The state of the UK 2015

There is a feeling I can't shake off, it is the UK going to pot. It all began with the recession which was generated by Labour governments and incredibly bad decisions.  Tony Blair instigated PFI in order to build schools and hospitals, at the time everyone thought it was ludicrous that a hospital should be paid for ten times over through this initiative but it didn't stop him pushing it forward. Just as Gordon Brown decided it was better for the country to hold court with the bankers, keep them sweet and give them as much as he possibly could. In doing so he wilfully decided not to help the manufacturing sectors of the economy. What the use is it to have one banker in work and several thousand ordinary people on the dole? It's ludicrous. Yet to top it all off the inevitable labour loss cropped up and then we find a Tory government who only wants to privatise as much as possible. It is all put under the guise of trying to reduce the economic deficit.  It is like they have a get out of jail free card. Every time someone says there policies are not working they pull out a stock phrase such as services can not be strong unless we have a strong economy to pay for them. Unfortunately still the deficit persists and Osborne's promises of balancing recede further into the distance. He has lost the plot, but really no more so than the politicians before him.  In the meantime with so many elderly people needing support and care the costs to keep the worst 2 percent of needy people take up 50 percent of local authority budgets.  A third of all hospital beds are being blocked by people who have nowhere to go. Operations are now stacking up higher than the tallest buildings in Canary Wharf. 

In addition the welfare budget goes up and up and living standards go down. Some people have been on welfare benefits most of their life. They expect everything to be given to them. Yes they may live in poverty but they see no way out because the opportunities, education and motivation is not there for them. The working population and their direct taxes declines while large businesses such as Amazon, Google and Next pay no tax at all. Their profits go up but the tax they should be paying which would go towards education, NHS and local services is not there.  It has evaporated into that lovely creamy layer at the top of a pint of Guinness which is supped slowly by politicians, bankers and accountants.  A time will come where we are unable to afford free health care, so it will then be costed. It is actually costed now but the general public doesn't usually foot a bill.  It will not be far away in the future where if you can not afford insurance then you can not go to a hospital. Paupers funerals are increasing, the working poor now start to use food banks as well, education is being taken over by faith schools who have narrow curriculum and enjoy the poison of religion with charitable status.  In the meantime the mentally ill become severely ill and go on rampages killing innocent people just because they have nobody who will listen to them or a welfare system which is now designed to weed them out of the benefits system so they will starve to death. 

Britain has become a magnet for ethnic minority groupings and in a short decade the population rate has increased about a million for each year. It is no wonder we have a welfare and care systems under strain for those who are now added into the mix have never contributed taxes to the very system they take out of.  Not to mention of there being a housing shortage.  People take out but don't put back in, just as the long term unemployed who have no intention to work and continue to free-load. These may seem stereotypical views but they are echoes of what people think. It is not fair and the system is breaking under the strain. It is top heavy, there has to be a new way forward, it takes a little lateral thinking. Something the bankers, accountants and politicians don't have. 

We think things are bad now but in five years time continuing under this government they are going to be a lot worse.

The disgusting and vile Health Minster Alistair Burt

The minister for Health Alistair Burt, has of all people prevented what could of been a Bill from going to government which could of saved lives and prevented pain and illness for millions of people. He did this by filibustering a new law which would of allowed the purchase of cheaper drugs from companies when their patent ran out.  This was the Off-Patients drug Bill, Mr Burt talked for an additional 27 minutes in order the hearing would run out of time and he succeeded.


I can not understand how an individual can stand in the way of something which would of been of so much use to so many people. Here is an instance of the Tory machine screwing the entire population of the UK. Or certainly anyone who doesn't have money and every single health authority.  I wonder if the constituents of North East Bedfordshire hold the same opinion of Mr (not at all honourable) Burt, especially those who may well need specialised drugs and find the Health trust just doesn't have the money to give them those drugs even when the patent had ran out.  If karma were real this is one incident when you would want it to come back and bite the individual in the arse.  Mr Burt's actions were completely intentional, he announced them before he started talking. Voters of North East Bedfordshire ask yourself are you really happy this man speaks for you, because the only conscience he seems to have is his own.

The importance of an off-patient drug is one where it is found the drug which was made for one purpose is found to help a patient for a different condition. The nature of medicine has serendipitously found many drugs which have different uses. In this way they add another tool to a doctor's ability to help cure the sick. Mr Burk seems to not really care about this at all. But it is an oxymoron and very moronic a health minister employed to look after the nation's health should do such a thing. Indeed why have enemies when you can have friends like Mr Burt.  I sure hope his constituents feel as upset and annoyed Burk has done this as should every person living in the UK. This bill could of allowed cancer patients to of received drugs for as little as 5 pence a dose. At one point in the debate Burt accused those opposing him of "shroud waving" this was picked up by an MP who said it was an inappropriate term to use. Burt apologise but still continued to filibuster the bill. His actions are despicable, disgusting and perverse to say the least, this man should not be allowed to sit in parliament, he should not be allowed in any position of authority and should be taken down by his constituents.  His actions cannot be forgiven.

