It's still just snake oil!

I was in the local chemist today, I walked and was worried because I thought I had walked into a meeting of a local OAP organisation. There must have been 50 people, all over 60 and all there for one reason, prescription drugs!

The older generation are very quick to pour scorn on the young for drug abuse, smoking the occasional joint or maybe one of those weird blue tablets that make them high or low or whatever they do at the clubs. Yet once they hit a certain age OAPs seem to be popping lethal prescription drugs without question.

There is a lot of talk  about statins with doctors saying that everyone over 50 should be prescribed them to stop 1 in 100000 of us dying of a heart attack or stroke or some such thing. Some doctors, probably the ones getting a good backhander from the statins manufacturer, have been on TV, radios and the WWW saying how these drugs are the best thing since sliced ham. 

So why is it every time I hear these doctors all I can think of is an old western where an outlaw is selling snake oil from the back of a cart, scamming everyone that it is the elixir of life.

Those advocating statins don't mention that more people are likely to die from the side effects than from a heart attack, or that the statins industry is worth £28billion world wide. Those who survive the statins may well find their lives destroyed by the drug.  

If they were still being offered from the back of a wagon by a man with a leather hat and a colt 45 we would all run a mile. But now the snake oil salesmen have got clever, they call themselves GPs and everyone is happy.

Statins are just the tip of the iceberg, there are millions of drugs prescribed every day that do more harm than good. Many of the old folk I saw will be taking something for old age followed by something to counteract the side effects of that drug and then something to replace something that the second drug depletes them of and so on until the prescription is 10 drugs or more. It doesn't take a genious to work out each OAP in bringing in a few £thousand a year for the drug industry.

It has even been proved that as soon as you start taking some drugs your body develops immediate dependence on them, diabetes being a classic example. An illness that can be cured by diet alone but if word got out would cost the industry billions. Still as long as they get you to start on their drug your body shuts down its own defences and you are hooked. Think £millions.

At least snake oil salesmen back in the wild west left town as soon as they had scammed everyone and the oil didn't do any harm.

Today some are happy to keep going back for more and more snake oil, as long as the doctor says take it they don't question it.

Most probably the chat as they all meet in the chemist has done them far more good than their prescription drugs ever will.

Interesting the choice of symbol used by the medical prefession too, dont you think ?

Where the heck have I been?

I am sure that anyone who is a regular reader of this blog assumes that I have either given up writing or died.
No such luck, I am still here and about to start writing again.
So where have I been, simple I have been busy doing other things.
I have other responsibilities along side writing this blog I also have a very active Twitter account where provide expert advice on a multitude of subjects. And on top of that I was out of the country for a while.

But here I am, back and ready to start imparting words of wisdom or just general nonsense comments on the workings of the world.

Sorry if you have missed me, sorry if you haven't .

Enjoy!

Olympic Security - a danger to everyone!

Today is an historic day, its the first day since the Second World War that fighter jets have been stationed to protect the skies over London.

Don't panic we are not at war, its just the Olympics.

We are not allowed to ask why it is OK to turn London into a military zone just so someone can run, jump, throw or whatever, and anyone who dares to question it is being "unpatriotic". We are all supposed to think the Olympics is brilliant. Although 57% in a survey could not give a fury duck about it.

It is all about advertising, a team of people will even be employed to make sure someone like me doesn't publish a logo like this or a You Tube clip of anything inside the stadium. Its an add campaign financed by the tax payer costing £11billion,  put on for a minority of people. Still don't let that stop the security of the games taking president over everything. Including the safety of anyone not at the stadium.

The security is completely unusable. It has been said that it will be better to sacrifice 200 innocent people on a hijacked plane rather than let it crash into the stadium. But if that is even a possibility then the games should not go ahead.

If a missile is launched resulting in any civilian casualties there would be more civil unrest in this country than anyone could imagine. If anyone is shot by one of the snipers and it turned out that the only offence they had committed was wearing a Pepsi T-shirt inside the stadium beside the Coca Cola stand then the games would be over, forever.

There will be military and police boats on the Thames with the power and equipment to sink other craft, imagine that, a pleasure craft could be targeted and sunk because they believe a terrorist is on board only to find that its grandad with his zimmer frame using it to point at a swan.

The Olympics is not about sport, its only about money and the Army, Navy, Air force and Police are being employed at full strength to ensure that the advertising goes on.

The security is operation overkill and all we can hope is that is doesn't turn into operation civilian killed, because if that happens the country will never forgive Coe and the other idiots who think its a good idea to turn London into a military zone in the alleged name of sport.

Why can somone be worth more dead than alive?

I have already been criticised for this question on Twitter but when has that ever stopped me saying what I think. It is not mean as disrespectful to anyone, if you take it that way that is up to you.

In the London Marathon last weekend thousands of people ran for charity, well  they will tell you that but in the majority of cases the truth will be more that they wanted to run the marathon and decided to get sponsored to do it. I doubt anyone actually thought I have to run this for all the homeless hamsters in the world and if I don't my life is worthless.

Sponsorship is something I have never understood, why would I want to give someone money to go and do something they want to do so that they can give it to a charity. Why not just be honest and tell me that they think I should give money to homeless hamsters or one legged ducks or whatever.

Yet millions of people are not logical, they don't think it strange to give away money for someone to walk the great wall of China, or amble 20miles through the wonderful countryside.

What makes sponsorship even stranger is what happened at the weekend. A woman died while running and because she died hundreds of thousands of pounds has been given to the charity she was running for.
According to one person who slagged me off already  "she gave her life for a charity". No sorry she didn't, she died while she was running and happened to have been sponsored for £500 for the charity. There is a world of difference.

It is terrible that the woman died, and her friends and relatives must be in a terrible state, but none of this explains why thousands of people gave money to the charity she had been sponsored for. What about all the people who ran for equally or more worthy charities, just because they didn't die they get deserve less?

