Just an update on how to report bullying. I’ve had a private word with someone and who’s advise me to go through the official channels. So if anyone wants to complain about the bullying that I’ve received at the hands of a certain moderator then feel free to report it via email on admins@rlfans.com Personally I just want to move on from this ASAP by acknowledging this for what it is - a quiet night gone a bit rowdy. But it’s my responsibility to make sure that no one else has to go through what I’ve been through on this thread. So I’ll be filing a report tomorrow.

Just an update on how to report bullying. I’ve had a private word with someone and who’s advise me to go through the official channels. So if anyone wants to complain about the bullying that I’ve received at the hands of a certain moderator then feel free to report it via email on admins@rlfans.com Personally I just want to move on from this ASAP by acknowledging this for what it is - a quiet night gone a bit rowdy. But it’s my responsibility to make sure that no one else has to go through what I’ve been through on this thread. So I’ll be filing a report tomorrow.

.....I'd just like to back Rock GodX's theory that Damo is basically a troll, seeking reaction wherever he goes.

He wants a nice quiet time, yet appeals to others to report the so-called bullying he has supposedly received??...



It isn't even subtle, and I find it slightly amusing that some get wound up by him, which is all that has happened....Certainly, no bullying has taken place, only a soft ass would think that.

Whether he has an illness/syndrome/whatever excuse he uses to dodge working, Damo certainly knows what he is doing.....I think the sheer stupidity of most of his posts make him a valuable asset to this forum, but surely people should just learn to treat him as the buffoon he truly is?

ive got an illness/medical condition. i had to give up working in summer 2010 after being off work for 3 months and then working part time for 3 months to see if it worked out for me and the company. it didnt work. i dont get any benefits either as my missus earns a wage slightly above minimum wage so we exist on a pittance these days.
are you judging me too for using my condition as an excuse to "dodge working"??
are you judging others on here who also have conditions that stop them from working too??
im not sure who the "buffoon" truly is in this case!!!!!!!!!

Quote ="Hillbilly_Red"to get away from the Damo sub-thread, perhps Dally or support can explain this: sport.uk.msn.com/olympics-2012/t ... ker-rights This is not any toy but one linked to a specific time, to a specific event, and to a specific UK based market. Its not a pair of trainers that could be used for 6 months but a toy that shows off our 2012 pride. So why couldn't it be made in the UK? Surely it would have still been profitable?'" It can be made much, much cheaper in the Far East (including shipment) meaning that the UK company can make money on it. The design, marketing, etc will probably have been done here (which will have generated higher incomes to all here than the manufucturing would). These bulk, low-grade items are best dealt with in lower wage economies. If we do it here, we earn lower wages. At the end of the day the punters will only pay a certain price for what i view assuch pointless tat. When you take off the retailers mark-up, the wholesalers mark-up, the UK manufacturers profit, marketing, design, there's bugger all left to actually make it. So, better that the willing masses of the Far East do that. Everyone is then better off - them AND us. However, China is rapidly doing what Japan did and moving beyond that and costs are rising.

Quote ="Hillbilly_Red"to get away from the Damo sub-thread, perhps Dally or support can explain this: sport.uk.msn.com/olympics-2012/t ... ker-rights This is not any toy but one linked to a specific time, to a specific event, and to a specific UK based market. Its not a pair of trainers that could be used for 6 months but a toy that shows off our 2012 pride. So why couldn't it be made in the UK? Surely it would have still been profitable?'" It can be made much, much cheaper in the Far East (including shipment) meaning that the UK company can make money on it. The design, marketing, etc will probably have been done here (which will have generated higher incomes to all here than the manufucturing would). These bulk, low-grade items are best dealt with in lower wage economies. If we do it here, we earn lower wages. At the end of the day the punters will only pay a certain price for what i view assuch pointless tat. When you take off the retailers mark-up, the wholesalers mark-up, the UK manufacturers profit, marketing, design, there's bugger all left to actually make it. So, better that the willing masses of the Far East do that. Everyone is then better off - them AND us. However, China is rapidly doing what Japan did and moving beyond that and costs are rising.