Interruptions at work in the open planned hell hole

Getting work done at work is an oxymoron.  Which may be related to working in an open plan office which when you look at it is more like a car park with carpet and tables. Tables by the way which are merged single units with little space on them. For the hot both a hot desking and clear desk policy is also in use. The nature of my work is highly knowledge based, but there is also a need to talk to people, except I would prefer not to talk to people if I could help it. There are days when I sit down and am so motivated and geared up to work it is unbelievable.  There's a pile to be dealt with and this pile is higher than mount Everest, but bit by bit the distractions kick in. Across the other side of the office a section of people chat away about their weekend, they laugh and joke. They have no idea how their silly noise is such an irritant while I'm trying my best to clear my head and concentrate on the problem in front of me. I know I can deal with it but I need to focus, I need to concentrate. With a little quiet and a little thought I can deal with it in twenty minutes. Make the correct decision and get an email confirmation off to someone who is waiting for the reply and has been badgering me incessantly the last 5 weeks.  Five hours later I return to the same problem, barely having written a single sentence and find my day has been dictated by everyone else around me. Stuff which is not as important has just been constantly interrupting me. Then it's mid afternoon and all the motivation and will power I had earlier in the day has been sapped away. I can hear a high pitched scream in my ears, it's tinnitus kicking in, now concentration can only be fragmented to a few seconds. I'm at my workstation sitting there doing no more than just wait for the next interruption. All I am is a machine to be interrupted.  Then tomorrow morning I'll be accosted by the boss who will ask why I still haven't done this one piece of work, it will be in an accusatory tone as if I been sitting there making cakes all day and not bothering to earn my wages.

The ringer on my phone is turned to mute, so it doesn't worry me like a crying baby, I can see a flashing red light on top of it and then can make the decision whether to answer it. To this extent I've now learnt how to own my phone. The number of the caller will flash up, I can then ring them back at my own choosing. If only I could do this with people. I know my job inside out, I can work it well and I don't need to really ask anyone any questions. I am capable enough to find my own answers, pick up guidance notes, read manuals, find the right regulations.  Even in ambiguous situations I am able to weight my choice and make a decision. This is the name of the game at times.  Decision making, doing it as quickly as possible and then moving on to the next item. However, some people just vacillate and never get to the decision point. They can't seem to make a decision and then ask questions, but they don't know how to phrase the question so it is asked in the most inefficient way. The question is asked in a way which takes up more time than necessary. Because what I have to do is assure them and put them at ease. Their inabilities makes my job harder. Everyone has done their job for decades but yet they still ask stupid questions, they still don't get it. They are paid to do this and they should just get on with it. Their inabilities are down to personality, not training or knowledge, they rather interrupt someone else than think through the problem. In many respects here it doesn't matter whether the decision is right or wrong. And in all sense if you're not too sure then you'd just err to the most cautious choice, one which isn't going to be expensive to the organization.  This way the customer can query and come back again if they are unhappy.  But while they ask questions they stop another employee from getting on with their job. Usually its me, and it's not like I'm the fount of all knowledge, especially when I hear myself saying repeatedly "I don't know."

Some days it gets so bad I just go to the toilet so I can sit down with my naked arse over the pan. I put my head in my hands and there is very little noise around me. It's sad, even going there when someone has had a full stinky crap can still be a relief. I just hold my nose and breath through my mouth. I know other people use the toilets to sit and look at their smart phones.  It's a place of contemplation or just a place of escape.  There are not custom made silent rooms where individuals can sit and be alone so they can get on with complicated work, where they can concentrate. These are things the employer just doesn't get. It's an employees' mental health and their productivity which is severely affected by hell hole open planned offices. 

Remote workers can be a pain as well, those who are permanently based at their homes. They don't know what is going on and lose touch with the workplace. When a finger on the pulse is necessary they just don't have it.  Keeping in touch with them time consuming and trying to talk them through how to work a computer program without being able to show them feels like the blind leading the blind. It is remarkable how many people are not computer literate or rather computer competent on the simplest of things. When a little knowledge can be so easily learnt by physically showing by example it doesn't work this way with home workers.  A normal two minute demonstration can become a twenty minute discussion on the phone. Time wasted, time lost and that important bit of work I wanted to do again is left on the back burner.

There are three moments when work can be actually achieved, the first is in a place, but that place may well not be the office, it could be at home or on the toilet seat. The seat where a few minutes can give you time to think on how you are going to phrase an email which needs some diplomatic response. The second is a time.  Some people get into work early while others get into work late and work late. When there are fewer employees around there are fewer interruptions. The third is while moving. I used to do a lot of study while riding a bus, I knew by direction and the feel of each turn on the bus exactly where I was and at the same time put in extra study time. 

Open plan offices are hell holes, if you don't want employees to do work, make their office as open as possible before long the business will go downhill, and if it doesn't you can bet your bottom dollar they will be supremely inefficient.