I am not, as one person suggested, being disrespectful to the dead woman, why would I want to be, all I am trying to do is understand why anyone can be worth more dead than alive, why so many think that sending money to a charity does anything relevant to her death and why most of those people had not already given to The Samaritans before.

There is a comment button below, if you have a view please share it.

 

The Great UK Drought Scam

As I sit with rain lashing against the conservatory roof the rain gauge is showing that we have had another 20 mm of rain  in the last 5 days, taking the total to over 40mm this month so far. I sound a bit weather geek but its only a plastic rain gauge for £5.99 stuck in the garden.

And the point of sharing this information, simple, this area of the UK is officially in DROUGHT.

Hands up anyone who thinks 40mm of rain in a month is a drought, OK and now anyone working for a privatised water company put your hands down. Look no hands.

The most likely reason that the water companies think we are in a drought is because they have all moved their offices to India, with the next reason being that the population of the country has doubled in 80yrs but water towers have been ripped down or sold off, under ground reservoirs have been filled in and built upon and not a single new reservoir has been built.

But, you might say, the environment agency have just been on TV showing a river depth gauge that's showing how low the river is.
That man made depth gauge stuck in the river shows what? We are given an expected depth for April but that is a figure completely made up, is has no relevance other than for someone to say "oh look how low this river is" If you started working out the averages this year then when  the river is 3 metres deep you would be saying the river is very flooded for this time of year.

Nature is nature, it didn't grow a depth gauge and it doesn't have a correct level of water for a river, the river drains the rain away if and when it comes. It is only man that has decided how much water should be in the river at any given time and that is decided by how much the water companies need.

There is no drought in the UK, I have collected 300ltr of water just off of my greenhouse roof and the waterbutts have been overflowing for a week. But there are privatised water companies who have not invested in collection and storage enough to keep up with the massive explosion of population in this country.
They have however put up our bills by an average 6% this month. They didnt say as much about that as they did about hosepipe bans, did they.

Professorship in Wrong - And statins kill

An article I read the other day just touched upon something very important.

It said that although people have been told that they need to take statins to reduce their cholesterol scientists are realising that statins are not safe, we don't need to take them and that if you do you are more likely to die from cancer. Great, good one the medical profession.

Eating just 2 apples a day will control your cholesterol level with no side effects, well other than the $26billion industry in the USA alone producing statins might suffer as golden delicious take over. But cholesterol is probably not harmful after all, its all to do with inflammation and not cholesterol.

Your GP won't tell you you don't need them after all because he can't be seen to have been wrong, he has also agreed with a supplier to prescribe their Statins. Go on I dare you to ask a GP "is it true statins are dangerous and no one needs them" I bet you get a " I don't know who told you that but statins are the most important drug since ......."

Back to the point, what was also mentioned is that although someone may be a professor or an "important" person with letters after their name maybe even  published numerous papers or articles on a subject, if they are wrong they are wrong, no matter how many times they write about something.

No matter how clever, anyone can be wrong, the more they write and publish about a theory the less likely they are to firstly to realise they are wrong, and secondly if they do they find they have been wrong they  are very unlikely to stand up and say " hey guys, sorry all the papers I have published in 20yrs are wrong, oops, as you were". The world was once, without question flat remember!

Someone famous once said "a theory maybe taken as fact, but only until another theory comes along".

So next time an eminent person stands up and tells us something is fact say thank you smile and suggest they please contact you again if they change their mind.

Remember, the only information you know for certain is true is what you read here ,and if I find I have been wrong I promise I will tell you.

Stuart Turner Pumps

The other week I read an article about how the furniture industry pay for "independent assessors" to turn up when people have a problem, they then write reports saying there is nothing wrong,  I was disgusted that customers are treated this way.
Then I had a problem with a Stuart Turner shower pump and experiences the situation first hand.

Initially I was extremely pleased, when I phoned up their pump assist line to say I had a problem with a pump that is only 16 months old,  the guy took details and within the week an engineer was attending, it all seemed so easy.

I had expected the engineer to come in with a new pump or at least a tool box so I was a little bemused that he only had a clipboard and pen. A pleasant enough chap I showed him to the offending pump and without even looking at it he started ripping off the pipe lagging in the cupboard. Next he asked to go into the loft and on the way up asked "are you off the water tower" , "not a clue" I replied.

He clambered into the loft and lifting the top of the 100 gallon tank there exclaimed that was the problem, my tank fills too slowly, "you have really low pressure downstairs don't you?" " um no, really good actually".

He explained that what was happening was I was running the tank empty taking a shower and causing problems with the pump. I don't think I used that much water, not for a shower!

He proceeded to turn on both showers on full and hot and let them run for 10 mins to prove my tank would empty. After using my days supply of hot and costing me a few quid in water he clambered back into the loft, I could almost hear his disappointment, the tank had only gone down about 5%.

OK so can't blame it on the water the next thing was to start on the pipework, jackpot, look this is 15mm pipe it should be 22mm and oh look another bit of 15mm here too. I could hear the joy in his voice.

He hadn't even looked at the pump and during the whole visit the only time he touched it was to stick one of his company adverts onto it, it was at this point I realised the way it works.

Unless the pump is fitted 100% to a load of details in a booklet that comes with it then even if the pump was manufactured with half its bits missing its not their fault, its an "installation problem".

The guy was possibly a very good plumber/engineer but his only purpose on behalf of Stuart Turner Pumps is to find a get out for their warranty to be void.

I had been told that the pumps are so well made you can "run them with the valves closed" , yet when a section of 15mm pipe is found where they say it should be 22mm in their booklet, not matter what any plumber on earth may say your warranty is void.

