Today’s post is going to be a politically scathing and hilarious look at modern life in the UK. Well, it was this morning when I composed it in my head as I drove to work. I seem to be able to relax and think in the car, which is quite an alarming thought when you think I am in charge of a ton and a half of metal powered by the equivalent of over 120 horses, all of which needs threading through a mass of vehicles driven by people paying even less attention than I do. I may have to reconsider my meditation routine.
Anyway, I won’t be writing that blog post. It’s partly because I’m trying not to do politics. And mainly because by the time I’d got to my computer (I email my notes to my home computer from the shop) I’d forgotten what I was going to write. I find I do that more and more often. I think my brains might have hit the point of no return. In terms of going over Niagara Falls in a barrel I’m at that teetering point just at then top, thinking of mortality and the long fall that is coming . . .
Meanwhile, today’s rant features charitable donations. I already give by standing order. I sometimes give a bit extra. I don’t mind the giving, what I mind is the way people like Amazon and eBay keep asking at check out time. If they want to support charity they can do it out of their massive tax-avoiding profits, not by ambushing me. And Clogau jewellery is even worse. I’ve ordered from them three times recently (I hve a lucky wife) and three times they have added £3.50 for a donation to a charity of their choice – twice for trees and once for something else I can’t remember. I always cancel the donation, but they shouldn’t have added it in the first place. It is very annoying as it makes me feel evil to cancel the donations. Anyway, I already give money to plant trees every year. End of rant.
I have favourite charities that get regular donations from me. What annoys me is that if I send them something extra they then bombard me with extra begging e-mails and letters for yet more money. I wish they would desist. What a waste of paper for one thing and secondly, they are risking me getting so fed up with them that I stop the regular payments altogether. Not all charities do this. Some send me thank-you letters for the extra payments, which is nice.
I told one caller, after they persisted in asking for more, that if they ever rang again I would stop the donation. I felt a bit mean but they did stop calling. They had caught me at a bad time when business was bad.
I completely understand your reaction :I
I don’t like the looks people give when you don’t want to donate. It shouldn’t be a shame thing…
If stopped in the street I just tell them I donate by standing order. That way I can refuse and take the moral high ground at the same time – showing I donate as a habit, not just because a random collector rattles a tin at me.
🙂
I thought of you yesterday. I was buying something at bookstore and they asked if I wanted to buy a book to donate to schools. I am totally a sucker for buying books for schools, and I admit I bought three to donate
Books are important. This a good thing to do. With any luck the books you have provided will stop a child turning to crime or politics.
So buying “politics and you…how you can dominate the world in three easy steps” was not the best choice to donateL
🙂 To be honest, all reading is good, even if it risks raising a monster.
👍👍👍
🙂
I looked up Clogau. I never knew that Welsh Gold was more expensive than what I would call ‘ordinary gold.’
It seems that in the 1990s it was costing £1,000 to extract an ounce of Welsh gold. World price was around $380, so each ounce was costing three or four times the world cost of gold just to extract. (It depends of conversion rates £/$ but this is a comment, not a PhD thesis, so I’ll just be approximate.
I probably see more gold on each episode of “Aussie Gold Hunters” than has been mined in Wales in the last 50 years.
I agree that the big tech firms would do better to share their profits rather than gouge the customers. But it would still be our money. Of course, they could lower their profits and leave us with more to give away if we felt like it.
I just remembered – I also donate via lottery tickets. I tend to forget there is a charitable element to this and just concentrate on the naked greed element and where I’d spend winters if I won big.
That header photo is perfect
The Ribble Rivers Trust sounds like a good organization, and planting trees is good for all.