Blog Archive 1

14.11.08

We can all have a micro nuclear reactor in our own backyards, weep Homer Simpson! It can power 10,000 homes (or 60,000 third world homes) and is called a Hyperion Power Generation unit. It measures about 1.5m across by 2.5m high and is set well underground. No radiation risks and no nuclear risks, it uses low grade radioactive fuel which needs replacing every 7 years or so. In the same time period it produces waste the size of football which can be safely disposed of. Only problem is they cost about $25 million each plus whatever rate the energy company charge for power! But for isolated areas with no other means of generating power…. They’ve orders for about 4,000 with a waiting list past 2014 !

Now we have an elite group of super-paid super-MPs (no relation to Superman or Superwoman!) who will sit in extra, special committees with extra staff, travel and accommodation (and no doubt extra entertainment and mobile phone) costs that will cost each adult an extra in tax for the lifetime (hopefully very short!!!) of this parliament.

Mark Wallace of the Citizens Tax Alliance puts it very succinctly when he says ‘When the public are struggling to make ends meet, it is (very grossly…) inappropriate to establish higher salaried positions for some ordinary MPs and creating a new layer of bureaucracy. Seems as well as civil servants creating new higher paid posts for themselves or breeding new civil servants, MPs are doing the same thing….

Corruption breeds corruption and the ONLY answer is a fresh clean start with a new government and No-one from the previous government serving on it. Shame is they can’t do the same and replace senior civil servants where most of the rot and gibberish stems from….

Then we get Government and/ or Civil Servants/ and or Local Authorities taking a few silly rules and making a grossly excessive number or amount (a plethora) of petty rules, or more recently very petty rules. One silly rule is one rule too many.

Conservative Governments know how to keep power where it’s needed ie at the top.

What makes a serious tragedy? One irrecoverably wrecked life, one avoidable suicide?

Seem to be a couple of silver linings to the recession. Supermarkets are making some big cuts in the price of some basic foods, to try to draw customers back in. Also government seem to have backed down (for now) on swingeing tax hikes on medium sized cars under 7 years old. Only thing is, these should NEVER have been put forward at all….

Here’s an interesting one. Barack Obama has been elected because Lewis Hamilton won the World F1 Championship. Seems America has a democrat president whenever a brit wins the formula 1 champs. Ie not too often, at least so far! How’s that for some genuine logic!!!! Both would have seemed very far-fetched just a couple of years or so ago!

Big fish swim deeply, so it seems. Tony Blair has been ordered by his local council to move a £30,000 swimming pool at one of his (many ) properties as appropriate planning consent was not sought. The pool must be housed inside a building, as its stainless steel, thermal plastic and foam is not in keeping with the ahem £5.75 million pound grade 1 listed mansion. You could always take swimming lessons in how not to get into deep water in or near the Persian Gulf Tony!

Oh boy doesn’t Jack Straw have pretensions to be Chancellor. The next madness proposed is for WIVES (and HUSBANDS if the accused is female) to have to pay legal costs towards defence of criminal charges. Also, the HOUSE may have to be sold so the CHILDREN suffer even more. This isn’t even fine if a felony is convicted, LET ALONE IF SOMEONE IS FOUND INNOCENT. ( sorry pardon pun about fine…)

The detail is that legal defence costs will be means tested (we all know what that means), money will have to be contributed up front (remember it can take years to go through the courts…) and if a criminal charge is downgraded to a misdemeanor, costs will still be charged to the family of the defendant. If there is a complete acquittal, having obtained a second mortgage and the house re-possessed, costs will (very eventually…) be refunded. Has Judge Jeffreys been re-incarnated as jack Straw? He only hung the criminals, not their families as well….

Of course, the spouse of the accused can always pursue divorce, before the case comes to court……

As for further punishing criminals, since when do criminals think of anyone, family included, unless they are social criminals, burglaring etc to feed their family….

At the moment, close relatives of those tried criminally aren’t also accused of being criminals (or treated as such).

Come to think of it most of the country is under criminal duress over downloading the odd illicit music track or two.

There’s only one answer to all this legative lunacy and that is GORDON BROWN ACTUALLY READS AND UNDERSTANDS PROPOSED LEGISLATION BEFORE THE PRESS GET HOLD OF IT.

Good to be Prince William, next in line after Prince Charles. He was able to take a £10 million pound RAF helicopter without having to say where he was taking it !!!!

Talking about you and me, the DVLA is still selling our data (names and addresses) to wheel clamping firms amongst others, without checking on their background or credentials.

We have a bad combination of non-government where government IS needed and government where government is patently NOT needed. Doesn’t this smack of utter and complete INCOMPETENCE….