"Its usually installation faults that cause the problem" , yes I bet it is, I also bet he didn't have a replacement pump in his car and probably not even a spanner. I can imagine him telling all his mates how in 10yrs of being contracted to Stuart Turner Pumps he hasn't yet not managed to find a reason to void the warranty.

Maybe they do sell thousands of pumps that have no problem, but I wonder how many of the people who have a problem ever manage to get it fixed under warranty. Oh and did I mention a huge call out charge if they don't find a problem with the pump.

The moral of this entry, don't waste money on an expensive pump with 5yrs warranty, go buy something cheap, then when it fails after a few years you can chuck it out and buy another and still be in pocket.

Anglian Water Hosepipe Ban is a disgrace!

From today 20 million people in the UK can't use their hoses. Well unless you have a Blue Badge for your car, which for some reason exempts you. Yes really!
It would make sense if every water company in the area was banning hoses but some companies, right in the middle of the "drought area", are happy that they have no need to bring in a ban and see no problem with supply this year.

Our provider is Anglian Water, and they have introduced a ban, yet just 12 miles away the water company there has not.

I bet that if anyone from Anglian was asked about this they would reply along the lines of "the other company covers a far smaller area and fewer customers than Anglian".  So what have Anglian done about this, have they build more reservoirs in the last 30 years, have they improved water capture in this part of the country to make water available for the millions of new housed built around the South East in the last 20 years. NO!

All Anglian water have done to ensure that they provide water for their customers is fix a few pipes, put up the prices and hoped it rains.

Now that we have had a period of dry weather (but didn't it rain loads last summer)  its up to "everyone to play their part and conserve water"

Buy a water butt from Anglian water and you can get one half price, it will still cost you more than 2 from a DIY store which goes to prove that Anglian Water is in the business of making money not providing a service.

Of course I agree water should not be wasted and we are lucky in the UK to be able to turn on a tap and have safe drinking water. But as some companies can manage water storage during this "drought" then it proves beyond any arguments that the companies that are imposing bans are just not good at their jobs.

If you are unhappy with a shop, your electricity/gas supplier or maybe your car mechanic you simply go elsewhere, but with water you are stuck there is no choice, so if like 20 million people you have a company that is just not up to the job its tough. I guess some locals around here are thinking I'm wrong and just look at Abberton they are spending millions on the reservoir, yes they are, its in the middle of Anglian Water area but its not theirs and the water from there doesn't go to the local area.

And what happens if we don't have what Anglian Water call "enough rain", they will impose further restrictions until I guess the taps stop running and we have stand pipes.

If your a share holder dont worry, we wont be seeing a reduction in the daily standing charge so profits are safe.

Sainsbury's - Dont trust their price comparison info!

Sometimes I need to write a lot but on this occasion a simple picture says so much.
Salisbury's try to con people into buying more expensive products by giving incorrect information.

And here is their latest amazing attempt to catch people out, but you would have to be mental not to spot it :-

Grifters - Or as they prefer to be known, Bankers

There is a really good programme on TV called Hustle in which a group of grifters set about pulling off amazing con tricks on all sorts of people. They make a very good living out of these high value scams and always seems to be one step ahead of the law. The programme is fiction, but hold on is it.....

Move on to a subject I have touched on before, possibly a few times, the City Bankers.
These people have grifting off to an art way ahead of the team depicted on the Hustle. They continue to take millions of pounds from all of us every day and although now and again there is a rumble in the papers no one goes to prison and no one is stopping them.

If anyone dares to suggest that a certain banker isn't worth his £6million bonus they trot out the same old grifters cry, "you need to pay me this because otherwise Ill leave". OK leave, we won't miss you.
And if that doesn't do it they say " you have to pay me millions or you will get someone who doesn't do this job as well as me", really?  Aren't all the overpaid bankers in the main the same ones we were paying millions to when they let the financial system around the world crash. "Oh yes but you have to remember that wasn't our fault, no one saw that coming".... and so they drone on.

The amazing thing is the number of people who are falling for the grifting clap trap they spout and continue to pay million to someone who is doing a job that is no more difficult than any other but who have built themselves up in the imagination as being super human beings, people who are preventing the entire financial system, and therefore the planet, from crumbling down.

Why isn't anyone able to knock these people down to size. Its not difficult to see through them to the fact that they are holding the entire country to ransom, blackmailing the country and making millions for doing very little.

I suggest that not a single one of them could not be replaced with someone equally as good who would be more than happy to do it for a fraction of the cost of these self appointed gods of finance. Yet for some reason no one has the bottle to tell them to go.

How people have let themselves be fooled by these grifters and continue to do so is amazing and as they laugh at us from their multi-million pound life styles we can only hope that one day they will be exposed for the people they are.
Bankers are nothing special, just grifters who rather than scamming individuals are managing to take whole countries for billions.

grift (grft) Slang

n.

1. Money made dishonestly, as in a swindle.

2. A swindle or confidence game.

v. grift·ed, grift·ing, grifts

v.intr.

To engage in swindling or cheating.

v.tr.

To obtain by swindling or cheating.

National Saving and Investiments - Security gone mad!

We are all pleased when the people looking after our money are making sure it is secure but sometimes the security they use is not only over complicated but pretty much useless too.

Take for example NS&I, otherwise known as the UK National Savings and Investments.

I bought some premium bonds the other month and when  I did this they registered me for on line management of my account. While doing this they sent me a form to complete and sign requesting a password for the account they had set up for me.
I completed the form and sent it off, but, silly me in the meantime I have shredded the letter they sent me with the number to log in with.
So I went on the website and hit "forgotten customer number", expecting it to be like every other banking organisation that I either fill in a form or complete an on line contact form, nope it says ring them to request they resend the number.

I phoned, a lad called Kevin answered and in between calling me sir every second word told me that they can't send me the number unless I write to them. But its the 21st century no one writes letters this is crazy you sent me the number in the first place, I just want it sent again to the same address as last time.

