Three mobile network make it difficult to leave

I very much dislike phoning a company to find they have a service which comes out of a developing country. This says something to me.  Such as the pursuit of profits means the cheapest service they can provide. Service which is delivered by individuals who speak English with a distinct accent and clearly have never lived in the UK. Three is one such company to outsource its services.

In what can only be described as a deliberate bully tactics, Three mobile phone service this morning belligerently talked over me and obstructed supplying a PAC code. If there was any doubt about trying to leave Three to get a better telephone deal I am now 100 per cent committed to ensure
I do get a better deal and within three minutes of putting down the phone had already contacted another mobile phone provider and taken out a direct debit. Whereas the phone call to Three had taken a total of twenty-three minutes and repeated requests with the words "please give me a PAC code."  It didn't seem to matter to them though, the request I made was like water falling off a duck's back. As if it had meant nothing at all as if my words didn't matter to them. And the reality was my words didn't, because they were the words Three didn't want to hear, they didn't want to know this long term customer was about to leave their service. So like holding onto a cliff and about to fall into a crocodile infested water Three held on to my phone call for dear life.

I was polite all the time, and am sure if I'd had given them the opportunity to drop the call they would of, because this is the way such companies play it. Get the customer so irate they will say something which means the call is terminated.  This creates a catch 22 situation where the only way to resolve the situation is yet to phone up again.  Ringing up and then getting disengaged is a strategy in itself to ensure the customer continues with their contract and is unable to cease it. In this way Three can go on for days ensuring they'd eek out a further time where a customer must pay for a service no longer wanted.

Perhaps they didn't understand the character of the person they were talking to, for once I had vaguely made up my mind to leave Three but was then confronted with brick walls of Indian service clients wanting to stop the cancellation from taking place the more obstinate I got to be, the more necessary it became to ensure this contract would be ended. The only regret I have on this matter is not recording the phone conversation and also not advising the conversation was being recorded and would be submitted to Ofcom if the very reasonable request was not complied with. I got there in the end or hope so. For I'll not actually find out until I get to see my bank statement and check they have finished taking direct debits from my account. Fingers crossed another phone call will not be called for.

And so, time for another election

For the second time in two years, an election lays at our doorstep. The disaster of the 2015 election had meant yet another five years of Tory rule, but if this one is also won by the Tories it will guarantee their power tenure will stretch to 12 years in total. Given the outcome of the last election I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen and a deep seated dread hangs over my head. The dread is there are more Tory voters out there than any other party, the result possibly being another win and the utter and complete decimation of the UK. I do not say this lightly. With a deficit now at 1.7 Trillion pounds in total and the mantra of what is good for business and the economy is good for the UK actually being a oxymoron. It's true we need to make the UK a productive country, one which makes goods and in doing so also employs people. The two do go hand in hand. Yet the realities of a Tory government have been to improve unskilled employment pool by reducing wages and increasing the selection and devaluing those who do have skills.  It's been done by the deliberate run down of the welfare system under the guise of encouragement to work, when what it really is, is blackmail into work scenario. As job seekers are made to sign a commitment to look for work and are expected to collect evidence they are actively seeking work in order to continue getting benefits. As for the disabled, the gradual erosion of employment support allowance and adherence to work capability interviews. Which are interviews designed in such a way to remove claimants off disability benefits by a senseless point based system which checks whether they are able to do the most menial of actions and concludes the claimant is able to work. The future could be the entrenched continuation of this process which does nothing but keep politicians and bureaucrats in jobs.

