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Showing posts from 2023

A New Year's resolution?

Is anyone still believing that Russia is a peace-loving nation? Frankly, they are deluded. There is just one thing autocratic nations believe in and that is world domination. They simply want to have installed puppet regimes all over the world. You only have to read their manifestos or political outpourings, written or verbal and you will know! What I cannot understand is our western approach to this. It is basically very similar to 1939 when another deluded politician went to see a dictator and listened to the same weasel words and returned waving a nice piece of paper saying – Peace in our time! That peace lasted less than the time you need to boil an egg. Why we, in the western world still believe there are peaceful intentions with the autocratic regimes, Russia, China, Iran and others, it will only encourage more acts of violence. It is seen in the Ukraine, Israel (Gaza) and in the Pacific where China is rattling the sabre. And we in the western world are very happy to ignore all o

Compassion with tax payers?

We should have compassion with tax payers in this country. On the news this morning we are told that it is very likely that Council Tax might go up by up to 10% next April. Wow, so for a middle range stone built house in the valleys of Wales which at the moment is about £180 per month, would go up to nearly £200 per month! You must excuse me, but what are we, the general public, actually getting for that money? Besides all the other taxes we must pay, 20% PAYE, some 10% NI, the BBC charge which is basically a tax and that is also going up and would be about £160 per year. The vehicle tax plus associated costs like insurance. The list is endless. You may ask where it is all going but when you see and hear about all the charlatans who are stuffing themselves with our money, you begin to see the problem. Just look at local councils, the ‘top’ people can earn anything from £100,000 to £200,000 per annum basically for doing less than the average 80 year old pensioner walking around on crutc

What are you teaching, eh?

  If anyone thought there is something wrong with education in this country, give them a medal! How many times have we said or thought, "heavens above, what is going on in our schools"? What are our young children being taught? What are they shown? And yes, here we are again, this Saturday it is reported that a school, a secondary school, in one of the lessons asked children whether they thought the Hamas attack was fair. This was reported on Mumsnet, a website where parents discuss some issues arising. Without any doubt, whatever a teacher’s personal opinion, they should be very very careful about how they approach issues like war, its accompanying atrocities and without seemingly taking sides. One may ask where did this teacher come from? What university did they attend? What indeed is their quality to teach? My daughter is a teacher, she attained a BSc in a Life science followed by a PGCE. Now in England apparently a PGCE is not needed to teach but a PGCE can give you a be

Why all these excuses?

  Anyone for thinking this is a funny world? Actually it is not a funny world unless you use the word in a negative way, it is a tragic world. A tragic human world. Humans festering on the planet like “Granny Grey’s”. By the way a granny grey is a colloquial slang word here in the UK for the woodlouse. And I have plenty of them in the garden, even coming into the house from time to time just to say hello! Anyway, I am referring to the strange way we here in the western world have reacted to the wars, both in Israel and in the Ukraine. We seem to be viewing these as some sort of Hollywood movie. Yet when real blood is being spilled the leftie liberals come out of the woodwork. Screaming about ‘war criminals’ among other interesting words. But what do we think war is? An afternoon tea with cakes in the sunshine? War is when people leave all there senses behind and become like bloodthirsty leeches. Indiscriminately killing, maiming and raping. Yes, this has happened in all the wars foug

Sensitive issues? Maybe, not sure...

Woke Britain? Noooh, really? Strike me down with a goose feather. But when Universities stop playing the national anthem at graduation ceremonies, you may well ask, What TF? Obviously the rationale here is to be seen and, here is that great word we all love, ‘inclusivity’. It tends to go along with ‘Multicultural’. Both words don’t mean a thing. Although the BBC thinks it is a Must do! The trouble with multiculturalism is that people talk about it a lot but do not actually want to do it. Same with inclusivity. Black culture tends to all stick together in a ghetto, just look at Bradford, Leeds etc. That’s where the sub-continent Indians and Pakistanis tend to congregate. Cardiff, the capital of Wales is exactly the same, Grangetown and Ely districts. The first thing coloured people shout when you mention anything like that is ‘RACISM’, obviously they do not understand the issues. The issues are simple – when you come to a different country you assimilate, you quickly learn the language,