McLeod Russel's estates and tea workers at the Behora Tea estate

In a short documentary film for the BBC aired on 15.09.15. reporter Justin Rowlatt described in detail what is happening with the tea industry in India and the conditions of tea workers. In the region of West Bengal, in Doomur Dullung tea is grown by a company called McLeod Russel, this company supplies tea to PG Tips, Typhoo, Fornum and Masons to name a few. it is a big company and has been providing tea for many years.  Tea is indeed big business and certainly in the UK has been a national drink for centuries. However, after watching this documentary I am now in the process of weaning myself off tea because I refused to buy a product  from a company who's workers are essentially in life servitude to a company which does not look after them. Alas the last bags of my PG Tips have been used, while I search for an alternative. I found PG Tips is owned by the multinational company called Unilever who are ultimately responsible.


Tea workers in this area of Assam should be protected in law, they have rights and conditions set in law but in India law and rights can't mean much at all. The tea companies provide housing for their staff, but this housing is atrocious. Rowlatt showed one worker who lived in a hovel like hut, it had only two rooms and six adults lived there.  The floor was mud. The outside toilet had long decayed and was of no use.  If they needed to piss or shit they now go into the tea fields and do it. I guess human excrement must also add to the flavour in some way.  A worker receives about £1 per day for their time, but they are expected to do long full days.  They have no facilities to wash and the water supply is a shared outside source in an area which is mosquito ridden. 

At the Behora Tea estate where Justin Rowlatt went he was accosted by the plantation manager. A pot bellied man who hostilely told Justin he should not of been interviewing workers or filming at the workers living areas. stating they were private areas. Even though Justine read out to him the right he had under the Indian Tea Act.  It was with arrogance the manager imposed himself. For here was one of the rich men, someone who did not have to piss or shit in his own back garden. The manager had a dozen men around him and invited Justin to his office. This was an error as they found themselves illegal held there and were not allowed out when asked. Eventually they were able to leave, but the arrogance of the McLeod Russel operative showed a company who bullied and ruled over their employees with a rod. 

Employees who had to spray plantations were not wearing protective clothing, yet the chemicals they used could be be fatal with long term use. In plantations even children were working. The utter poverty of India comes out in this instance. People do what the have to in order to get from one day to the next. When the children of these employees are taken to hospital the first thing the hospital must do is treat them for malnutrition because they just do not have enough food to eat. In a losing battle after initial treatment they go back home to the same poverty ran tea estate they slave away for. 

As for us the consumers, well, we read labels on boxes, things which indicate the tea companies are ethical, or rainforest compliant and words such as sustainable growth are used, but we never know and understand the full story behind what has been purchased. The green credential we get to read and see are there to make our conscience feel better and to hoodwink us into believing we are not just buying a wonderful product we are being good to the environment. Oh how marketing plays so much on our own ignorance and as it does so the marketing wins out. 

As I've said here, my tea consumption will now be radically changed, I am not going to add to the profits of companies who see their employees as slave labour and have no regard for their rights.

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-34173532
 

Poverty and Mental illness in families

I was sitting her thinking about why it might be that I have not seen my cousins for decades, in fact if I did see them I probably would not even recognise them. A conclusion I have come to is in two parts. Firstly, down to the social and cultural upbringing of my mother and her family. Which similarly applied to my father. When I and my two sisters were very young we barely if ever saw our uncles and aunts visit us, the main meeting point would be my mother's mother, or should I say my grandmother.  It would seem like most weekends, probably Sunday's we would go to their house, although I doubt now it was most weekends. At my grandmother's then we would see our cousins and uncles and aunts but no other times. It was our grandmother who in many ways bound us all together. The need for my own mother to see her and complain about the things she needed to complain about. More lately I thought my uncles and aunts grew up with my mother and they probably didn't get on with her so they probably didn't bother about seeing her. But this is not entirely true because my mother used to get on with her sisters. Her brothers were less so involved. Perhaps it was to do with the pecking order of birth more than anything else. As well they moved off and lived in other parts of London which were a couple of bus rides away, to say the least.

The second reason which I think is probably a large contributing factor is mental illness. My mother has in my opinion been mentally ill all her life. She has been unable to adapt and had difficulty raising three children. Her method of parenting was to shout at us, and to smack us when we were naughty. There was no reasoning with her. When we were young there were times when she would get into arguments with people on buses over seats.  She used to fight with my father, the fights were loud and aggressive and she'd resort to hitting him. I know she used whatever was available to her and at one time she used a high heeled shoe and managed to hit him in the head. He bled from it and never went to hospital. We were poor and lived in poverty but perhaps this was because my father was buying the house we lived in. He had to pay for the mortgage.  In those days 1960s, 1970s etc it was the thing to do. You bought your house. We had never lived in a socially rented property and I think for a short time may have lived with my father's mother. But I was so small at the time I am not sure if my memory is right. It's difficult trying to remember things that happened as a child.  The interaction of poverty and mental illness is of no doubt in my mind. At one point my mother tried to throw a brick at the next door neighbour. After this she was sent for a period to a residential mental health place. As kids we were farmed out to Uncles and aunts, except my smallest sister she was so very young then she was fostered for this period. It felt like the first time I saw her was when she must of been barely walking and running about. I just don't remember her at all as a baby and I should. So perhaps my mother did her brick throwing not long after giving birth to our youngest sister.