Pensioners have been saved by the triple lock. It is the vote buyer, if pensioners are kept sweet they will vote, the funny thing is the pensioners do vote for Tories and have helped keep them in power. Just as have those who have been fed the lies of scape goating migrants as parasites to the welfare system. It's completely untrue. A more salient reason the UK has been kept in this prolonged depression is the failure to leash the big businesses. The businesses which make millions if not billions and yet don't pay taxes or contribute to the UK. For example Thames Water, which used to belong to us all and was then sold off has paid it's share holders £1.16 billion in dividends between 2006 and 2015. Yet the tax contributions from this company indicate multiple years where they pay no corporation tax. So the large refugee family living in two houses with no one working and getting state handouts are put on the front page of the tabloids, yet the monies paid to them are less than dandruff on the shoulders of fat cat executives at Thames Water. If histrionics come into it, were the tabloids to run a front page on how much lost tax from big corporations could pay towards schools, hospitals and welfare then perhaps the voters would understand more why Tory leadership is literally killing this nation. Whether pensioners or the misinformed working classes catch onto this and understand they have been hoodwkinked by a dead cat thrown on the table is another thing.

I once read a Greek philosopher considered the common people should not be given the right to vote in politics. His argument was they were not educated enough or understanding enough of the political systems. They were swayed far too easily by emotional argument. On the face of it this seems true, especially when I look around me at the political literacy of colleagues at work, some have near to no understanding of politics. And for the politicians this is wonderful, they love ignorance because they then don't have to face difficult and uncomfortable questions. Imagine what the country would be like if every single voter had at least a A'level in politics. Then were to yet again listen to politicians and repeatedly ask themselves why am I being fed bull shit, why is this politician avoiding giving a straight answer, what exactly are they saying? I necessary condition every listener should have is to firstly listen with scepticism, examine realities, question every statistic quoted by drilling into it and examine every denigrating remark against opposition politicians because this is usually a method of throwing the voter off the scent. Knowledge is and always will be the great leveller but it requires study and effort and our current government dislikes it very much when voters get a mind of their own.

Teresa May doesn't like the public

It is painfully obvious Teresa May does not like to canvas and certainly doesn't like to engage in the throws of a debate which could lead anywhere. For her politics has to be controlled, it has to be engineered and a script written. She must be prepared before she gives a speech or an interview, and in doing so knows exactly what she will talk about and will not talk about. This has been evident in her interview with Andrew Marr when told nurses were using food banks her response was to say the reasons were complicated. So the thought of having a TV debate is terrifying, she really doesn't like the stress of the camera or a debate which could meander off to anywhere. She is afraid and so she should be. For in reality even Cameron's debate with Corbyn was somewhat lacklustre so the same would be more so with May. When going off script she is like a cat thrown in the sea.

Whether the electorate or media like it or not, opinion polls are always used as guidance to tell us where we are now. Yet the last election showed they were woefully wrong. Their predictions completely missed the target and why might this be such a salient point? For simply the nasty Tory party have been shown to hold a twenty point lead, so what if they are so wrong now and what if this lead is no a lead at all. There is a gamble when any election takes place, but there is more of one when it was not needed. May just did not have to go to election, she has forced it because she saw an opportunity and she still believes the opportunity exists, that she will not only win but in doing so will completely wipe out Labour, perhaps for a generation. All because Labour have lost momentum even thought they have Momentum, they are not showing votes in the polls. Like any good Tory, May has ensured the relevant boundary changes have happened to help strengthen her position, to put her party back in power. She also sees the force of the media as backing her and has a hubris of invincibility about her. Corbyn appears as always to be his own worse enemy, but perhaps so is May for now we are getting to see her spots, getting to see exactly how wide that yellow streak is down her back. Like a chinese general Loa Tzu, she believes she is in a fight she can not lose. However she may well lose because of her own actions. By alienating the media, by engaging in BREXIT talks with the same stupidity you'd only normally see from Trump. She has made it seem BREXIT equates to a vote for the Tories, but this is losing the plot entirely, BREXIT and voting Tory are two very different things. Perhaps she hopes by clouding the waters no one will see her slight of hand as she pulls out of the hat a red white and blue bunny rabbit.

Mark my words, if May doesn't do a TV show and doesn't debate on live TV she will come off the worse for wear, just as she is now looking rather craggy and old. She needs to take a seat, sit on the sidelines and keep her trap shut. But of course she can't, this will be her downfall.