Chavs
 

I am now nearing the end of my fifth decade and consequently have lost touch with present day youthspeak and slang. One of the newer words I have heard quite often is "CHAV". Not quite understanding the meaning of this I typed it into Google, one of the sites found was "Chavtowns". I typed Accrington into the Chavtowns search facility and was directed to the following link: http://www.chavtowns.co.uk/modules.p...rticle&sid=907.

Is this an accurate picture of Accrington and Hyndburn in general?

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I'm none the wiser. Who or what are these "Chavs?" Are they some variation on Gypo's/Travellers? Burnley fans? Unemployables?

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The letter on that site is spot on. Me and a colleague have made a pastime out of chav spotting. We used to be avid people watchers, but chav spotting is more fun. Belive me Accy, Blackburn and Darwen have no shortage of them. I think it is an accurate reflection of most towns, even the Ribble Valley has a chav element. It's such a shame that standards such as good manners, looking after your environment by not littering etc and petty violence seem to have somehow been lost over the years. These standards are probably buried amongst the benefit and insurance claims forms that these people believe are their right to have, when they have contributed nothing to the system.:)

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From The "Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary"

Chav (BrE, slang) a young person, often without a high level of education, who follows a particular fashion.

For the full definition follow this link:http://www.oup.com/elt/global/produc..._archive/chav/

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I've just read 3 articles there relating to Accrington and they do not sound like the town I live in. It's no wonder outsiders get a bad impression. Surely it can't be as bad as that?

Yes we complain about the abundance of pound shops and lack of imagination re Broadway but it isn't quite the dump depicted there.

As for all the "Chavs" locations - I know someone who works in one of those locations described and she is an honest hard working young woman.

They reckon you can buy a house round here for under £20,000. Is that possible do you think?

I also know people in the FernGore and Scaitcliffe areas who are respectable decent people. I live sort of in between the two here on Willows Lane. Yes there are scruffy houses but I think they are in the minority (annoyingly a couple are too close to me for my liking) but it doesn't mean everyone is the same.

From that site the impression I get of "Chavs" are people on benefits with an "attitude" and think the world owes them a living, young mothers who look barely old enough to have babies with one or more in pushchairs and/or toddling alongside, obligatory jewellery that you'd think they would have been better spending their hard earned dole on more constructive things like proper food and usually spoiling for a fight.

Come to think of it - they also sound a bit like some of the crowds Busman gets on his private hire outings bringing crates of lager onto the coach and spilling it all over the place.

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you can buy houses in accrington for even less than that lol

btw the dictionary was been polite in its defintion of chav as the term chave basicly means scum

i use the name chav1 as a joke as accrington and surrounding areas like burnley and blackburn etc are known over the country as chav towns full of poorly dressed scuffy and unwilling to work youths which if you take a look around accy centre during the week you will see plenty of

spare change guy for instance would be classed as a chav :D

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Don't get me started on this one!!!!!!!!!

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So I take it that the "Pollard"character featured in the bbc Comedy series "Little Britain" is a chav-ette?

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in general the desription off dress code for a chav would be tracksuit bottoms , trainers thick gold chain ( usualy low quality ), burbery check patterned shirt , baseballcap ( usualy worn backwards) and the manditory staff dog on the thickest chain lead made or rope with makeshift leather handle( probably made from dads belt)

there are many variations of chav but when you see one you cant miss em lol

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The baseball cap is worn the right way round, but at a definite angle.

I was also led to believe that they don't often wear shirts, which is why the baseball caps are Burberry.


I wouldn't worry too much about it, try Hailsham and Tunbridge Wells, both towns that I have lived in. You'd think that they were all down here!

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I was wondering that too Willow!

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Does this mean anything?

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They have to wear Burberry somewhere, and if it's not the shirt, it has to be the baseball cap

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We have just been served by a definite chav in a cafe this dinner time. :rolleyes:

On the menu they have chicken kiev and chips (served with either peas or salad) and I'm partial to a chicken kiev.

