Originally Posted by
Elite_Pie
I suppose it depends how you define 'patriot'. I don't believe in god, I don't believe in the principle of a Royal Family, but I love living here and I'm proud to be English. The England I'm proud of however is probably a bit different to the one you are proud of. I'm proud of the fair, tolerant, inclusive and compassionate England, but I'm not keen on the bigoted 'us and them' England.
I spent my working life in the Dyeing and Finishing industry, starting work as a naive 16 year old at a company in Bulwell called Spray & Burgess Ltd as a laboratory technician earning £6-15 shillings per week (yes, per week!). I pissed about for a few years then realised that if you have to spend 40 hours per week at work, you might as well get paid as much as you can. I started to move up the ladder a bit, to a supervisory position on shifts where I sometimes did an 84 hour week on nights if overtime was on offer - that's 7 days of 12 hour night shifts, so I wasn't afraid of hard work. I ended up as a section manager with a good final salary pension scheme and 38 years service. I had worked hard and saved and invested wisely, which allowed me to retire at 55 with more than enough money for a very comfortable life. My sales experience was little more than involvement in the purchase of dyes, but I can spot a bullsh!tting salesman a mile off. Even with that scant experience I know that saying "F*ck you" to someone you desperately need to trade with isn't a good negotiating move. My skills were largely technical in the field of colour physics, and I was very good in that area although I couldn't be arsed with much of the management side. Why would I have a chip on my shoulder? I did well for myself through hard work and common sense, but it didn't mean I had to abandon my social conscience.
Apologies if I've bored anyone, but if I'm asked a question I like to answer it.
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