BG doesn’t want to deal with the accusations that he’s a bully so he passes that responsibility onto the admin team. I’m sure that if someone did the same to him with what he’s done to me then they would have been gone by now. To expand on this, [url=http://viewtopic.php?p=16664505#p16664505yesterday he even used his position as moderator to intimidate a member to not correspond with him in the manner that they did[/url.

Bullying is a very gray subject. I’m all for peoples opinions and we just leave it at that. But it’s clear in this thread that BG wants something a bit more sinister out of me as opposed to just a genuine heated debate.

Damo this is a battle you can't win, and by trying to protest you're just fighting a battle on terms that they control, the mods are just laughing at you they will say they haven't breached their AUP and that you brought it on yourself. They want to lord their cyberpower over you as this is a web forum and that's a bit of limited power they have in their lives.

Anyway it's not as though this is a case of infringements in human rights, it's just some people writing stuff on a web forum, there might be 4 or 5 getting their kicks out of picking on you but the rest of us can see what their behaviour is and that's why you've had support with people commenting that they are out of order, it's not you in the wrong, they are showing themselves up as sad acts.

The downside of a democracy is you have to listen to all sorts of idiots and on the Sin Bin there are a few users on here who don't have the capacity to handle a proper debate that respects other people, every thread they are in they get involved in some mud slinging insults against each other (we all know who I mean).

So unfortunately if you're going to read the Sin Bin and post in threads you have to put up with the fact this lot are roaming round it, the best way to cut short an argument of personal insults is not to answer to any post that's a personal attack, if someone slags you off online just ignore it, you don't have to justify yourself to randomers on the internet...

Am I to assume the 'delusional, paranoid conspiracy theorist' comment is aimed at me?

If so care to explain why you hold this view?

24954 posts you’ve done on here over the years. I’m sure if I wanted to I could find out how many hours you’ve spent browsing the forums. On top of all that you’ve been a pretty active moderator. Yes people do have a life outside of the internet but don’t try use that excuse as the reason why you can’t ever expand on what you write in detail. Because clearly you’ve had plenty of time to do so.
Owned by damo

Most sensible post I've read on the Sin Bin in a long time. Are you're sure you're not my husband, he tells me exactly the same thing when I get annoyed and upset on here

Dally, will you stop posting sensible economics on here. It will just confuse people.......




You are, of course, spot on with your analysis. A lot of people just look at the "Made in China" thing and think that's the entire value chain.

Take a pair of Nike trainers. The value there is in the brand. The shoes may have been assembled in Taiwan, and the $5 or so of materials made there.

The $50 worth of marketing is "sold" from offices in New York.

As you said though, the real driver for the world economy will be if China can develop it's middle classes. If this happens it's not unfeasable that in 20 years they will be posting on their forums moaning about the fact that everything they buy is made in the EU

Me too. It's not like he's just appeared either, his MO has been the same for years. Either way, he's effective. From those lining up to attack the stupidity of his posts, to the ever so earnest statements of support, he's attracting all the attention he craves with the minimum of effort. He must be laughing his arrse off!

I hope he is laughing is 'arris off and having the last laugh - he's just show up some people for what they really are.

Just an update.

I’ve filed a report and I’m leaving it at that.

Hopefully this thread will stay so we can continue to debate about all kinds of issues around unemployment as opposed to just focusing on my own. I have a few other points I want to make in regards to the bigger issues that I will post later.

But hopefully my aggravators will lay off trying to drag the points I make into a tit for tat d[ii[/ick slinging match about the problems I face on a day to day basis.

[uUnemployment in the UK just under 3 million - REALLY ??

Deceptive Government !!