When I was the first child, life seemed good because I got a lot of love, but as soon as the other babies came along then it was like I didn't matter so much, or that was the way it felt. I can understand the term sibling rivalry very much.  My closest sister born about three years or possibly four after me I have never liked really. She has just been there. She has always had this depressivesness about her personality and now in her late forties it has not gone away. She lives with an alcoholic husband who in his turn has made their family life hell.  He can never seem to wait to get another drink, they live of welfare benefits and they are in poverty. As she like my mother has decided consciously never to work.

It could be my mother never had lessons in parenting, or just was one of those depressive type of people who just doesn't have the mental capacity to make the best of her situation. She is an awful cook, she never engaged in helping us to read or write or to show an interest in our studies. When I was a teenager I recall her once saying to me, she didn't know why it was I was trying to get exams at school, she wanted money, money on the table and I had to get a job to bring it in.  She said she would kick me out of the house if I did not give her enough keep money.  The thing was, this was not an idol threat, it was a real one, one which she meant very much. I'd witnessed too much of her behaviour while growing up to know this was not just something she said, to know it was real. Such as the time when my father got back from work and she locked the door and would not let him back in the house. She said she needed more money to live off and he was not coming back into the house until she had it. I remember his pleading through the door to let him in. The impact of episodes like this doesn't every go away, it's always there, it's part of my memory of growing up.

I understand, your chances in life as a growing person are severely limited when your parents don't have good parenting skills. When they don't understand the value of education or the value of mental resilience and overcoming obstacles. Poverty becomes the life, it suckers them down and they in turn through their constant strife suck their children down into the same poverty.  As much as this poverty is financial it is equally mental.  These were parents who did not understand it was possible to lift yourself out of this cycle, to fight against it, to be proactive and not let all your troubles drown you.

It was when I then left school I understood even more how my poor exam results meant I would be put on the scrap heap of career choices. Then I saw how employers discriminated by exam results who they would take on. It is a shame they could not look beyond them and understand someone who only had a D grade just didn't have the opportunities in life their A grade peers had.  Maybe if they knew a low grade kid probably had a different upbringing and had to go through a lot to get where they were just to achieve that grade. Maybe they wouldn't of been so discerning. This is something I detest employers for, their practice of not looking beyond what they think is the benchmark. There are other benchmarks in life which have some importance and could make a C grade employee the best they might have.  This is one fact, rich people have opportunities poor people never get another is poverty and mental illness go hand in hand to the extend the disadvantage becomes one perpetual disadvantage which is very difficult to break. 

This is why it is in the interests of the rich to stay rich, to ensure their belief of entitlement keeps them where they are and the poor never climb the ladder of social mobilisation. For rich people the world is best with injustice, and best to be kept that way.

Crack the Glass Floor

I was reading an article which makes the claim that stupid wealthy kids had more of an opportunity to get into well paid jobs than their smarter lower class equivalents.  This was the findings of a study by The Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission (SMCP), which has become termed the glass floor effect. It's interesting to call it a glass floor, a bit like the glass ceiling which prevents women from achieving higher success than they should. Glass must mean it is invisible but it's there, this glass however is probably toughened and even bullet proof. Such a glass floor or glass ceiling means social stereotypes remain valid stereotypes.  The parents of such stupid children have an advantage because of their social status and their money.  The findings are:

• They invest time and resources in their children's education.

• Better careers advice and guidance.

• Ability to move to the right catchment area to enable choice of school.

• Giving their children self confidence, making them resilient and guidance on how to lead.  

• The use of informal social networks to help their children into work.

• Help with unpaid internships.

In reading a press release it states there were a lot of soft skill sets which wealthier parents were able to instil their children.  When looking at these skill sets there are all basically psychological.  Self confidence, is perhaps one of the most valuable items an individual can have when needing to present themselves especially in an interview situation.  Without this what comes across is a train wreck of nerves. However, lower class and working class families do not always have this skill because they are so overly involved in making ends meet. The most predominant item on their radar is just being able to survive.  It is true there is a working poor in the UK, who just about live with the help of government subsidies in the form of  Working and Child Tax credits.  A support which is needed because wages are kept low, because labour is common in an employers market and because the skills needed to do a job are not what they have.  Being confident also means being able to be calm and collected when giving an answer to a question. Performance anxiety is more likely to affect someone who doesn't have self confidence than it does someone who does.

Lets also look at employers.  They clearly want the best employees they can get so they use the interview process and a cursory look at exam grades.  The first hurdle is to be shortlisted for an interview and this is what exam grades can help pass. As well as a competently completed application form. What an employer might look for is a set of grade "A" or grade "B" applications and then disgruard the applicants with grade "C."  They would not be able to see that perhaps some of those applicants who had these lower grades had a lot more to deal with in their family life than those who were advantaged enough to get higher grades.  Such as a manic depressive mother, or an alcoholic father or a parent with a disability and the child being a full time carer, or a large family with siblings where each child just does not get the time and attention needed.  Or being brought up in a household where poverty rules everything and forces choice on the family and especially children.  Opportunity is not afforded to these individuals because they do not get through the selection process. Whether they are motivated or not they must may not have the skill sets and the family support to raise out of their social class.  Some parents will even feel resentment if their children do better than they have done, get a better job or earn more money or get better grades. Their love comes with a barbed tail and spite veiled in what they say and do. Which is great for the self esteem issue as well.  They will deny such behaviours exist, but they would then be liars because I have seen it and experienced it with my own family.