After waiting for ages ( we were going to give them another ten minutes and then leave if no-one had come to take our order) up strolls Waitress Chav, complete with enormous earrings and peering through her fringe.

Me: Do you have the chicken kiev?
Chav: We 'aven't got no chips coz chip pan's broke.
Me: But do you have the kievs?
Chav: You can 'ave em with summat else like mashed or roasted or summat like.
Me: I'll have the roasted please.
Busman: (orders sausage and egg) and instead of the chips........
Chav: We 'aven't got no chips coz chip pans broke.
Busman: Yes I know. I'll have the roasted. And two cokes please.

Off she goes. Re-appears a little while later with a huge plate bearing two small chicken kiev's and three and a half roast potatoes looking rather lost.

Me: Shouldn't there be a salad with that?
Chav: (slowly) Oh yeah.

Off she goes again with the plate and brings it back with salad on. Busman's meal also arrives. We wait for the cokes, we wait a bit longer, we wait some more. Chav starts to play with her mobile phone. Busman attracts her attention (eventually)

Busman: We ordered two cokes.
Chav: (even more slowly)Oh yeah.

She goes to the fridge, gets two cans and plonks them upside down on the table inside two glasses, wanders back to play with her mobile phone.

We didn't leave a tip. :D

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What did I say.... They're everywhere!!! Chav spotting can be such fun. There should be some sort of selective breeding programme to keep their numbers to a minimum, but unfortunately these people are not usually choosy about who they breed with..:D

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And where was this temple of the culinary arts, Willow? Are you going to name and shame? Oh go on.

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I bet it has'nt got a Michelin Star.

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So now we have townies (tracksuit bottoms and rockports), goths (all dark and moody), bo bo chic (hippy influence) and chavs. Whatever next??? :rolleyes:

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The article is spot-on. Accrington and indeed East Lancashire has become the worlds rubbish tip for distressed humans (if you can call them that)!!

I know there are some nice people around, and that not all young ones are brain-dead, but it doesn't tale long to see what a mess the whole area is. Especially when you either live or visit an area that is so much more ....nicer!!

Chaves...such people make life more difficult...and test you to your limits (and beyond). Perhaps I'm just a little bit (or a lot) old fashioned...and believe that society and good manners are something that we should uphold and extend our society to make improvements, in life and in our daily habitat.

Sorry Accy............................I just don't know how it could be changed...and even worse...there is nobody to ask...they've all become CHAVS!!

THOSE WHO THE GODS WOULD DESTROY.....THEY FIRST MAKE MAD!!!!!!!!!!!!

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actualy you are spot on

take a look around accy center its full of teenage girls with beer bellies walking around or sitting on street corners with their bottle of WKD

ime not that old my self ( ok ime not a teenager) but if girls were like this when i was a teenager i would probably be celibate or gay lol

like i said i am no spring chicken but on a few occasions i have had to go up to my mums house and threaten teenagers because they told my mum to F off when she asked them to stop sitting on her wall drinking booze and smoking drugs

violence dosnt solve anything but will do as a second best because the police never come when you ring them :mad:

lol as i type this i looked outside my window only to see a teenage girl throwing up in the street while her chav type boyfriend looks in the air like hes not with her :rofl38:

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Charlie even likes chavs

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I suppose that would be morning sickness, would it?

Seriously though, I have to agree with Darby on this. Over the last forty years or so there has been an appalling drop in standards of behaviour and civility. We have all seen it. The main cause is the dreadful standard of education offered in schools. Kids of my generation were not taught how to behave themselves in public, and they in turn have passed that lack of knowledge on to their children who in turn have passed it on to the current generation of school children. Every generation becomes a little more ignorant, rude, obnoxious, selfish and inconsiderate, until you have todays crop of stalwart citizens whose only thought is for themselves. Who believe that the world owes them a living and who will scream and scream and scream until they make themselves sick if they don't get it. Who do not understand that the good things in life come at the cost of hard work.