We need a government that is responsible in passing legislation, that maintains our freedoms, human rights, our liberal and progressive culture, not one bound up in political correctness, pettiness, and self-interest; that is passionate about fairness to EVERYONE and that treats each one of us as a decent human being…..

Nation of fatties -get on your bikes, all of you!!! Me Included. I do not wish to be part of a nation of fatties. Seriously, what BUSINESS is it of anyone else if I choose (and am lucky enough to be able) to EAT WELL……

I get greatly offended at being called over-weight or fat, let alone being called grossly over-weight or obese. If my doctor asks me to diet or recommends me to seriously lose some weight - asking me to do so privately, in private, well fair enough, a fair cop is a fair cop. But when the press or media, or worse government ministers say so, I’d say the same as to anyone in the street saying I was fat - P*** O**!!!!

Perhaps junior journalists aren’t paid enough and they are all too skinny .

You are less likely to get over-weight in Guildford, where they have insisted street food traders (eg mobile hot dog stalls) also sell healthy alternatives like salad and yoghurt and GRILL food instead of frying it. By the time traders raise the necessary capital from banks, we’ll be well into the NEXT century. It really is time we got RID OF INTERFERENCE BY SELF-RIGHTEOUS LOCAL (OR GOVERNMENT) AUTHORITIES. Their authority is to spend the money we pay them in taxes in looking after people’s proper interests, WITHOUT ACTING LIKE A NANNY STATE OR TIN-POT DICTATORS.

How’s this for a waste of public money? A householder whose bin was knocked over while he was at work was fined £60 by the council for ‘dumping rubbish’. He refused to pay and the council (Darwen UK (not Australia!)) took the case to court costing over £3000 of local ratepayers money in a case that should NEVER have been taken to court. Not surprisingly it was thrown out of court, but what a worry for the care worker householder involved. Surely we need Local Council and Government ombudsmen to over-see violations of freedom? And this in the wake of this potty and completely balmy Government wanting us to have pay ourselves to try to defend such wanton silliness and complete and utterly stupid actions by the DVLA, Police, Traffic wardens, local councils etc….

While we are talking about money and excess fat, we also need to be rid of a Mean Scottish influenced Treasury where £50 Billion to the banks is as nothing, but paltry sums towards the rest of us (eg for GENUINE costs of living increases) are regarded as a Prince’s or King’s ransom.

The shame is that the real good work the government is doing isn’t being reported, because of the trite and vulgar things they are also doing.

Gordon Brown has now at very long last lambasted the credit card companies for ‘semi-legally’ fleecing us with artificially very high interest rates and other charges. Since August 1^st this year, Sixteen credit cards have upped interest rates for purchases

• Twelve cards have hiked cash interest rates

• Eleven cards have increased balance-transfer fees

• Seven cards have raised cash-advance fees

• Seven card issuers have cut their interest-free period

• Four cards have put up foreign-usage fees

This is along with those that already charge obscene rates of interest very above 15% pa eg 30% annual rates or more.

Remember they can get the money they lend at just over 3% and probably hold big stocks eg in energy companies.

Ousted Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, never mind the fact that he OWNS Manchester City football club, has been barred from Britain for being found guilty in his absence of corruption charges. Hmm, wonder how many other football club owners or managers could be found guilty of corruption in their absence?

Could we have a black Prime Minister in Britain? Yes by popular vote when blacks are almost the MAJORITY of Brits, but no by nomination within the Houses of Parliament. We have comparatively few (15) black back-benchers, two black Cabinet ministers (but no prospect of senior cabinet post), and the old school tie brigade rules just as effectively (via senior public servants)within the Labour Party as it does directly across the benches, privilege and the political machine (slow to accept change) in Britain making a black Prime Minister, even someone as brilliant as Barack, most unlikely at present or in the near future.

Gordon Brown our White Prime Minister says you should only lose your home as a LAST RESORT. Tell that to the courts who have ruled that lenders can SELL the homes of borrowers in ARREARS BY JUST TWO PAYMENTS WITHOUT A COURT ORDER……………… Hope Tony Blair keeps up his mortgage payments for the properties he doesn’t OWN OUTRIGHT.

Did you know that 2.5 million houseowners pay some aor all of their mortage by credit card, or that the majority (though certainly not all) repossessions happen through defaulted second mortgage (ie borrowing on borrowing...) payments or equity release loans. It's often expensive cars, or expensive foreign holidays that do the damage. But quite rightly very worrying, is the increase in repossessions by failing to keep up first mortgage payments. Then there are people who perhaps unwisely have taken out loans secured on their property, where the very small print says 'you might lose your home if you fail to keep up with payments'. It only takes the bank to decline a direct debit payment or two perhaps without any note to you, and you not to check a couple of bank statements to in deceptively simple terms, you being 'in deep hock'.