Being lower class doesn't mean you are stupid, but it sure ensures you are at a disadvantage. When your peers think a good time is to sniff glue or get drunk, stealing is a socially acceptable act and rite of passage then the lessons you learn are dictators of your future.  The kids who fight against this  are considered outcasts and may even be bullied. For being different from the pack makes them an easy target. The in-group feel better about themselves and boost their own extraordinarily lacking self esteem. Working and lower class parents just don't have the time to help coach their children. They can't protect them and the bond which comes with small children is a lot easier to form than the bond which is needed to help a teenager become an adult. A teenager who is fighting against the system and fighting to understand who they are, where as those above the glass floor will have a lot more support.

Wealth brings opportunity and life chances.  Middle class kids are likely to have experienced holidays to farther places and had a diversity of life experience the working and lower class kids don't get exposure to, this can be seen in attitudes towards food.  The great frequenters of fast food chains are certainly not going to be rich kids. They will get the vitamins and minerals from foods they eat, so some will either have obesity problems or cases of malnutrition. Something again the more socially advanced families are sure not to have to worry about. Get a child from a working class family and show them a collection of herbs, then ask them to name them.  I bet the results would be startling when compared to the middle and upper classes.

This glass floor ensures not only is the country not run by the brightest people, it ensures the divide of the classes continues and continues in perpetuity.  For it is a strong family, especially one which sticks together where the glass floor which is really a glass ceiling is broken through.  This country we live in is not a meritocracy and this is a fact.

Benefits Britain come and get it

It is easy to get annoyed at some things, so this is what happens when I watch a TV program about people claiming welfare benefits who admit there is no incentive or desire to work because they get enough money from benefits.  The program on Channel 5 which is freely available on catch up TV is called "Benefits Britain" and each program follows the lives of benefits claimants who seem to enjoy the monies they receive through UK benefits but not contribute the same to the UK tax system as they take out of it except for paying VAT on goods they have to purchase. . 

 I saw a woman who was a refugee from Iran complain she did not have enough money to buy clothes and she wanted a bigger house, because in Iran her house had six bedrooms and servants, she never had to think about the cost of anything. Her husband who would smoke a packet of cigarettes every day in Iran would have to make one packet last four days.  They are too ill to work in the UK and are lost in the memories of what life used to be like, before she had a death warrant put on her.  Of course the one thing she did not say was she'd preferred being poor to being dead.  For this once rich family the benefits system they are claiming from is not generous enough.  Another woman living in Poland had her husband send money to her while he worked in the UK, he claimed child benefit for his son and this was sent to Poland.  She only sees her husband three or four times a year.  This is a family which is divided but is financially supported by a different country because the UK is in the EU.  Lastly was the case of a Romanian man who works in the UK and claims benefits because he has a wife and family in Romania.  The benefits he gets for his children in the form of Child Benefits and Child Tax Credits goes to rebuild his home in Romania.  The program showed this man return to Romania and help to supervise the improvements.  He boasts that in the next two or three years he expects to get about £50-£60k in benefits.  This is a phenomenal amount of money and is more than most people can earn. This is also very much the reason why there is an underlying and almost racist anger which is building up in the UK against the EU member states and membership of the EU.

Although facts and figures about what is put in by other non UK tax payers in to the tax system indicate more is contributed in than is taken out. This is not what such TV programs show.  They don't investigate the financial side and explain this, but they do sensationalise and therefore contribute to the anger indigenous UK inhabitants feel.  Therefore come a date in 2017 we may actually see the possibility of the UK people deciding or not whether to sever ties to the EU something many business people are unhappy to consider.

As for people taking advantage of the benefits system, this program shows there is something wrong with the entire system. There should be supporting authorities which train and help people into work, education for adults should be free, they need to be given self-esteem, help and shown they can be useful members of society.  Given all the possible opportunity they could have and then if they fail to take this chance they should be penalised.  The benefits system is wrong but so is every other societal system which which allows it to perpetuate.

Rebecca Minnock and child abduction

In the last week mother Rebecca Minnock has been plastered all over the news. All because she decided to run away with her three year old son Ethan.  She flagrantly went against a court order which had decided Ethan's father should have custody.  But in her own little mind Rebecca thought by running off with Ethan she would get publicity and the right to have her son back living with her.