He transferred me to a lady who thankfully didn't feel the need to say sir every other word, but oh, this is not what I expected she wants to re-set my password. OK, maybe we do this first so it has to be letters including one uppercase also numbers and also non-numeric, and I have to remember this, no chance.

So she sets up my password as HowtheF***ingHelldo1rememberth15 and then says is there anything else I can do for you, Um yes, I need my customer number, its great having the password changed for no reason but I can't log in without the number which is why I phoned.

We cant send that to you unless you write to us because you could be anyone at that address who has happened to find the password. Um, OK I am now laughing insanely down the phone at her.

So I am supposed to go on line print off a form and send it in so they can send me a form with my customer number which actually would be no use to anyone but me because its me who has changed the password now in any case.

Quite how that is more secure than them just sending me the bloody number now I have asked for it is beyond me and I really can't be asked to bother.

But this is a government organisation so why I was expecting sensible I don't know.

The rich continue to screw us .....

I have blogged about solar panels before but they continue to annoy me as more and more of them are going up. Every time I see one I realise that's another increase in my electricity bill for at least 25yrs and there is the other side to them, they look really ugly.

Look at the picture above of a local house, there is nothing attractive about the one on the right it just looks a mess. And its not as if people fitting all these panels are going to ensure we all have electricity in the future is it, I mean when do people need electricity most, yep that's right at night.

All this is bad enough but the latest thing that is really annoying is the super rich who are putting hundreds of these things in spare fields.
A friend said to me the other day that one of their friends is now earning "£25,000" a year from the government for the power from his cells in a spare field". NO!  Its not from the government mate its from the rest of us consumers who are at the moment paying £1each a month to these people and at this rate it will be paying £20.

The government, seeing that there will be a problem if this continues, tried to change the 43p a unit that people are given to a more sensible level but all their  rich mates are jumping up and down saying it will cause job losses if people don't get to make a stonking profit from their cells.

Even the super rich Deborah  Meaden intends to cash in on it and is also complaining that the government needs to leave the tariff at the unrealistic level.

It seems that not content with being rich some people who are not lucky enough to be bankers so they screw the country directly are now happy to screw each and every one of us under the disguise of being "green".

May the rich get richer and the rest of us pay, nothing new there then.

Thanks for the plant ! How lovely.......

I open the door and there they are, "Its great to see you, come in"  But what is this, they have a large black pot containing a .....

"They had these reduced at the garden centre and we thought one would look lovely in a pot growing up an obelisk on your decking"

Oh did you.... "Oh how lovely, thank you so much! ...... so where is the pot and obelisk then. "I'll just put in out on the patio" .... not sure I wanted a muddy pot on the worktop where I am about to prepare your dinner.

As I put it on the patio I am already thinking sod them why not just bring chocolates or wine!

You think me ungrateful don't you, that's OK, let me explain something then you might change your mind.

Two weeks later, the pot containing the Might-flower-for-a-day-in-july-opsis is still on the patio so its time to take action. Strangely there isn't an empty pot with a spare obelisk anywhere to be found in the garden so its off to the garden centre.
First £4 gone just in petrol.

At the garden centre yipee they have a pot sale, don't they always wonder why that is, and after 10 minutes of deciding I have a suitable pot, fantastic its reduced from £Stupidamount to just £19.99.

Now I need some form of structure for the plant to climb up. A mix of flimsy canes or metal, looking at the canes I better get metal and one that fits the pot and doesn't look like it will rust away in the first drizzle is a mere £15.99.
Great nearly there, just a bag of compost now £4.99

So that's a grand total of  £44.97 and oh look there are the plants they bought me, reduced to £7.99.

Now you still want to  tell me I am being ungrateful?

Keeping Records!

I was sat/sitting in the sauna at the gym the other day where two people were talking, they obviously worked at the same place and I got the impression that the man was the woman's boss. Um, don't go there with that thought.

The point was the conversation was brilliant and went something roughly like this :-

Woman - Well I always input the figures for the target predictions and end of month figures
Man - Yes
Woman - Evon (can't remember the actual name so that will do) never keeps them but I always think its best to keep them all and update the zepha-blinkin-hell-wot-not-thing chart every week I think thats best don't you agree.
Man - yes
Woman - I also keep the fiddled-made-up-data too, I know the computer doesn't want it but I've always kept it, its easy enough to keep a note of them after all, and well if they are written down then if anyone should ask I have them.
Man- yes
Woman - I think its best, Evon never keeps that so I think that even though the computer doesn't ask for it its best to have it, don't you. I often wonder why the computer doesn't ask for them, its something I would have thought it would want.
Man - yes
Woman - well sometimes when we get the figures back they don't tally straight away but then if I have the others recorded then if anyone wants them they are there aren't they.
Man - Yes

And so it went on. I so really wanted the man to stop saying "yes" and to say something like this :-

So you keep a load of unnecessary figures do you, whats the point of that.
Have you ever been asked for them, no, and do you know why they are not stored on the computer, yes thats right because someone decided they were not needed, but your keeping them anyway, plonker.
Oh and the Computer doesn't ask for anything, its a computer you input what we the managers have had the computer set up to record.
And why are you so belittling of Evon.
For goodness sake when I brought you to this spar for the afternoon I was just after a shag, stop boring me to death with work.

Why is it wrong to swear ?

The English language consists of more than 200,000 words  and for some reason some of these have been declared vulgar or obscene.
The use of swear words is part of life and some people use them more than others. Some people will say oh darn or blast when they swear when the rest will be happy to use F***

I have always sworn and frequently use the 'F' word when I am seriously annoyed but usually have tried to keep its use to appropriate company.

When someone complained to me about my swearing I got to thinking why are people offended with me saying one word when it is simply a word. Why should F*** be seen as more offensive than for example shouting oh "CRUNCH" . No matter what I shout no word will actually hurt anyone or damage anything.