A bit more on Universal Matter(s)

  The various discussions, questions and replies on Quora sometimes are also rather interesting. Particularly those about the Universe. Now I know very well that loads of it are simply what I would call ‘day-dreams’. Others are difficult to get your head around. For instance the idea about the Universe expanding. Now, the word suggests something enlarging. Plus that all movement of that nature has a beginning where the volume was much less. Hence the theory of the Big Bang. The other side of that idea of expansion is , what is it expanding into? And also if we started out as a finite amount of matter then expansion in the end will have expanded the distance between matter such as stars, galaxies, dust, whatever is in the volume will be so great we would not be able to see anything. That is of course, if we were around at that time. The other question concerns the idea of whether the Universe is a closed entity. Visualise a sphere of gigantic proportions but it has a border. Everything

Universal thoughts? Yep, there is space...

There is quite a lot of chatter on the various social media platforms about ‘our’ Universe. Talk about ‘Quantum States’, ‘ Big Bang’, ‘Expansion’, ‘Star Travel’ amongst other interesting headers. Recently I read that it is likely we, that is to say our galaxy, sits in a ‘Void’. An area where the cohesion between matter is less than elsewhere. Even better, that this has facilitated life as we know it. Then there is the debate of Universe vs Multiverse. I think the main problem with all of this is that we just do not know. The Universe as we see and experience it is basically a book of which we have only just read the first two pages. It does not mean we could not read more of it, of course. But it will take an extraordinary long time. It could even mean the human race being extinct before we came to the last few chapters!  Let’s try to have a look at where we are today – we have stepped onto the moon and have placed a few expensive trinkets on the surface of the planet Mars. We have sen

Some more - Looking through the Keyhole...

A golden nugget of text appeared in one national newspaper. It was about that extraordinary goofy show ‘I am a Celebrity, Get me out of here’. It was under the heading of Great TV Lies and Delusions. It is basically a bit of a caustic comment on what one of the contestants, Nella Rose had said. ‘I have never started something in my life and finished it’, and next ‘ A McHappy Meal says she is lying’. Well, that put paid to the woke business then! Having stopped laughing I have to say showing the vociferous Nella up for what she stands for. What is wrong with young people. I do think she could be a pretty good politician, those characters also start a multitude of projects, talk endlessly about it but never finish them. Anyway, people like that I believe, are the ones guilty of warming up the globe, too much hot air. But the females of this world are quite the feisty bunch aren’t they? Especially the American ones. What happened to the great women of the Victorian era? Those who travelle

Get me out of here - OK but where to?

We may think that the world is small planet peopled by protesting humans in the richer parts for more stuff to get their mitts on and peopled in the po o rer parts where they have to live on two grains of wheat a day and have to make do with water in which cattle have p*ssed. And then we have the what I think is known as Generation X or Z. Dim-witted, no-brained twenty somethings that think they know it all and want to change the planet so that it is fit for robots. Take a look at what is on show in Australia, known as ‘I am a Celebrity, Get me Out of Here’. Showcasing some of the best opiniated characters. A politician, although he can’t remember. A singer, song-writer, nice guy who has left his stunning wife to do their TV slot in the UK. Also to cap it all a former boxer, and a female food critic who on ‘Medical’ grounds has thrown in the towel. Then we have an American youngish woman, sister of an singing prodigy. But I believe there is something not quite right about America and

Knife crime, a sign of a sick society?

The UK is not the only country having problems with its society. Dublin, the capital of Ireland has as well. A young girl and a woman, could be her mother were stabbed. And before you could drink your coffee youngsters and criminals were rampaging around the centre. Setting alight a police car and a transport bus. Plus of course the usual looting efforts. Obviously followed in great detail on TV News channels and wonderful discussions about what we should be doing. A scenario which is all too familiar. First we have the action, followed by film reports, followed by discussions about who is at fault. Followed by calls for the police to do more. Followed by politicians discussing what has to be done. Afterwards everyone goes home thinking about what a great job they have done. Except the victims are silently crying at home feeling bereft and let down by the society they also belong to. Knife crime has been a scourge for a very long time. It is an easy, too easy, weapon to obtain. You can

Ask a pertinent question...