I try to be moderate in most things, but if anyone deliberately personally affronts me to the extent of costing me my job or potentially causing me or my family real harm, in the words of the Bible, they should be afraid of the Fire of Absolute Hell that might be rained on them. I believe in the 'One True Living God, and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit'. Revenge is the Lord's.... and God will not disappoint the meek and lowly....

While a large (black) family on benefits live in a £1 million pound house, because of a lack of suitable council properties (they’ve all been sold at rock bottom prices to previous council tenants…) more help is needed for areas where there is a "white underclass" which has been "neglected" by existing equalities policies. Some of our local (mostly white) council estates are some of the poorest in Europe, yet we live in a comparatively very prosperous country.

There is no obligation for any employer to advertise some posts, and many either employ an ‘army’ of EU or non-EU staff, without any of our indigenous population even getting a chance at trying for the jobs.

A head teacher has boosted her schools exam results by 65% by suspending, (up to a quarter of the school’s pupils at one time or another), badly behaved pupils for swearing or disrupting classes. Any sane teacher or parent knows this line of discipline works, yet the government is trying to reduce the number of suspensions (don’t like the media posting of these). Saying it ‘undermines teachers discipline’. What a load of old cobblers. Teachers NEED the fullest and whole support of the schools, via the Head Teacher. A local school with some VERY difficult pupils, suspends some pupils in October/ November and February/ March each year and has few disciplinary problems for the teachers. It is simple. The pupils know that if they mess ANY teacher about, they’ll be suspended, so they only misbehave within very well-defined limits. Result, the classes run much more smoothly, and pupils ACTUALLY LEARN properly.

18.11.08

LPG converted car exploded on owner when he lit a ciggie, leak in fuel line so it seems. He’s seeing red not green, for a while as his face heals.

Environmentally friendly also needs to be people friendly, windfarm advocates look-out!

Feel for the thirteen year-old girl who refuses to have a heart transplant. The saddest thing is a transplant would give her the chance of a normal life.

A Welsh (not surprisingly!) council has branded the word ‘British’ as racist. Funny, I thought it was a unifying term for English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish BRITISH citizens, not to mention BRITISH WHITES AND BRITISH BLACKS.

In real life, when David meets Goliath, he doesn’t always win. But if you own a mobile phone, it is YOURS and you are free to have it unlocked. If it is a phone on monthly contract though, they do have very punitive cancellation fees for the rental contract for the initial term agreed upon.

The real losers in the interest rate cuts are (mostly) elderly pensioners who rely on income from savings. Similarly, ex-pats who have emigrated on a British (!!) based pension have lost out tremendously with the very poor performance indeed of the pound. Poor exchange rate doesn’t just mean expensive foreign holidays!

Many students are now postponing a ‘gap year’ until they graduate, or skipping this option altogether. With cost of living hikes , and higher tuition fees AND poor exchange rates, this isn’t at all surprising, or are they simply getting qualified before YEARS of unemployment?

Again, in a similar vein, numbers of students living (and studying) away from home has dropped hugely. This is a catastrophic shame, as getting an independent life used to be one of the (if not the!) greatest benefit of getting higher education.

After our terrible Summer (or lack of it!) ski resorts in Europe and N America are opening a month early after heavy snowfalls!

A woman has spent over £½ million pounds over her adult lifetime on various cosmetic surgeries. How sad is that, when she was prettier by far BEFORE all this surgery.

Please note all lower income tax-payers. If the government do cut any taxes, you’ll STILL be paying more in tax than at any time previously, prior to this government. Tax on home improvement and materials, tax on fish and chips, high tax on alcohol and tobacco, etc, low incomes becoming even more proportionally lower incomes…. Tax cuts for Life, not just for Christmas!!

They’ve just now worked out that borrowing money is very much more expensive in the long term to spending available cash… remember.. The PM GB is the lout who SOLD half of GB (Britian’s) gold reserve at rock (not gold!)-bottom prices and hence made sure GB would have to borrow twice as much for the long-term future.

Working, or more like milking the system dry, two Muslim sisters have earned 6 figure payouts for claiming use of cocaine and religious and racist behaviour by their ex-employer top city brokers. One central claim was that funds had been transferred away from Muslim clients to Jewish clients. Could be that no city broker will now employ ANY Muslim staff on confidential transactions.