I went to see a well known comedian and throughout his performance he used a variety of swear words and everyone was killing themselves with laughter, yet if he had walked into a church and told the same dialogue people would have been upset. It makes not sense why the use of words in different locations should provoke different reactions.

My mother is forever quoting some unknown teacher I am supposed to have had when I swear, "Swearing shows a poor command of the English Language" , what twaddle. It does no such thing and I am thankful to Stephen Fry who corroborates that people with the greatest vocabulary often swear the most.

So what is it about swearing that is supposed to be so wrong, why has it been accepted that saying certain words is wrong.
If a loved one was in a coma and after months of no movement suddenly sat up and shouted F*** would you still be offended and tell them its not nice to swear?

My mother's other stock phrase is "it's not necessary to swear",  again Mr Fry points out that many millions of things in life aren't necessary but we still have them. How very true, the internet isn't necessary for a start.

So if swearing is not a poor command of language and it doesn't matter if its necessary or not why do some people get so upset with it and others are quite happy to get on with life worrying about more important matters.     I'm F***** if I know.

Military Wives Choir - Wherever You Are

I know its a bunch of bored house wives who have nothing better to do while they wait for their husbands to return home but why inflict the pain of this awful song on the rest of us.

We have a serious case of the Emperors’ new clothes with this one, Chris Evans says he likes it (he has to he is on the BBC) and so suddenly everyone likes it and says it should be Christmas number one.

What makes it to the Christmas number one slot is so utterly unimportant that it might as well be the number one, but who really cares.

The worst part is the terrible just slightly off-key soloist who is screeching over everything. She sings like a bus braking with worn out brake pads. No, sorry I am wrong, its not just the soloist its all of them, just off key enough to be so terribly bad it hurts, no really it actually hurts, it makes every nerve in my body cringe.
And remember as they sing the words "My Prince of Peace" to imagine the rocket launchers, tanks, grenades, guns etc they are deploying. Peace?

No stop it, don't give me the "its for charity and their husbands are off fighting a war for you" rubbish, that is no excuse to subject me to that terrible noise.

Be number one for Christmas if you like but please everyone be like Chris Evans and warn me when you are going to play it so I can turn the radio off.

There is an upside to everything, play this noise to any enemy and victory is certain, well surrender anyway!

I Think I Speak for Everyone !

Where I live there are two types of people, those who live here and those who think we shouldn't.
Some people truly believe that because their grandparents lived around here they are the only ones who have any rights or any say on anything that is done in the local area.
There are many who if given their way would still be living in a mud hut and cooking on a fire in the middle of the room so opposed to change are they.

None of them realise that given their hatred of all things change they would have died before they were 30 of plague or some other disease long past.

One of the long running moans of the "old local folk" is about the building of a great  new restaurant on the Coast Road. There used to be a rotting fallen down shack that had not been used for decades and someone decided to build a fantastic new building in its place. The moaners have been on about it since first planning application and done everything they can to prevent this new "monstrosity" replacing their  "historic" fallen down building.

I seem to have digressed, its time I got to the purpose of this entry. Why is it that when the old gits write to the papers with their complaint about this great new building they feel they have a right to speak for me and everyone else.

Every other letter of complaint contains the phrase "I know I speak for everyone when I say" or " I know everyone will agree with me when I" . No!  I don't remember you asking my opinion therefore you don't speak for me, you don't even think the same as me if you believe leaving a town to fall apart just because YOU don't like change is a good plan.

You only know you speak for everyone if you have asked everyone for their opinion and they all agree with you.

The chances of anyone ever being able to use this phrase are zero considering the need to ask 7billion people.

 

London 2012 - Only the participants matter!

It gets better, the Olympics I mean. Its the only thing that matters in 2012. From roads that will be only for those participating to commuters being told to expect 2hour delays if they want a train, and should in any case change their working hours because services will give priority to those going to the Olympics.

Well that's great isn't it, unless of course you want to go to work and keep the country going and don't particularly want to work nights for 4 weeks.

Even the tourist industry has said that it has seen hotel booking down 90% as people try to avoid the chaos, and still Screaming Lord (help us) Coe wants more athletics in 2017 as well.

Aside from the obvious scams meaning you can only buy the sponsors drinks and to stop you taking in your own food or  drink the best think I have heard about the Olympics has to be from the secretary for defence. He has said that "surface to air missiles" will be deployed at the Olympics if necessary. This in reply to "concerns" from, yes you guessed it, those paranoid Americans.

You have to think about this for a moment to realise what an amazing thing has been said here. If necessary the secretary of defence will deploy a missile to blow up something that was threatening the Olympic games. Just where exactly does he think the debris from the resulting explosion(s) will come down?  Oh it doesn't matter it will only be on the people of London, probably killing hundreds and destroying property and homes, but they are not part of the games so who cares.

The other option is to tell the Americans that we don't actually want them here in any case and if they do come we certainly aren't deploying missiles over London to please them!  Oh and ask the secretary for defence to resign immediately.

NHS Review site - Only the Good Stuff!

I visited my doctors the other day, its a long story but I wasn't unwell I needed a form signed.
The trouble is that the doctor I am registered with is a prat. No seriously, he is useless. I found out that he "qualified" in Iraq, so that's more than a little worrying to start with. Well that together with all the local accounts of him sending someone home after a stroke saying take aspirin and completely mis-diagnosing a boy with leukemia and failing to find my father had a heart attack 15yrs ago and not astma. Good one doc!

He wouldn't sign the form without doing some pointless tests which resulted in a weeks wait followed by a trip to see the nurse.

Oh good the nurse, well she calls herself a nurse but to be honest on the two occasions she has seen me she has told me completely wrong medical information as if it were fact. This time I dared to question her to be given a "I don't know who told you that!" . Well actually its any medical book you care to pick up and read.