Jobcentre officials have moved hundreds of thousands of unemployed people claiming jobless benefits on to a separate training allowance over the past year, raising concerns the Government is fiddling the figures to mask the true extent of unemployment.

218,700 jobseekers were taken off Jobseeker's Allowance and moved on to training payments of equal value in the year to September 2011, while attending job-hunting courses and classed as officially "employed".

Unemployed people were on a training scheme during any one month over the period, with each course typically lasting six weeks. The courses are generally completely useless and often did not result in finding work.

All these courses do is help reduce unemployment figures, for a right wing government who wants to be seen as reducing unemployment & the green shoots recovery are around the corner !

Lies & deception !![/u


No official link for this as it was posted on a FB group. You can all make up your own minds as to what you think.

Some people will be surprise to know that I have met Sal Paradise briefly at a rugby match. He didn’t spend his time on the terraces preaching about what he see’s as the errors of my ways. It was a pleasant encounter and so it should be because we was both they to enjoy a rugby match.

Everyone else I’ve met from RLFANS in real life has been a pleasure to meet also because I met them in similar circumstances to that of Sal. One person even invited me to sit in the press box at Headingley.

However if me and Sal were to frequent each other in circumstances other than rugby in real life then it probably wouldn’t work because of our clash of opinions. It’d be great entertainment mind - me and him slagging each other off at every opportunity we’d get. I’m sure that some people on here would revel in such camaraderie if those real life clashes carried on here. But I’m sure that Sal doesn’t want that as I certainly don’t. It's best that we debate on here and just leave it at that. If we bump into each other then I’m sure it’ll just be like last time. He certainly won’t be threatening to confront me on the terraces like one member once did on the Leeds forum.

I’ll always be grateful for whatever Sal tried to do for me that time he PM‘ed me with a job opportunity. But how he’s gone about after my rejection to his help in that particular time is a totally different matter all together.

.....Unemployment figures being manipulated????.....They don't do that, do they??....



Its been happening for years and years, under Tory, Labour and coalition governments, so why some clown creates a facebook group about it, I really don't know.

The clown that created the facebook page is disabled and its a page for disabled people who are worried about how we are being treated. In this group we all support each other, give words of encouragement and I have met some brilliant, kindhearted people through being in this group. Afterall we're all in this together!!

The Conservative Party 60sec Ad 'Coming Shortly'.1979 mp4


type this into a video hosting site. A lot of us older people will remember this from the cinema.

I think it’s great that we live in a time when we have got such strong disability campaigners. Sue Marsh was absolutely fantastic on Newsnight the other week and apparently she‘s going to be on more. To top that off the Guardian have won an award for the way they represent people who have disabilities like ourselves.

I have engaged in activism against ATOS via my now defunct Dole Years website (I think you can still get catches). Overall I found it a thankless and underappreciated task so I gave it a miss after a really good try at pushing it. Disability activism isn’t really for me but I’ll still support it in any way that I can and normally it’s by just speaking on about it on social networking websites like this.

The best part of this activism is the people you meet through them and I’m proud to call people from all walks of life my friends and not just those who I share the same circumstances with.

And the sad thing was that the incumbent Government at that time were in such disarray that they couldn't mount a half decent challenge for the next 18 years, even sadder was the reality that the incoming Government didn't have an answer to the jobless queues either.

So do I......I also believe though, that it is equally important to have campaigns to weed out those folk who choose to wear the disabled badge, as a means to avoid work and take money out of the system that they have no right to.

I have great sympathy for the genuinely disabled, but like most things in life, there are people who ruin it for the majority by choosing to cheat the system and this rotten few, unfortunately, tarnish the name of the majority.

So, why doesn't the government issue a binding pledge to INCREASE benefits for truly disabled people when the alleged malingerers are weeded out? Is it because the scroungers are that great an issue and the government likes to highlight them to reduce help to what Cameron calls the most needy in our society?

If they did as I suggest I'd have respect for them and I'm sure any malingerers and scroungers would soon be grassed up. As it is I have nothing but disgust for pathetic weasels such a Cameron.

