TRS - Jim Spence's Rangers Jibes

[amms 0]

Housing estates that lack aesthetic value, I'm sure glad we don't have any of them here.

[Blue Moon 1,289]

Touche, Amms

[26th of foot 6,082]

Reference East Berlin.

 

I was serving in West Berlin(British sector) in 1980. We were allowed to visit the Eastern part of the city for a several hour period during daylight hours. We were required to be attired in service dress, exchange £30-£40 into Ostmarks, and carry our MOD 90. It was drab, the smell of cabbage pervaded, and the beer ridiculously cheap. I remember the locals had plenty of dosh but nothing to spend it on, either a problem of distribution or manufacturing.

 

I entered a Department store with the idea of purchasing a print for the mess walls, the shelves were barely a quarter full, mostly functional clothing. Later, in a bar and talking to a couple of guarded locals about football, I raised my experience whilst attempting to shop. They recommended a shop called, 'Inter'; West German goods at West German prices(10 Ostmarks to 1 Deutsche Mark).

 

A couple of weeks later, I attended an Intelligence briefing and at the conclusion, mentioned my attempt at consumerism. Now, Int' types love to tell jokes as related by self-deprecating locals. A party member walks into department store and enquires about purchasing a pair of jeans? Shop assistant replies, 'this is the no shoes department, the no jeans department is upstairs'.

 

The two locals in the bar told me everything was available in East Berlin for either jeans, coffee, or tights. I don't think they were joking.

Edited September 12, 2013 by 26th of foot

[ian1964 10,720]

Jim Spence ‏@bbcjimspence 30m

 

@kaisersauzee no was out for a walk with my wife. Soon every Journo in the land will feel unable to speak.

 

 

[BEARGER 1,830]

2nd reply from BBC.

Think I'll just keep going with this.

 

Reference CAS-2304624-W0XPLX

Thank you for your e-mail.

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[calscot 0]

Housing estates that lack aesthetic value, I'm sure glad we don't have any of them here.

 

I can't believe some of the depressing housing they throw up here. Either most British architects are idiots with no aesthetic values or they have both hands tied behind their backs by greedy builders.

[The Real PapaBear 0]

I can't believe some of the depressing housing they throw up here. Either most British architects are idiots with no aesthetic values or they have both hands tied behind their backs by greedy builders.

 

The housing you see around you has little or nothing to do with architects, mate. Very few of these noddy houses will have had any architectural input whatsoever; they're just mass produced boxes that have no relationship to place or context and will never have seen an architect at any point in their lifespan. British building standards (both English and Scottish) are about the lowest in Europe and there's nothing that architects can do about it.

The people you want to be looking at are a) developers who cram as much shoddy housing in as tight a space as possible to minimum building standards and b) government which allows these crap standards in the first place.

 

There are a lot of very good architects in this country; I love this company's work for example; http://www.wtarchitecture.com/