Blame for the current situation must also be placed fairly and squarely on the shoulders of the capitalist system; "Live now-pay later", Sell eveything you have to buy this product, and the next, and the next, ad infinitum, ad nauseam! Because you are not cool if you don't posess more gadgets and gee-gaws than any sane rational person would know what to do with.

There has got to be something wrong with a society that is willing to pay a pound for a drink of water that is no different from the stuff that comes out of the tap, and all because it is in a cool shaped bottle or some half-witted celebrity has been seen drinking it. There is one from the makers of Lucozade currently being advertised on tv claiming to be more hydrating than water. Do they think we are all stupid? Well, I guess that enough of us must be to make the expenditure of millions on marketing this water profitable.

I am now going to go and repeatedly bang my head against the wall in frustration.

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Too true A-Bob...

There are a lot of old sayings that have stood the test of time and are now more appropriate than ever.

A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE EASILY PARTED

EASY COME..............EASY GO

YOU CAN'T GET BLOOD OUT OF A STONE

EVERY YEAR THERE ARE MORE FOOLS THAN LAST YEAR

And my favourite:

YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE SOME OF THE TIME,
YOU CAN FOOL SOME OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME,
BUT YOU CAN'T FOOL ALL OF THE PEOPLE ALL OF THE TIME!!!

(Although I'm begining to doubt it!!)

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My personal favourite is "You can't expect much where there isn't much to start with."

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The sad thing is does anyone know what can be done about it?

I've just noticed this afternoon that they also have burberry prams.

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SO NOW WE HAVE

CHAVS

CHAVETTES

AND FINALY CHAVLINGS :eek:

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Sorry to say, you're so right.....
Came here just about 40 yrs ago, as a bright-eyed teenager....
Why am I still here???

Only answer..... my family!!!

Certainly not the surroundings!!!!!!!!!!

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Hi A-B...its been a while - hope you are well!

You are spot on saying that people aren't taught how to act in public and that in turn their kids then carry on acting in such an antisocial fashion....however I cant agree that this is because of educational standards in schools. I've seen the job that teachers do in schools and they are excellent professionals carrying out a thankless task faced with uncooperative parents and unbearable legislation. Thirty or even twenty years ago teachers just taught the subjects/curriculum - now they are expected to be surrogate parents basically...or at worst babysitters. Surely the passing on of basic manners and social etiqutte is the domain of the parent...and the lack of parental accountability is the cause of much of what the streets of this country experience on a daily basis. That and the ease of which benefits are made readily available to feckless, workshy morons who aren't fit to look after themselves...nevermind children.

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Hey Ceejache, good to see you back here, where have you been?

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Lets just say BT and myself have not been seeing eye to eye on a number of arrangements concerning broadband service reliabilty and cost thereof.....ongoing.....keep well.

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That sounds like fun - not!

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This might be an interesting experiment:

Chantelle Chav is sixteen years old. Currently she lives at home on a council estate with her mother and several siblings. Chantelle is just about to leave school, she has no qualifications and can just about manage to read The Sun (reading age 11.). In a few weeks time she will give birth to her first child. The child will be of mixed race, though Chantelle has ended her relationship with her child's father and now has a new boyfriend, Dean.

Dean is seventeen years old and, like Chantelle, left school without qualifications. He is functionally innumerate and illiterate (Dyslexia). He also lives at home with his parents.

Chantelle and Dean have both been before the courts on several occaisions for minor offences and Dean is currently completing a 100 hour Community Service Order for possesion with intent to supply a class B drug.

Chantelle will have to leave home when her baby is born and she would like to set up a home on her own with Dean. Neither of them have a bank account or savings.

What sort of assistance can they expect from society?

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Don't know on that one, but there are some interesting facts and figures here about Accrington
http://neighbourhood.statistics.gov....REA=accrington

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I could not agree more. When was parental responsibilty transferred to schools. Why do some of us blame schools for not teaching children about how to live and act around others. It is and always has been a parents responsibility to guide and mould children into decent law abiding citizens, not schools. They can help but cannot be expected to do it all.