This is all very scary, doctors who are useless and nurses who are wrong.

I decided the best thing to do was post an entry on the NHS Choices site where you can review your GP. So I did. But oh look, its been removed because it might be "defamatory".

So there you have it, post a good review it will be posted, write a bad one and it will be rejected.

Its good to know you can make an informed choice from their website isn't it!

ECO Speak!

You can find my views on the ECO warriors in various places on this blog and if you have seen them you will know that I believe global warming is a natural phenomena, photo cells on the roof are a waste of money and fitting a smart meter is as much use as, well a smart meter.

But what I do love about the ECO set is the language they are developing.

Recently on an episode of Dragons Den we had a woman telling us that she is "ECO focused" , fantastic, but what the hell does it mean and then we have various people on TV claiming the be "Green Focused" . Ah ha, I know that one because as a kid we had a really clapped out colour TV which if you didn't hit it just right when it warmed up everything was green and out of focus.

We have others who are environmentally aware, well good for you, just try and find a living thing that isn't aware of its environment, and even better we have people who claim to be environmentally friendly, ahh thats nice.

It is all such tosh, "I like to buy Eco" , "I only support green charities" there is even "green parenting" none of it means anything, just as "carbon neutral housing" and "sustainable development" are just buz words that people latch onto.

Whatever happened to the good old days, when you had simply "tree huggers" at least it gave us a clue what it meant.

Adult Content Blocker

One of the top news items today has been that some ISPs have decided to offer the ability to block adult content on their broadband packages.

This sounds simple enough but there is probably more to this than they think.

For example what will the application form say something like "Wanking material required Yes/NO" and how does any man explain to his wife/girlfriend/SOH that he has left the yes box ticked.

And if the original contract is set up with no access to the adult content it could quite possibly result in the following call to the call centre. Remember the call centre staff are Indian :-

Call Centre - Hello, welcome to ETalkTalk how can I be helping you today

Caller - Um, yes, well I would like to remove the block on the adult content on my broadband

CC - OK, thank you, well I just need to go through security, please to confirm your name

Caller - Yes, Um , well John Smith

CC - OK, thank you, and the number for which you are calling about

Caller - Well, its this one 0207934100

CC - I am very sorry but I am not seeing Smith with that phone number, can you confirm that you are the account holder

Caller - Um, well actually its my wife.

CC - Sorry but we don't have Mrs Smith on that account.

Caller - N0, OK, alright my its under the name Cameron, Mrs Cameron

CC - but your name is Smith?

Caller - No, please, the account is for this number and its my wife Mrs Cameron

CC - Can I talk to the account holder then please

Caller - No, she is away but its OK

CC - Ok, Mr Smith Cameron and you would like to remove the adult content filter, am I correct?

Caller - Yes.

CC - And your wife is away?

Caller - Yes,

CC - I see

Caller - look this isn't difficult I just want the filter removed please because we don't need it

CC - OK, thank you that is fine I am removing the filter. That has been done for you now. Is there anything else I can do for you today.

Caller - No thats its thank you

CC OK , I am sending a text confirmation to the account holder Mrs Cameron, thank you for being with ETalkTalk ........ click .......brrrrrrrrrrrrr

Caller - No you dont need to send a text ....... hello........ hell !

Stansted Airport - Its all about money!

Remember the time when a holiday abroad started as soon as you got to the airport, the moment there with bags packed and you thought, yes I'm going on holiday, fab!

Then it changed, Airports became a place of hell and torture with sole purpose to make us realise we have no control over anything we do until we eventually get off the plane at our destination.

We are told that all the stupidity if for our own security, when actually it is all for profit. My last trip through Stansted was a perfect example of this.

We arrived at the checking at 05.45am, they love to have you sitting around for hours, and as we checked in the woman on the desk said "you don't have any hold luggage booked" . "We do", "no the computer says no, cough". "That will be £20 per person per 20kg each way" , "No it wont we have already booked it" . After several minutes I found another piece of paper I happened to have taken with me that listed the luggage allowance, why would they tell me an allowance if I hadn't booked it, Miss Jobsworth stopped trying to bump up here wages and scam me out of £80 and check us in.

I went to the Thomson desk to check we had luggage for the return flight, but the woman was doing a crossword and would only say "computer says no, cough" and would do nothing to rectify the problem. Well done Thomson-fly!

I had the executive lounge booked which includes the "fast track" security, off we wander, I show the lounge pass and get told "£5 per person please" , "No, we are going to the lounge", "but you booked it through the wrong website so thats £5 per person". " another long discussion followed, Miss Jobsworth eventually had to relent when I showed her the email from the lounge company explaining we had fast track.

Within 15mins the airport has tried to scam me out of £100 and I hadn't even got near a plane.

Onward to be sexually assaulted "for my own security" as Mr Jobsworth gropes me up on the pretense of checking me for who knows what, because for some reason they are allowed to assume we are all terrorists. After the groping I get called to one side " this plastic bag is too big" Oh please you stupid Jobsworth its the same size sandwich bag I have used everytime I have come through security. Oh look they are selling plastic bags and want me to use them at £1 for something I can get for 2pence everywhere else.

How did travel get so bad.

On the flight if you were cold you could BUY a blanket, and "we recommend you drink plenty of water to stop you getting dehydrated in flight" but they will only sell you it.

The Holiday was brilliant, thank you, but we had to do it all again on the way home.

Next time I'm strapping a AK47 to my chest and 4kg of C4, bet all they will do is charge me 50quid for excess baggage.

BT You are taking the piss!

Imagine if you could be billed for something you didn't ask for, need or recieve, then if you didn't pay this bill imagine that you were threatened with an "independent debt recovery agency" and an "adverse effect on your credit rating". That could never happen. Oh hold on it just did, and it seems it is happening to hundreds of people every year.