This hardly makes sense to any normal thinking individual.  For the first thing which went through my mind was why on earth would the courts decide this little boy is better off with his father (Roger Williams) than his mother.  For in a way it is unusual, it was not shared custody as they had previously gotten, it was sole custody.  What the public is not privy to are the details of why the court heard in the father's favour. Gradually small snippets of information appear in the press, they are crumbs which lead to explain why the court made the decision they did. There is not much substance to them in any form at all but we are told Rebecca Minnock would not allow Ehan's father to see him. She made up stories, again what the allegations are we don't know however, we do know one social worker reported her as not "emotionally safe," what is meant by this is not elaborated. It does sound as though this woman has mental health issues. Certainly if she can not reason a small boy needs a father as much as a mother so should have shared custody then she has lost the plot. Further to this before giving herself up she then gives an interview to a right wing tabloid kiss-and-tell paper.  Of course they must of been jumping for joy in getting the interview, but it does her no good.  She had run from the police and from a family court order.  Yes there is no doubt she loves her child, but there are certainly question marks over why the authorities had decided she was not suitable to have shared custody of her own son.

The Rebecca's mother was jailed for obstructing the police search and so was a friend. When looking at the above picture you can see a very happy Roger and Ethan however when watching the tabloid video of Ethan with his mother and she has him sat on her knee asking him to kiss her which he does repeatedly it is like little Ethan is following cue as asked by mum.  Not because he wants to kiss her of his free will.  Thankfully Rebecca is now seen in an even worse light with the authorities, the abduction of her son has been nothing more than a big publicity stunt and I can't help think it has gone wrong for her or caused more suspicions than she anticipated.  Unfortunately her actions may incite other parents to be copy cats, but in their cases they may not get as much air time and even if their causes were legitimate the water and public sympathy has already been muddied.

Thomas Cook make profit from childrens death

These beautiful two children died whilst on a holiday in Corfu. A holiday which was arranged through the company Thomas Cook.  In an incident that happened 8 years ago - October 2006.  The Shepherd family were on holiday taking a half term break when the chalet they were in was flooded by carbon monoxide fumes.  It was odd the day before the children (6 and 7 years old) were complaining of not feeling well, and the next evening they died. Their parents also suffered from monoxide poisoning but were rushed to hospital and managed to pull through. The hotel they stayed at was not owned by Thomas Cook just subcontracted to Thomas Cook, it was the Louis Corcyra Beach Hotel. The holiday had cost Mr and Mrs Shepherd £2000 and the lives of their children. Thomas Cook had not taken any liability for the condition of this chalet, but they of course don't mind taking the profit from selling the holiday.

A gas engineer examined the boiler to the chalet and described the boiler as being "bodged and botched" a safety valve which would automatically kick in if fumes were leaking had been purposefully short circuited, because of this it would not automatically cut off.  There was no flue connection to the outside, so effectively these toxic fumes had no where to escape other than through a wall adjacent to the children's bedroom.  They were gassed to death. It took these 8 years for Mr and Mrs Shepherd to bring this case to the Wakefield Coroner's Court the children's mother Sharon Wood also attended the court hearing.

Thomas Cook in turn sued the owners of the hotel for this event.  They were awarded damages of one million pounds.  They did not divulge to the Shepherds of the legal action they took neither did they offer any form of compensation to the Shepherds.  In effect Thomas Cook appear to have gained £3.5 million from the death of two little children and thought they had got away from any liability. To add more despicable behaviour they will be giving a bonus of nearly £11 million to Harriett Green the previous Chief Executive of the company during this tragedy.  Green refused to see the parents of these children and sees herself as having a completely clear conscience.  Funny how it used to be that the buck stopped at the top, in reality the buck has nothing to do with anyone at the top. They just carry on business as usual, or not in this case. But still drawing their immensely large earnings, which Green did even though she had a period of gardening leave. Green should be up for manslaughter charges it is about time the buck and responsibility did stop at the top. This is one person who puts a value on life that is her own and no one else. If they are children she has not comment and just does her best not to be exposed to any kind of publicity.

The inquest 

I hereby vow, I will never go on a Thomas Cook holiday in my life for what can only be deemed as profiting from the deaths of young children. If I can personally ensure that any other potential Thomas Cook customer does not go with Thomas Cook because of their actions over this news article I will.

Danny Alexander and the people of Inverness

Danny Alexander has been a pretty fortunate man, he is a member of a minority political party which is unlikely to return to political power again for the next 70 years. I say 70 years because it was 70 years prior to now when they were last in power.  He has had the backing from the people of Inverness, but his power in parliament has been disproportionate to his actual authority.  At the next election the people of Inverness will decide whether he continues in power. Quite frankly it would be terrifying if looking at the Liberal Democrats record to think he can return.  This is a man who should never be allowed back into politics again and should be booted out for good. In effect the Liberal Dems have supported a nearly completely Tory government to power and to let them stay in power.

People of Inverness a vote for Danny Alexander is a vote for David Cameron, you might be liberal minded but you have to ask yourself are you actually Tory minded.  Were I living in Inverness I would support the party which most represents me, and it is far away from London's seat of government.  I'd vote SNP, don't be a tory by proxy be your own person and wave good bye to Danny Alexander.

