we need to start an emigration plan before our tiny island sinks, herbiemercman.

Too late a global expert has published global info that states the polar ice caps will melt in as little as 20 years, the seas will get deeper, land mass will shrink, the temps in the hottest countries will kill and as a result the UK wil grow to 80 million in the next 20 years.

Basically what he said was we are all ****ed.

I think its rubbish.

The british empire!!!!!! not anymore.

jib

 

[Alex M Grieve]

popuptoaster is an optimist ( his cups are half full not half empty)

There is a third, and less well known option - the cup was over-engineered!

Fred knew a thing or two about hotpot!

 

[hairyg]

Fred Dibnah lives on in spirit

The spirit of Fred Dibnah is alive and well in darkest Worcestershire. At the foot of the oldest motorsport track in the world there lurks a watermill.

When The Midland Automobile club renewed their 99 year lease on the hill at Shelsly Walsh the new lease included all the farm buildings, including the watermill. A group of members set out to restore the mill to working order, starting 2006. One of those members had a passing resemblence to Fred and the group soon came to be known as the Dibnahs.

The term has now turned into a semi official description of the team and is used with respect, especially as the mill has now ground its first flour for over 80 years.

All the "Dibnahs" left full time employment some time ago, some of them voluntarily, and ages range from late 50's to over 75.

All are classic car enthusiasts, some are active hillclimb competitors and all are proud of being known as Dibnahs.

If you are interested you can follow the progress and look back at the story of the restoration at the Shelsley Water Mill Society website

And in case you hadn't already guessed, I'm proud to be a Dibnah