Its BT again. We left them a couple of months back and joined Talk Talk.
When we swapped I was careful to check that we were not going to break any contract and incur a charge. Once all was complete we stopped the BT direct debit, happy in the knowledge that we didn't owe them anything.

Silly me there is the matter of the Broadband Cessation fee of £30. Whats that? Bloody good question. I phoned BT. The lovely man that spoke perfect something but not English explained that the cessation fee was because I had not requested a MAC. Um, what. So why would I have requested this and why are you charging me for not doing so. The answer "Talk Talk should have asked you too get one, you will have to phone them and tell them this and they will raise a query with BT". Hold on BT charged me £30 for not asking for something, they charged me to do exactly what? "Because you didn't ask for a MAC....... " he lost me with jargon of Ofcon and broadband lines and goodness knows what.

I phoned Talk Talk and got the BT guys brother, who not unexpectedly told me there was little he could do about a BT bill, and that they would not have needed a MAC because they have "LLU "so would not have told me to get one, so why would they now want to talk to BT about it.

Sorry if your bored ill try to move this along.
I phoned BT back. Listen here, you have charged me £30 threated me with a debt agency and baffled me with technical gobledegook for not asking for something I didn't need want or have any use for. This is not on! The woman went into the long explanation again and I was still none the wiser, so just kept asking what I was paying £30 for.

Eventually after the umpteenth time of "so what is the £30 for" she agreed that she would remove the fee and send out a new bill.

So to all those hundreds of other people paying the BT broadband cessation fee I suggest you phone and ask why.

Good Luck

Japanese Leper in Oil

Spell checkers are great aren't they and the ones that predict what you want to type are even better.
I often complement my smart phone when it changes something for me especially when I am trying to type in an email address which is letters and numbers.

The reason I mention this is because yesterday I was searching the www for Japanese Pepermint Oil, if you don't have a bottle of it then why not, its amazing, well what I didn't notice was that the I-pad had helped me out and assumed I really meant "Japanese Leper in Oil".

The best thing is that Google found over 3million possible results. Fantastic!

Before anyone calls a human rights group I didn't order any lepers because to tell the truth they don't sound that tasty.

Control your Bloody Kids!

As I get older I get less tolerant and some things really, really, yes really, wind me up.

Misbehaved children are one of my big hates. Since I was forced to listen to one screaming for 23hours on a flight to Australia my tolerance for this noise is zero.

At the weekend we were sitting in a restaurant in an old barn when in came a family with a small child on a trike. They took the table beside ours, don't they bloody always, and the kid started ring....ring....ring.....ring on the bell on his trike.
Expecting the mother to say "don't do that" instead we get mother saying "ring, ring" encouraging the brat.
There are 30 people eating and we all have to listen to the bell ringing.
What is it about some parents, they are so selfish that no one matters other than their kid, everyone is expected to think their child is so fantastic it can do what the hell it likes. News flash - we don't !

There was an article some time ago where two people were having dinner at 10.30pm, it was being ruined by the constant crying of a baby. Eventually they asked the waiter to have a word with the parents and for his trouble the man got a wine bottle broken over his head and ended up in hospital.

We were in a posh restaurant once and these parents were letting their child scream so much that I called the waitress over and asked to delay our meal until they had left. Its just not acceptable, why are parents allowed to inflict their children on the rest of us.
If I were to stand by their table shouting and screaming or ringing a bike bell I think that after about 20 seconds they would tell me to shut up. Yet so many parents don't give a hoot what disturbance their kids cause or where and woe-betide anyone who dares to complain.

Take note selfish parents, I don't have kids and I certainly don't want to listen to yours.

Oi Fatty, Get off the plane!

Did you hear the news saying that by 20something more people in the UK will be obese than you could possibly believe. I wonder how much that research cost when all they had to do was follow me around Sainsburys one week and observe the lard-arses wobbling around the store.

There was also a fantastic exchange on BBC radio between a fatty and someone who is tired of having his personal space taken by other peoples bodies. It is quite disgusting seeing these huge lumps wobbling along but when you take a seat and find they want your space too it really does go too far.

Public transport can be the worst places at the best of times but when you suddenly find a 20 stone fatty invading your space I think you should have some redress.

I am also a little worried about fatty on a plane, if one sits next to me and starts spilling into the seat I have paid for I will be holding up the plane big time while they find fatty or me a new seat. Its bad enough that fatty has been able to bring all the extra weight on-board for free in the first place so I am damned if I will give them part of my seat to carry it on.

The other thing that concerns me is if fatty is sitting by the over-wing emergency exits. Have you seen those things, they are tiny. If we need to use them and fatty is first in the queue we are all done for. I mean they don't let you carry a penknife to slice you way past the rolls of fat anymore, so how does anyone get out.

There has already been a plane crash because of fatties, yes really there has. It crashed on take off and killed all on board. So I think it is a reasonable question to ask why aren't people weighed before they are allowed on a plane, also maybe required to prove they fit into a seat without spilling into the next one.

The final point that worries me is, in the event of having to exit the aircraft using the inflatable slides , are they tested for fattties to jump onto. If not then shouldn't the drill be "women, children and normal sized people exit the aircraft then fatty your on your own".

If your offended in any way by this blog entry then probably your the kind of person who needs to lighten up a little. Probably in both senses of the word.

Sky Sports News - WHY ?

I was in a bar while taking a few days away and in front of me on a huge HDTV was Sky Sport news.
It was obvious that one of the presenters was not there because of her outstanding knowledge of sports but rather because of her outstanding......... well anyway.

Catching the odd bit of this non-stop sport news I go to wonder why, why is it on at all. OK, maybe your a great fan of football and support for example Booting-it Athletic FC, surely once you have seen that Booting won 5 nil against Overpaid Rangers why would you leave the TV on. Or perhaps you are a fan of football overall, how dull would you be, you might want to watch all the reports on football, then, oh its moved onto golf I'll switch off.

