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Post by alanseago on Sept 8, 2010 10:00:33 GMT
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Post by everso on Sept 8, 2010 10:56:17 GMT
Now, when they say "riding", what exactly do they mean?
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Post by riotgrrl on Dec 2, 2010 14:43:42 GMT
I can't think how I missed this little tit-bit from Alan back in September.
Truly we live in a sleazy world.
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Post by aubrey on Dec 2, 2010 17:26:01 GMT
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Post by Patrick on Dec 2, 2010 17:32:51 GMT
So THAT's why Russia's got the football!!!!
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Post by riotgrrl on Dec 2, 2010 18:46:22 GMT
So THAT's why Russia's got the football!!!! That's a disgrace, innit? Corruption a go-go. If I wasn't laughing so hard at England not getting it, I'd feel sorry for them. FFS, you sent out Prince William and David Beckham . . surely there are no bigger stars? Talk about pulling out all the stops!!! I don't think the Netherlands were taking their bid seriously. Once they learned that FIFA expected them to change their laws in order to accommodate the world cup, I believe the intelligent and practical Dutch decided it wasn't really worth a candle.
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Post by everso on Dec 3, 2010 0:23:14 GMT
Did anyone expect us to be awarded the World Cup after Panorama the other night?
Actually, I think the Panorama programme was organised by the Government. We can't afford to put on another show after the 2012 Olympics, and Prince William, David Beckham and David Cameron being sent out there was just a smokescreen.
Either that, or Putin has some kind of hold over the FIFA members.
Anyhow, thank goodness we won't have to suffer all the build up to it over the next 8 years.
What a truly sleazy world we live in, to be sure.
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Post by everso on Dec 3, 2010 0:30:37 GMT
Riot, which laws was the Netherlands required to change?
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Post by riotgrrl on Dec 3, 2010 8:44:44 GMT
Riot, which laws was the Netherlands required to change? Sorry, I don't have any particular insight. I was just parroting what it had said on the Panorama programme. Apparently FIFA have this contract the host nation has to sign whereby the host nation agrees to change the normal tax laws and visa laws. The Netherlands, being wonderful, practical democrats, refused to keep the contract secret and 'leaked' what it was that FIFA were asking them to do. (IIRC). Ironic that FIFA's decision comes only a day or two after someone - was it the Wikileaks thing? - declared that Russia was a gangster nation. You know my love for Russia and Russians (cough cough). The levels of witness intimidation in Russia are incredible. I heard a presentation about it a couple of months ago. Shocking. Witnesses getting shot so they can't testify, etc.
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Post by everso on Dec 3, 2010 9:14:14 GMT
[judgmental rant]Well you only have to look at Putin to see that he's a dodgy geezer. His face gives him away[judgmental rant]
And tell me this: how come the ex-communist-country-where-all-men-are-equal-and-nobody's-supposed-to-be-wealthy-Russia now has so many millionaires?
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Post by jean on Dec 3, 2010 12:27:16 GMT
The clue is in the EX-, everso. They're not claiming that all men are equal any more.
Not that they were so very good at achieving equality even when they were claiming it. But the discrepancies then were not so obscenely great as they are now.
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Post by everso on Dec 3, 2010 20:08:15 GMT
Yeah but, yeah but, how come they've made all that money so quickly?
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Post by jean on Dec 3, 2010 20:09:51 GMT
They didn't make it, exactly - they just reached out and took it.
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Post by everso on Dec 3, 2010 20:14:13 GMT
Yup.
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Post by riotgrrl on Dec 3, 2010 20:32:59 GMT
The State in Communist Russia . . . oh feck Everso, you don't really want a lecture, do you?
But the whole Balkans/Eastern Europe/Russia area suffers from never having been democratic before the fall of the USSR in 1989. So when democracy came to them, they didn't really get the hang of it. Especially not the rule of law bit.
You can have capitalism and democracy, but without the rule of law you're not a Western/Angosphere civilised nation.
Just let me know any time you do want the full lecture . . .
(I have told you all before several times that Russia is my least favourite ever visited nation, haven't I?)
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