I think the problem is due to the ease with which people can live without having to work. No-one who is capable of working should receive money from the state for nothing! Why are we paying people to sit on there backsides all day doing nothing for society? We have town centres and parks ( look at Rhyddings park ) full of litter and neglected by a Council who claim they have no money to keep the place in good condition.

We have a massive DSS paid workforces doing NOTHING. Lets make use of them.

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But when Chantelle and Dean [see A-B's last post] have their lil' babby, who will teach the poor mite social responsibility, when it's quite obvious the parents aren't willing to or able. School should not be a stand in parent, but for a whole generation it's the only constant in their lives, and lf they don't learn more thah the 3R's there [hopefully], society is doomed, doomed, DOOMED...........

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Why should I be working to support people like this?

There is no need to be pregnant at 16. Granted accidents can happen, there is no 100% safe method ( except not doing it).

Should people unable to support a baby be allowed to keep it?

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The sad truth of the matter is that Chantelle and Dean, although fictional characters, are becoming more common. Well, it goes without saying that they are common, but what I really meant was that they are a more frequently occuring phenomenon.

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OK so the Baby Chav has now been born, it is a little girl, 7lb 4oz and Chantelle has decided to name her Britney-Martine. She originally wanted to name the child Britney-J-lo but was persuaded against it at the last minute because she could not decide how it should be spelt.

The government has awarded the child a £500 Child Trust Fund payment (for low-income families with household income at or below the full Child Tax Credit income threshold of £13,480) plus £16.50 per week child allowance.
There is also a Sure Start Maternity Grant payment of £500.
Now Chantelle and Dean must start looking for a home.

To help with the cost of setting up their love nest they have applied to the DSS for an interest free Budgeting Loan of £1000.

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Fortunately for Chantelle and Dean HBC have offered them a two bedroom council flat.

This will cost the tax payer £3,566.92 pa in Council Tax/Housing Benefit.

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Anybody know what the percentage is of people in Hyndburn who get Council tax paid for them, and what this equates to in money?

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I don't know the percentage but the amount is £26,107,000 for 2005/06

From the census ...

"In August 2000, there were 720 Jobseeker Allowance claimants in Hyndburn of which 31 per cent had child dependants. The Job Seeker Allowance (JSA) is payable to people under pensionable age who are available for, and actively seeking, work of at least 40 hours a week. Figures produced here are those only for people claiming income-based JSA.

In August 2000, there were 6,460 Income Support claimants in Hyndburn, of which 3 per cent were aged under 20. Income support was introduced on April 11th 1988 and can be paid to a person who is aged 16 and over, is not working 16 hours or more a week, and has less money coming in than the law says they need to live on.

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WOW - that can't just be the amount of council tax benefits, can it?
Or is it the total of all benefits pain in Hyndburn?

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Accoding to the leaflet "Information about the Council Tax Bill" issued by HBC with every Council Tax Demand that is the amount they say they spend on Housing and Council Tax Benefit payments.

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Can you pro-rate it and exclude it from your council tax payments?

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I don't think you can :D. Why should we pay for those who are too lazy/stupid/can't be bothered (delete as you see fit) to work.

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Eh......???

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I understand that there are a few genuine cases, but there are a hell of a lot of people claiming when they could actually do something about their situation

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Hmmm...6460 of them in 2000.

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Of course, under New Labour proposals, if Chantelle and Dean decided to stay on at school until they were eighteen then the government would pay them £75.00 per week, each! Bit of an improvement on unemployment benefit.

But if you want your children to go into tertiary education then you have to pay for their fees and maintenance.

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Methinks there is something very wrong in that.
If you area good parent and are responsible enought to make sure your children get a good education and want to go on to higher ed. then you have to fund it.......while the irresponsible louts get hand outs right, left and centre.