The poor Beeb gets yet another bashing for claiming (very correctly) that Mrs Thatcher caused rioting in the streets of S Wales by her program of (very) systematic pit closures. So now Huw Evans and the Beeb get lambasted for telling the truth!

They’re only now THINKING about charging patients for missed NHS appointments. Goodness help if I miss a PRIVATE dental appointment. The private sector has always charged for missing appointments. My local surgery regularly has 75+ people a month missing appointments, making it very difficult for the rest of us to get an appointment. Roll on this one!

Has anyone worked out the COST to the Welsh NHS in having to replace vending machines owned by multi-national companies being replaced with so-called healthier options? Also when all the longer term contracts run out, the COST of defending misuse of monopoly situations sure to be fought by these VERY rich companies? S’funny heart disease and obesity was almost unheard of before margarine and oils with hydrogenated fats appeared on the scene. It seems we NEED things like cheese and whole milk (from grass fed ruminators) for exercise to turn fat into muscle.

Incidentally, muscle is HEAVIER than fat…. If someone thinks I’m a fatty lightweight, they’re in for a heavyweight shock, or surprise!

There’s also the problem about so-called healthy foods like cereal bars a) containing glucose and sucrose in quantity, and b) being fattening if not part of a calorie controlled diet.

Then there’s lack of treats for patients and visitors alike in NHS dos house hospitals, and what happens when they get sued for Listeria or Salmonella poisoning or worse from supposedly healthy sandwiches. We all know hospitals are breeding grounds for unhealthy bacteria and viruses at the best of times.

What about malnutrition from not liking/ eating hospital (URGH!!!) food?

While talking about malnutrition, has Edwina Hart got lacking brain function from missing part of her 5 a day/ 3 a day diet?

Whatever is happening to FREEDOM OF CHOICE nowadays. Either we’re being BRAINWASHED, or choices are being FORCIBLY removed from us. They simply don’t want a liberal, free thinking ,smart democracy, who might just have the sense to THROW THEM OUT !!!!

Talking about big bugs, a new initiative to cut down on the use of antibiotics. Oh dear, herre in the Valleys where chest complaints are rampant, ordinary people will DIE for want of antibiotics. The reason for not issuing antibiotics is the rise in immunity of E Coli and MRSA to these. P*ddlesticks. It’s because of the high cost to the NHS of newer antibiotics. If they’d established hand-washing and copper plated door handles years ago, these viruses would never have got a foothold!

The one REAL big problem with restricting antibiotics in treating persistent coughs and colds (apart from the obvious one of us not having to use our own immune systems enough) is that SYMPTOMS of very very serious conditions are often similar or identical to those of more common conditions. IF YOU AREN’T prescribed antibiotics and it turns out you have pneumonia or meningitis or other equally serious conditions, YOU’LL DIE!

Things are really getting tough on the job’s scene. Managers having TEARS on announcing job cuts….

A 52 year old journalist with a top paper ‘joined’ the jobs queue, thinking it would be easy for him to find suitable employment. WRONG! Having put down journalism, translator and general employment as his three choices, the ONLY job his local Job centre could offer him was as a journalist/ translator for a Polish publisher, 200 miles from Warrington, where he lives, and he doesn’t speak Polish!

Older people (over 35) who lose their jobs may NOT be able to find further useful employment without moving across the country, and even then jobs are not easy to find let alone guaranteeing any security.

Funny when we’ve had public sector employees slated for higher levels of illness related absences, Call Centre operatives have taken the most time off. Must be the stress of all the call centres closing and being set up in India! PAUSE faint voice, from afar -“Excoosss do you haf me, ca I ssspeeekkk to a Meester .(unpronounceable) ther plis?”.. ; phone showing international call…

I’m very tempted to say “Yes thees is Grey Breetan, therrr maa b one oo two wit ha name heeer!!”

Except it may be the energy company, bank or credit card company with some vital info calling. Chances are though it’s just another b----y SALES call and no they haven’t (surprise surprise!) heard of the TPS (telephone preference service) before.

Schools are advised to hold back 5% of their budget each year for emergencies. Funny, time was when local authorities carried the (insurance) budget for this. Must be to cover claims of racial or sexual harassment by disillusioned staff, pupils or parents, headteacher emergency time off (exceeding time in post), emergency plumbing call outs, and for being sued for uneven playground surfaces or corridor or classroom flooring or collapsing roofs or desks, or stairs or steps even.

Perhaps the extra 3% some schools hold back is for headteachers pay increases or rises in governors’ attendance and subsistence allowances.

