LC1

I hear you. But just for a bit of perspective, a quick reminder of what poor really means: Heaven forbid that we should ever experience that level of poverty again in developed countries, and that is what welfare benefits thankfully prevents. But are we really seriously saying that benefits can't be paid monthly or else some people with have nothing left at the end of week 2?! Perhaps a week of near-starvation really is is the only thing that will motivate them to learn the basic skill of money management?

Yes yes yes, but.... Everything you say is kind of true. But it comes down to a philosophical point of principle on how to provide for people who can't provide for themselves. If you spoon-feed forever because the poor befuddled dears can't manage it, then they'll never have any motivation to better themselves by learning something that is ultimately not a particularly difficult thing to do. Simple budgeting is an essential life skill. If you can't be arsed to master something so simple, then why should the world continually bend over backwards to accommodate your ineptitude? It simply legitimises and perpetuates the gimme gimme mindset. Ultimately I don't really care. Weekly seems an easy enough way to ease some people's burden, but part of me thinks that it's only difficult because these people have been babied too much by the welfare state and have never had to grow up.

Fucking hell

Yes, to be brutal, she should put her big girl trousers on and learn to divide by four.

Spoon feeding. They're not babies. Should they have their arses wiped for them too? [Devil's advocate]

She's a complete mess. I can well believe the claim that she's a long time coke fiend.

That one's real, isn't it?

Yep, it's the only country in the world with an open defecation average of over 35%. Let that sink in. Over a third of people regularly crap openly on the ground...

My son's dad is harder than your son's dad!

I'd love to believe that's true. But take that bus gang rape a few years ago: what struck me most was that it wasn't premeditated, it was totally opportunistic: some guy started it and rather than anyone stopping him, they all joined in!

Make them carry handguns instead. Problem solved.

I'm increasingly certain that he was an asset, a cutout, or whatever term fits best?! A front guy for much bigger players in whom the real wealth/power resided.

Sounds like I must've got that wrong then. But it has now motivated me to make some proper enquiries rather than just listen to Chinese whispers as drop-off time. Not so for us. Apart from the nice new building, everything else is very much not luxurious! The regional differences are strange...

It's a good school and we're very happy with it, but brimming with shiny new resources it isn't. The constant fundraising (dipping into parents' pockets in creative and "fun" ways) is to cover the shortfall caused by cuts and maintain essential teaching activities at their current level, as I understand it. Either that or lose a member of staff or two, probably.

Stockport council is apparently the most underfunded for schools, for some reason. My kid's primary school was recently rebuilt on the same site as the old one was falling to bits and full of asbestos. Looks great, but it was painted over the summer by the teaching staff as they ran out of money. The fundraising activities are exhausting for the parents, let alone the staff, as they are constant. And this is used to fund staff places, not flashy iPads or anything like that. The cuts over the past few years equal something crazy like £3k per pupil.