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Major thing wrong is that it seems to pay to sit on ar*e than go out to work, actual workings out they do to compare work against non work at jobcentres is that the diff could mean a £10 - £30 better off but loose on other benefits - like NHS n free dinners take that into account it drops the figure n the attitude is whats the point?! Shame but true, what they wanna do it make it worth working n see the pride in working to provide rather than reliance. Tho another consideration should be taken to change is the working structure to work within family committments so ppl can work n raise families as the family structure has changed dramitically so should working environments, lessen the excuse. Atm im on a new deal course to try n get back into employment - thats the easy bit..... finding the hours/rate of pay suitable to fit in with my kids is the difficulty n im in an area where childcare facilities are slim to none n thats so i can train never mind when i get into a job to fit in with school hours only....even tho i am working at another school on placement n im just about doing my min hrs p/w n with a struggle balancing kids n work. Still lots that need to be done im afraid to improve working assessability.

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My 16 year old stayed on at school in the 6th form and majority of her friends get EMA which pays them £30 pound per week, my daughter does not get anything because we earn too much money, some of these kids don't turn up for all their classes they attend just enough to qual;ify for payment each week. Louise goes to every lesson and has had to get herself a weekend job so she can go out and enjoy herself. If they give it to one they should give it to them all.

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Thats not fair Fibi, if they cant be arsed doing the lot then they shouldn't get paid owt, i know of a few ppl on my course who only did it to get the extra allowance but the course hasn't even paid me non of that yet n im still there but bet they got their cheques b4 disappearing to thin air n the rest of us are fuming cos we all agree they shouldnt of got anything till they at least make attempt to complete the course. Total abuse of something positive to gain exp n quals to get a chance of employment which i had to battle my way to get a chance to do this course n a chance to gain employment thereafter.....some ppl dont know when they are born n what its actually like to do without!!

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But also to be fair i dont begrudge ppl who do need the benefits should be entitled but the amount of abuse of the system is unfair to those whom work but also to those whom are genuine claiments who do get stick n tarred by lazyarses n freeloaders n would like to get out of the system but for the want of tryin cant completely! Trouble with the system is that is goes round in circles to keep u in the benefit cycle but another type of it.

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I agree with that 100% and I hope you manage the balancing act. We are managing with both our jobs with the children at school, nursary and wrap-around care. It becomes very difficult when one of them is ill.

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Thanx n good point Neil.....im only just about but becoming a good juggler as best i can lol. Luckily i touch wood they haven't become ill yet but ive told my employer that my kids do come 1st n if they are ill then they are my priority. Thats the thing as well ...childcare...even if u are lucky to find it that thats on a good conner cos u still have to pay em if off ill, hols, etc just so to keep their place - even know of a friend who was still charged for 2 weeks when his childminder went off on hols for 2 wks in spain n had to pay it to keep his childs place - eh?! cheek!! Plus u lose your pay if u are off cos of a sick child.... its ludicrous!!!

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That is out of order. So she is being pain 52 weeks a year .

I can understand that one. By being off work you are in breach of you contract of employment.

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Thats the con thing and because childminders these days are like goldust they can do it so im told, they are classed self employed. Thing is with being off with a sick child that cant be helped but u are still penalised no wonder some kids are send to school/nursery ill sometimes cos some parents cant afford the drop, trouble is that its not ideal for both child n school.....lose lose thing.

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In August 2000, there were 6,460 Income Support claimants in Hyndburn, of which 3 per cent were aged under 20. Income support was introduced on April 11th 1988 and can be paid to a person who is aged 16 and over, is not working 16 hours or more a week, and has less money coming in than the law says they need to live on.
Some more intresting facts here
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/default.asp
click on neighbourhood, and type in accrington

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From someone with a pre-Chav 'common' name in receipt of an array of Benefits, l'd just like to say whilst raising a glass of Cristal Champagne-


'Cheers, thanks a lot, hic!' :)

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Just watching Chavs on Sky One.

Adverts are on so I thought I would do some research as to where I can emmigrate. WTF is my passport. Kind of makes me wish I had got that job I went for in the Isle Of Man 3 years ago :(

And to the country look like an even bigger pile of white trash BBC1 had a program called Skint on earlier. Got to go and pour another large one so I can watch the rest of this s**t.