A pertinent question was asked and written about in the Telegraph. This is a newspaper but also with a broad reach on the Internet. The question came about because the reporter Douglas Murray was in Israel and many asked him ‘What happened to Britain'? Well, it is a question I have asked myself a number of times as well. As I have mentioned before, I came to the UK in the Seventies, yes there were problems then but those were to do with the fights between Unions and the Government. Remember the man called Heath? But now, the focus has shifted to lifestyles and individual gratification. The famous, ‘I know what I want and I want it right now’. And ‘I don’t care what you think or want, the only way is my way’. Instead of a straightforward fight between downtrodden, lowly paid workers and ever-more grasping employers as well as a government that tried to be a dishonest broker (nothing new here then) we now have to suffer loud, very woke, liberal leftie groups clamouring to be treated

The Home Secretary has gone, long live the Home Secretary.

Blimey, for once we had a HS (Home Secretary) saying the things that have to be said. Surely, anyone can see that political demonstrations such as have been happening lately are merely a basis for mayhem? So, now the lady has lost her job simply because our government has gone woke. Now we are in the business of pandering to all sorts of liberal idiots just in the belief that it will maintain a peaceful existence. Peaceful for who m though? As has been indicated now by many commentators, Britain has become ungovernable. We have had a procession of billy-goats, nanny-goats, even a few elephants all vying for the annual Pulitzer prize given for the best woke performance in government. Well, Suella is no more. Luckily she is still alive and now has become a dangerous backbencher. Did I say sometime government in the UK is rudderless and not fit for purpose? Every day there is something happening that shows it, without any doubt. Anyway, perhaps Shappsie is in line for another pr

Fit for purpose? Who, what?

One of the problems about demonstrations is that they tend to be extremely one-sided. It is in the nature of the beast, so to say. When it is reported that thousands are demonstrating about ‘Free Palestine’ and other slogans which I am not going to repeat, you can figure out that no-one really is thinking about a possible solution. To simply ‘free Palestine’ if there ever was such an entity, will not solve the problem in any way. In Britain where we are used to a type of democracy which also has problems from time to time, we have little idea about the mindset of those who live in the Arab influence sphere. To set our values onto them, will not work. We might think that Israeli politicians are warmongers but we would be wrong. They are doing no-more that we have done for centuries and that is trying to impose influence and control over land. Indeed, as necessary by military methods. For years now, even before the world wars, arguments over who owns what and where in that area of the M

Problems on the streets, yeah but where exactly?

Anyone remember Enoch Powell? The Conservative politician who was minister of Health in the Sixties. He was the politician of the (in)famous words ‘Soon there will be more of them than of us’ and ‘There will be blood on the streets’. Or words very similar to that. So, what was he referring to? Well, he presumably was referring to the influx of immigrants. But also their propensity to have more children than the then ‘norm’ of two. Personally, I believe there was never a ‘norm’ but presumably it was the ‘ideal’ number, having 2 children, as not to overpopulate the planet. Well, whatever, but I think he had a point. Looking at the present situation, the resigning of British politicians with Middle Eastern roots or just following the Islam faith, it seems somewhat a prophetic couple of sentences outed more than 50 years ago. There are no rivers of blood but one wonders – have the battle lines been drawn? I am just an observer, I have no problem with immigrants except to say that it is a p

Safety on the NET, is it possible?

Rather than typing some political diatribe, this morning I was listening to a financial discussion. In particular about the amount of money paid back by the banks on account of cyber crime. That is to say the crimes like criminals impersonating banks or service industries like the power companies, and those are not the only ones! Billions of pounds are lost every year. Well, that might be so, but again despite hundreds of warnings, people generally do not seem to be aware of the danger. I too get the occasional phone call from the bank and almost immediately know it is not the bank. The person calling, a nice lady, sounds far too friendly and starts by saying ‘Am I speaking to Mr ???’. Well, my bank does not speak like that, I can tell you. And that’s the way I like it. Although phonecalls are not often received, one can easily receive an official looking letter, again you have to ask yourself ‘What is it, why do I get this?’ If you are not sure, phone the bank on their official tele

A few succinct observations?

