Dole

Over at Speedyrants, my huffin' and puffin' alter ego asks can benefits claimants sue the Daily Express? The answer to which turns out to be "probably not" but getting there presumably makes him feel better, which was was in all honesty the only point.

I was unemployed at the tail end of John Major's 1990s recession, for about 9 months. It was soul destroying and deeply unpleasant. Though I did have a lot of time to play Civilization. But what I think people who might never have gone through this fail to perceive - mereckons -  is that being able to sit around doing nothing and playing shitty PC strategy games and watching daytime tv is only fun if that isn't all you have to do.

You can't skive if you have nothing to do. There is no glorious frisson of breaking the rules, or feeling that you have got out of doing something unpleasant. That's it. That's your life. Conquering Macedonia with your chariot force is all well and good,  but then you realise that your real life plunder consists of a tin of TESCO basics spaghetti hoops and sellotaping the wallpaper back on.