Personally I do feel that the disability badge is needed as an excuse in most cases in today’s tough jobs market. I feel that John Harris explains it best in his article titled ‘[url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/21/long-term-sick-sickness-absence-review?commentpage=1#start-of-commentsStop targeting this imaginary army of long-term sick[/url‘. Meanwhile ATOS have been getting paid millions to assess if people on sickness benefits are fit to work as opposed to been fit to seek work. The two are very different matters.

Seeking work can be a very fruitless task. The people who don’t suffer from some sort of depression when job seeking becomes long term are very lucky and a rare breed.

Work on the other hand is a much more desirable and productive use of someone’s time in society because everyone pretty much gets what they want. Mainly the employee gets money for doing a job whilst the employer gets a service.

The job centre and the DWP unfortunately don’t see it like this. There expect someone who has been unemployed for a long time to magically find work by themselves. The support on offer from the job centre and their providers to help people back into work is a shambles. It’d be a lot more productive if the job centre staff went out to find work on the behalf of the long term unemployed.

Oh they find work for the unemployed alright. But no where near enough and in some cases it’s unpaid work. The staff over promote what ever little success they’ve had in order to cover up the overwhelming failure that is the system for the unemployed in this country. It’s nothing short of propaganda what this lot put out to the public who don’t really care because they not as informed on the reality of whats happening.

You go on a private providers website and you will find success stories galore. Take A4e for example - the only people who seem to praise them are those who’s vested interest it is to praise them and those who’ve been lucky enough to find work off their own backs whilst having the misfortune to attend an A4e job club. But you do your research on the internet and it is littered with complaints from past clients. Heck A4e are so bad they even have they own [url=http://watchinga4e.blogspot.com/watchdog style website that was set up by a former disgruntled client[/url. Yet the government continues to throw millions at this company each year all because a marketing team convinces them that this is the way to do things. It should not be marketers advising what’s best for the long term unemployed - the government should go directly to those who are suffering from the problems and then maybe we’d get things sorted out. But the reality is it’s all a mess and I can only hope that the work programme has a hidden agenda of giving these marketing teams one last chance to sort out the unemployment problems in this country. But the bottom line is people have created an industry out of unemployment in this country and the work programme will no doubt just be given a new name when it runs out. Just like when New Deal was re-branded Flexible New Deal so that these poverty pimps could use it as an excuse that they’ve learnt from they mistakes and are now have a better system to deal with the unemployed.

Now imagine if the government throw millions into creating jobs for the long term unemployed as opposed to using this money to fund the bank balances of Emma Harrison so she can continue run her shoddy job clubs. How she can live in a mansion whilst the people she deals with are probably struggling to keep a roof over their heads is beyond me. You’d think she’d use any profit she’s made in creating jobs for those who’ve come across her services. It’s much easier for her to be poverty pimp though and let the company marketing team keep convincing the government that they worth it.

Damo, I appreciate that looking for work can be a thankless and, often, futile task.

I'm also of the opinion that those who are genuinely seeking work, should be given all the assistance that is humanly possible to help them find work.

However, it has to be a two-way thing....The jobseeker has to show a desire to want to work and not just live in a fantasy world of wanting to work in the ideal job.....Of those who are in work, how many are in jobs that they enjoy??....I promise you, it isn't many.

As for people using the disabled badge??.....As we all know it happens, and it happens far too often.

I have a neighbour who has not done a day's work in the last 15 years....He is registered disabled and claims every benefit he can. Yet, he has the best manicured gardens in the neighbourhood, he spends most daylight hours tending to his garden, he's even managed to climb up into his tree to trim it!!

His excuse is that he had to leave his job due to an injury, yet its glaringly obvious he could turn his hand to something that could be of benefit to society, instead of simply sponging from the state.

Sadly, its folk like this who are ruining it for the real disabled of this country.