Shame they haven’t pushed through the presumed consent for organ donation, or is it? It can be difficult to contact relatives quickly enough, and it is a very trying time for them as it is, without having to ask if they’ll (mostly NOT) allow organ donation. The only problem with presumed consent is if someone is seriously ill but fairly stable, maybe with a long term prognosis for reduced quality of life, could the medics tamper with or turn off support machines temporarily to allow (much needed) transplants? Not a decision I’d want some doctors (or hospital managers short of beds…) to have as an option.

Is the Gulf sheik suing Jacko feeling he needs another Jacko album or two in his collection, for past help generously provided? May give the fans there a thrill or two if jacko has to do another world-tour!

Prince Charles says Life’s too short. As he speaks in a somewhat round-about way, what he must actually be saying is; it is time QE2 knocked or clocked it!

He also says ‘If I don’t write it down, I forget’,… ‘I’ve a long list of things to do’. There we are, I’ve some pretensions to Royalty after all, both of these apply happily to me too! My mum may not have been ‘the Queen’, but she was like a real Queen to me!

With the oil super tanker hijack, perhaps we do actually need a Navy and SAS. I’ve very serious doubts though as to its supposed authenticity. Somalian third world pirates catching a ride from a huge ship with massively high sides, travelling at 15 knots, with all the side turbulence and wash this causes? Perhaps Spiderman was also visiting Somalia at about the same time?

Talking about super-hijacking, Ofcom plans to CHARGE the RNLI and mountain Rescue services amongst others to be able to continue to use essential radio communications systems. PUT OFCOM OUT TO SEA WITHOUT A PADDLE, or DROP OFCOM IN A DESERTED MOUNTAIN REGION MIDWINTER and CHARGE to rescue them.

23.11.08

For hard pressed students, or indeed anyone else, although the deals vary, some SIM-only phone cards offer a very good deal, probably the best available. Simply use them as a top up to ‘pay as u go’ or monthly contracts to avoid penalty charges. Or maybe as a better option than contracts or PAYG providing an in between payment option/ amount. Only thing is you don’t get a shiny new phone with these! Some start at £10!

Not one to grab the headlines, when is £30 not £30 pounds? I won’t keep you guessing, it’s for when ID cards go mainstream. They’ll cost MUCH more than £30 each plus the £30 for biometric imprinting. They sneaked THIS announcement in after stating the initial £30 fee for those able to try out ID cards early.

Why would anyone NEED ID cards? We have to provide a photograph for passports and driving licences. We have a fairly unique set of fingerprints. As for allowing anyone to shine a laser measuring device in my eyes - forget it!!!! A thumbprint on my passport or driving licence would be fine!

I think I’ll stick with providing a utility bill or letter for ID, paid or unpaid!!! What’s wrong with say requiring to see my TV licence? Now where did I put that????

What happens when ID cards are lost or stolen or of course FORGED? It is easy to re-write data on micro-chips.

We just need a DNA test and full set of fingerprints to ensure the ID card is real?........

I’m very against ANY extra layers of bureaucracy. If we’ve been fine WITHOUT ID cards for 63 years, why-ever should we need them now?

I’m not against change, but please, let it be for an exceptionally good reason!

I’ve never used prostitutes, nor escort girls, but it does seem ludicrous to completely outlaw something for which there is a very obvious social need. If they are going to prosecute for a first attempt to contact a ‘pro’ on the street, but escort agencies and massage parlours are excluded, this seems more like an attempt to target the poorer sectors of society (yet again) than to completely outlaw prostitution. If a ‘punter’ is unfortunate enough to go with a girl who turns out to be pimped or coerced into prostitution, how the HELL is he supposed to find out about this pimping or coercion, for which he would face a £1000 fine. Seems like another attempt to force prostitutes off the streets, yet, which girls face the biggest risk, and probably most NEED the money? As long as there are people there is likely to be ‘the oldest profession’, but Local Authorities and Government in BRITAIN do not want to take responsibility for licensed brothels, unlike most other (sane and also civilised) countries.

A so-called SELF-STYLED blue chip company that took thousands from families to sort out their bills has gone bust... leaving victims further in debt. MidScot also charged a £1000 fee. BUT MidScot never paid any of its clients bills, putting the money (from the poverty-stricken) straight into his pocket. Words fail me on this one. It makes me feel extremely sick indeed that someone would wantonly steal from very debt-ridden people while at the same time CLAIMING to help them.

How could Wales play so brilliantly against the All-Blacks in the first half, and so apparently poorly in the second half? Did Gatland say to the boys ‘we’ve proved our point, back off for the second half?’ Gatland of course being from New Zealand! But more to the point, Wales are now a real force to be reckoned with at World rugby level, and Wales showed 100% determination in the first half, and given just a slice more of luck could well have scored three tries in the first half!