And yours Grandad.

The only evidence I have is from people I try to help, including a Traveller family whom I know well.

The welfare system has trapped people in poverty. It will always be at a low level, otherwise why would people work? Yet it penalises people who try to lift themselves out of it by immediately taking away all their entitlements when they get a job instead of having a tapered system. I know a couple trying to pay their mortgage and all their bills and bring up their son on a wage of €25,000 p.a.

There needs to be some joined up thinking in Government.

I wouldn’t pay too much attention to anecdotal evidence because for every story you hear of someone making a lot of money on the dole there are 10 more about OAPs freezing on paltry pensions, families who can’t afford childcare and single mothers who will lose their medical cards if they take on a menial labour job. It’s a complex thing so I don’t go in for anecdotes too much.

And the earthquake ‘joke’ has been around for years, that’s why I groaned when I saw it.

I believe you! Great minds thinking alike? I dunno – fools seldom differ, perhaps?

I’m an Englishman living in Egypt, but Slainte! to you.

I remember that Alaskan earthquake. It made headlines around the world. And I agree about the English one – a few chimney stacks? They haven’t a clue!

@Caro – Yes. I should have revised that figure!

@Dario – I knew that would appeal to you.

Socialism belongs in the 20th century if you don’t mind.

This has been around for a few years now, in various forms. The one I posted was rehashed by someone at the BBC (I think) after the pathetic earthquake that ‘hit’ SE England a couple of weeks back. I just added some pictures of the ‘devastation’. Yeah, it’s a cheap jab at chavs, but who cares? No-one wears Burberry and expects to pass unnoticed.

I posted it because a couple of days earlier I’d written a short piece about a real earthquake in Alaska in 1964. Check it out.

It’s a coincidence this came out the day after my post, right? I’ve not heard of any ‘quake in Tallaght. If it’s not a coincidence, perhaps a link would be in order.