People are talking about the planet being in trouble. I’d like to rephrase that, the planet is not in trouble, we are. Humanity is in trouble. We have and still are, fouling our nest. And like all nests that have that treatment, it will fall down, rotten, disheveled and no longer fit to harbour the life that built it. For those with the right mindsets, clearly thinking individuals, it all seems a lost cause because the situation is quite clear. The general public across the globe know full well what is happening. The media is showing the extent every single day. Be they storms, wars, uprisings, droughts, heat, ice melting, polar icecaps disappearing before our very eyes, we see it all in glorious full colour 3D! Yet is anyone changing their behaviour? Eh? What do you mean, changing behaviour? Me? Are you mad, I need a holiday in Spain. Yes, that is the general answer to the problems. It is the old Dutch saying ‘Na mij de zondvloed’. Translated – ‘After me the deluge’, For me it simply

An interesting view? You decide...

As may well be known I do read quite a bit, yes sometimes rubbish but mostly stuff that interests me. I read Quora but again I must say a lot of that is essentially, what you would call, cr*p. Sometimes though you read something interesting. Someone called Fred Bloggs, name not his own obviously but an attempt to stay anonymous. He (or she) had an interesting look upon the question of authoritarianism versus democratic government. He/she might even be a British citizen, seeing he/she used the word harboured and not the US spelling harbored. Whatever... I quote: Because authoritarian states soon become failed states, and when that happens, they have a habit of making their internal problems, external problems. History teaches us this many times over. Here’s why… Firstly, it is important to understand that authoritarianism can come about for many different reasons: for example, through direct aggression (e.g., a coup, invasion) or even through democratic processes, when people are suff

Let's make our minds up whether we are British?

It is rather interesting to read some posts on the website of Quora, the Question & Answer software. I have picked the post below as something close to my own views. The funny thing is that loads of posts thereon are anonymous. Or they are answered according to a question you cannot read. Even so, if you wish to read similar posts, only one way look on Quora. It comes in a variety of languages. But coming back to what the post below says, although presumably an US based discussion, can pertain to the two-party system in the UK as well. Also the religious part as we have a plethora of denominations. The Church of England and its sister denominations in Wales and Scotland are also pretty well looking to serve themselves. The falling congregations are a strong sign things are not as they would want them to be. In a previous post on my blog I did mention the Churches’ predilection to pander to the woke community and so becoming part of it. Switching off many possible worshippers. As

A view on the world today...

For a while now I have been writing this blog, it is not widely seen but nevertheless it allows me to put my views onto a wider platform. The posts could be seen as displaying a pretty negative view of the political world and the failures of governments. There should be no doubt that things are not really brilliant. Obviously there are good things happening. There are many efforts to alleviate the harm human beings visit upon the planet. Only it is not enough by far. The funny thing is that being negative all of the time might result in some damage to one’s mental health. Although I have a faith, I am a Christian, but even the Church has fallen into the trap of wokism. Possibly due to falling numbers they appear to have resorted to agreeing with every stream of public thought. It has lost touch with the original view of a sound world with a man and a woman being the underlying structure of a healthy society including the care for offspring . That view is the basis of the Bible. The Bi

My Monday morning rant...aaaah,that's life

It’s a bit of a laugh to see how the policies of various governments come back to bite them in the ar*e. Take Immigration, in particular the failure of containing the boats across the Channel. It has allowed many in that shouldn’t have been allowed to stay. But stay they do, wether hidden or not. Some even get what they call  a visa and so they can work. Some end up on the payroll of TfL (Transport for London). I might have guessed this but someone tell me I am wrong? Data to be supplied please. As such people might be inclined to start chanting slogans to show their real intent or the background from which they come. Now, whether they are brown, white, orange, yellow or even white, does not matter. Buses, trams or trains are no place to start outing your allegiance to some political beliefs or rant about perceived aggravation such as happening in the Middle-East. It is funny because I have not heard about any rants against Ukraine for violating the poor nation called Russia. Or for th