Virgin Trains now monopolise all rail into Scotland

I once went on a Virgin train to Scotland, they have the West coast line. It was a flashy new train and at first I thought it was good but as the journey progressed I realised some pretty awful shortfalls existed. I never travelled on another Virgin train again, instead ensuring I took the East Coast line.  What I didn't like was the lack of luggage space, the lack of seating room there was no refreshments trolly, the very inferior upholstery of the seat, hermetically sealed train doors and cramped, cramped conditions. It felt like the European version of what getting on a train is like in India.  Virgin trains were designed not for passenger comfort, they have been designed for making money for Virgin. However in future I will have no choice, as there will be no other method of travelling to Scotland than being sat on uncomfortable and ultimately unsafe Virgin train. For all the old rolling stock which is presently quite spacious will be scrapped for new chicken farm rolling stock to ferry passengers from one destination to another at a price. 

This is ludicrous! Virgin have a monopoly on travel to Scotland by rail and it should not be allowed, there has got to be something absolutely fundamentally wrong with this. It has got to be illegal, why has it been allowed to continue? Why has this not been looked at? Is this Tory government nothing but a corrupt group of toffy nosed rich lads scratching each others backs and any other itch they find needs revealing? For the way I see it they have failed the people they represent on many fronts. They have allowed what has got to be an illegal monopoly to take place.

Something should be done about this!!!

Iain Duncan Smith and his porkie pies

Today Iain Duncan was invited to the Sunday Politics show and quizzed by Andrew Neil on the Universal Credits new benefits system. Now if you were to take this interview and listen just to what IDS was saying you would of thought the UC idea was all his own, he Implemented it and with the help of some outside experts he brought it all was fine and dandy. However, the reality is there is a lot more history to this than what he is saying. The words which came out of IDS' mouth were as close to telling porky pies and you can get. It is as if IDS has got Korsakov's syndrome and doesn't know the true facts of what has happened before. He even makes it sound as if the reset for UC was all of his idea and he was the one behind it because he decided the Big Bang of UC was not going to work as it was the old traditional way.  Why is it the Secretary of State for the Department of Social Security can say these things and think the world is naive and believe everything he says.  For it is just a matter of a few clicks on the internet and there you can find the true reasons about what happened. The turning point and reset can all be put down to a rather embarrassing grilling at a Public Accounts Committee meeting, and the many other meetings since have all brought to the surface a lot of disturbing facts about the costs of UC, the maladministration and the poor management headed by IDS himself.

Points of interest

The write off, of IT costs at the start it was £37 million now it has risen to £697 million.
The current claimant figure of 40,000 when it should of been one million by 2014.
The fact only simple claims (single claimants) can be done automatically.
Claimants get paid on a monthly basis with the emphasis of payments direct to claimant.
The frightening prospect of UC being rolled out to families shortly.
Mainstay allegation that UC would ensure people in work are better off - not true.
Grievous doubts held by the Major Project Authority over the entire UC program.
UC now becoming a tool to help government reduce the Welfare Benefits bill.
The DWP now have £2 billion reduction in costs since 2010 - at what other costs?
JSA claimants now have a 7 day waiting period than a 3 day waiting period till entitlement begins.
IDS believes the Welfare Benefits bill has been reduced by £6 billion over the parliament - not true.
The OBR yearly Welfare Benefits projects since this government has been lower than the actual spend.
Those of working age and in work claim more in benefits than those out of work.
A factor in the fall of unemployment is the increased use of sanctions (also reducing the benefit bill).
Welfare benefits are subsidising those workers on low wages or minimum pay.
Single people are expected to live in a shared accommodation until the age of 35.

The march onwards of doomed UC continues, as the DWP have released dates for new tranches of Job Centre Plus where claims can be made. The death-trap to this is related to the dates. They are after the general election, effectively whatever government is in power will either stick with them or have to make a radical decision in a short period of time. In the meantime we see IDS yet again being interviewed on the Andrew Marr show (15.02.15.) during which it can be witnessed IDS gives away his "tells" each time he states something he doesn't believe in. Or simply, to put it pretty bluntly a lie. He has sharp intakes of breath and frogs in his throat. When I see him talk it is a person who is divorced from reality, a person who does not have any connection at all with poverty, someone who has in many respects had a charmed life. A complete hypocrite.  He stated UC had saved 600 million, he of course was not asked any difficult questions because Andrew Marr is a pussy of an interviewer who should seek a job writing children's stories rather than hard core political interrogation, he is not up to the job. But the BBC is too polite to give Andy the boot, possibly on account of a sympathy vote which is unspoken but tacitly recognisable.

Only if we are lucky will the Tory speed march to economic doom will be allowed to continue. If there was a god it would be time to pray, but there isn't, it's better to spend your efforts on lottery tickets. Things will continue to get worse in the UK and there is not a single political party with enough forward out of the box thinking able to take us out of it.  As for IDS, just maybe in a few months he will not be on the front bench, mind I'm sure he would do well keeping one of the shadow or back benches warm. Getting all twisted up inside as his record on UC is examined in greater detail or as the changes destroy more lives. This may seem pessimistic, but watch this space.

Change, death and taxes - guess what can be avoided

I was of the mind these three things were immutable to life, unless you happened to be a gold fish. In which case as doing yet another circuit of your pretty bowl it would all be all seem new again no matter what time of day, due to the existence of an exceedingly short term memory. It was the not very honourable head up his own arse Georgie porgie Osborne who made a budget speech saying he intended to clamp down on tax avoidance schemes.  As though startled I recall looking up thinking to myself well that sounded interesting, considering most of his rich friends are probably running those schemes. Or perhaps it was a measure which was going to bring in millions of tax revenues from the likes of Google, Apple, Starbucks or Amazon.  Well whatever it was the home front news on tax income from these very wealthy companies is about as informative as the amount of tax they pay.  Not much at all.  In fact the creation of the General Anti Avoidance Rule (GAAR) may be of benefit to the many tax dodgers there are because it defines in such narrow ways what is an unacceptable avoidance in paying fare tax.  It's wonderful. Every fat cat company with a few bob in its pocket can now ensure they are rightfully dodging the bullet of tax.  Tax which pays the welfare bill, tax which should be funding schools, paying for the NHS or building better efficient infrastructure stays again in the swelling pockets of the wealthy.

In a similar vein Barak Obama has now decided to get real tough with the multinational corporations who are registered in Luxemburge or anywhere else. He is saying they will be liable for 14% tax on profits made in the US.  Again at first sound this comes across and a good idea, whether it will work in reality is another thing. I'm sure those companies will have multiple smoke and mirror strategies to hide away the profit they make. The wonderful phrase "creative accounting" pops in mind. Something mere mortals of the taxpaying world do not know anything about. The news reported the US could have an additional income of $238 billion if Obama's strategy works. 

In the meantime the UK with it's offshore crown dependencies has still is unable to lock the safe door and grab back what belongs to the people.  This is infuriating, nearly British Islands hold billions in money of which a proportion should of been put back in our very own coiffures. You could say there is an engendered arrogance the rich and multinationals now have. For money can be transferred around the world at the touch of a button and if you have enough of it it doesn't matter where you live most of the year as long as you own a passport to a country where they turn a blind eye and genuflect at your feet.

Death can not be avoided, change is inevitable but taxes the rich and ultra rich can now safely say are a thing of the past and not applicable to them.

The Rich they don't just screw each other they screw the poor as well

The working classes and the poor of the UK are becoming poorer. There are several factors which take place in this, a recession which inevitably makes those with little have even less. A government who's only fiscal policy out of this recession is to cut back spending on the essential items which should not be cut back on. Fire brigade, the NHS, education, welfare benefits for the needy and vulnerable and the reduction of taxes for the rich.  When the top one per cent of wealth in the UK is not trickling down, a fallacy held since the oppressive Thatcherite government of the 1980s. So as a consequence the Rich are getting Richer and Richer. It is beginning to feel like we have stepped back in time by two hundred years. Where if you were born poor your life would be in continuous servitude to the wealthy people, which was a reality in Britain while the Empire built up it was not working classes who had their income, working conditions or general living conditions improve, it was the working classes who served and died for the rich in society.  When countries of the world hold memories of colonial rule, it is the rule of the British they generally refer to (though not all) but of the British it was not the general public who were colonialists it was the upper echelons of the
society.  So now for the last 40 years the poor people are viewed as the poor stupid people of the UK, their previous aspirations of equality and moving up the imaginary ladder of society have been sucked away by the leeches (Rich people) of society. Yet this is not just a British phenomenon for it is now said the top 85 riches people in the world own 50 percent of the world's wealth.

If my life can not be realised by equality, if I am going to be considered a non entity in this world to genuflect to the Rich and politicians who do not represent me then I have no voice. What have I to lose?  If I will see those I love sucked in to deprivation and poverty and know they are worthy of more, are capable of more but are never given the opportunity for the word opportunity has been hijacked by the elite, then what is to be done?  These persons who own the world I will never know and they have no care my my kin or class. Those who have not worked and got dirty hands.  The rich, the super rich, the aristocrats, bankers, accountants, tax dodging and tax avoiding, money grabbing arse-holes. How am I to react?  My discontent will get stronger, my anger once tempered will raise itself and not be held down. If I am not a lone individual and the 99 per cent population get to feel this way the revolution has already began. This is when the world could flip and be aware whoever you are for things may change and they will not be the same again.

The difference between the rich and the poor has gotten so wide middle classes are being  pushed into extinction. They to feel discontent. With the 99 per centers now in a state of recognising this the world has got to change. I hope it does, I don't prey but were I a believer I'd prey it changes. For otherwise not too far in the distant future this place we call a country will be fractured and chaotic. If the 1 per centers do not get on side and see their own existence could be at risk to stay in gluttony they will become victims of an almighty backlash. One which will be like a tsunami, it will reverberate everywhere. The rich get richer the poor poorer and this world can not sustain it, not in any way. Something must change.

Je suis Charlie

Je Suis Charlie

This is to all those fundamentalists who misguidedly think murdering innocent people justifies their beliefs to take away the freedom of others. 

If we acted the same way as the fundamentalists they'd never be allowed an opinion, so why should they impose their opinion on the rest of us?

And another message from the freedom to live and express oneself which Europeans believe in.

Fuck You.