I find it hard to understand how anyone can talk for 4 hours about a 90min game so perhaps I am missing something but do you see what I am getting at here, how and why is Sky Sports news a news channel at all.

What next, how about SKY TRAIN SPOTTER NEWS.

A snippet from a program scrolling at the bottom of a page might go like this ..........
BREAKING NEWS ........ Loco XS3652 has returned to service today after 4 hours in the workshop where Ted Wrench fitted a new spiggot to the spinny bracket........... BREAKING NEWS ..... Anne Orack has become the first female driver to transfer from Notwork Rail to the French FST line, she said that she was looking forward.......... BREAKING NEWS............ The 08.15 from Fenchurch St has been delayed due to driver shortages or maybe a strike more to come as soon as we get it...... BREAKING NEWS ..... Sky Train Spotter news wins best train news program of 2011 with Vanessa (big points) De-sal being named as best presenter.........

And so it would go on, and on, like Sky Sport News I am sure there would be someone on the planet who would find the channel interesting, but to me Sky Sport News is like a circular rail track, Pointless!

Why do people need a f*****g dog?

Where I live every other house has a dog. There is one deranged woman not so far away who has ten dogs. No really, ten Labradors so she can single handedly foul a whole road in one walkies.

Dog owners fall into two categories, those that care about people and animals and those that only car about animals. Take for example a woman near me, she has two small yapping dogs, I have no idea what make so lets just call then shiatsus or shits for short.
You see this woman is not right in the head and thinks that it is perfectly acceptable to let the dogs out to yap and bark any time of the day or night.
What right has this demented twit of a woman to value her shits needs above those of everyone around her. She sits in her garden with the two shits going mental and ignores it, or occasionally might throw something for them to chase and fight over. Needless to say her garden is basically a huge pile of dog turds and when she opens her door if I'm at the bottom of my garden the smell, well really how can anyone live like that.

I know people say its company for her, really, well if the only company she can find in the world is from two animals I'll happily find her a rope.

Then there is the other bunch of dog owners around here who are quite obviously out 6 days a week so the mut is left to yap nonstop from 7am to 9pm. Why have they got them, what is the point.

Which brings me onto "status" dogs. Yes there are plenty of those around here. Quite often the owner has two of these so that they can be sure to barge everyone else off of the pavement. Or the other group of local oiks who let their kids take the status dogs over the park where they are teaching them to fight and scare the hell out of anyone who tries to walk to path there.

There is no reason to keep a dog as a pet, why cant they get a goldfish a hamster or a spider, anything that doesn't keep disturbing the neighbors.

What is it with the obsession for bloody dogs. Someone please explain!

London 2012

Its a year to the London 2010 Olympics and for some reason this is something to celebrate. Really!

Am I the only person who can't understand the hype, the only person who wonders why a bunch of rich and famous get to throw themselves a "year to go" party at the tax payers expense and the only person who actually doesn't give a stuff who wins what at the world most expensive sports day.

You have to wonder how much the boss of the Olympic delivery authority is making from all this and how much the bloody "lord " Coe is stashing away.

The country is falling to bits, hospitals, school,the police, road, council services and everything else is being cut, yet the Olympics are "set in stone" and nothing is being spared to ensure they go ahead.

We have to remember that this is not for the good of the country, its for the glorification of a few huge ego rich people, and so certain drinks companies, fast food outlets etc can have sole rights and make a massive profit.One minute we are all told to save the planet the next we are going to have a massive gas flame burning for no reason continually for weeks.

Lets not forget that the Olympic people have also threatened to sue anyone who puts on an event with "2012" in the title, yes thats right they say that 2012 is now so connected with the Olympics that no one else must be allowed to use it to over-shadow them.

Still there is one thing left that might save the day, they are looking for an exciting way to light the Olympic torch. Maybe set light to Coe and make him run into the torch.

All those in favour.

Underprivileged Children

There was an article on the news today about a scheme to get underprivileged children out sailing on the Gypsie Moth, and a couple of days ago was a story of how a load of underprivileged kids are off to the seaside, then there is the activity camp for underprivileged and the football club that runs training sessions for the underprivileged children in the area .

Hold up, whats going on here. I am sure that a lot of kids would love to sail on a famous boat or train with the local football team, but their problem is they are just plain old standard privileged, whatever that means.

So where does someone stop being standard privileged and become under, I expect its when they aren't able to sail in famous boats and train with the local team. Yes?

Smart Meters - Whats the point?

The latest buzz phrase in Eco electricity seems to be "Smart Meters" and apparently energy suppliers have got to spend billions on fitting every home with one by some arbitrary date in the future. My energy supplier will give me 5pence a decade off now if I have one fitted. But what are they?

Well according to Southern Electric fitting one will let me :-

PLAN my energy use to suit me
TRACK how much energy I've saved
SAVE money by cutting my bills

Excellent I must look closer, how will it do this.

The short answer is that it won't make a scrap of difference to me or probably anyone else and lets see why.

The smart meter shows how much electricity you are using at any given time, how much you have used over a period of time, a daily, weekly, monthly average, peak use and so on. Fantastic!?
Um, not really I don't see how any of that allows me to for example "Plan my energy use" or come to that "Save money by cutting bills" and it is information I already know isn't it.

For example say its a winters evening and I am cooking dinner, I have the oven on and a light in the kitchen. How does this meter save me money, the oven uses whatever electricity it needs to cook at 180 and the light uses say 60w. I can't change anything, I cant save anything, I can't plan anything.

After eating dinner, by candlelight because I am scared the meter is watching me if I put a light on, I decide to watch TV. I don't need a smart meter to know that the TV will use 102W, I know this because a smart man stuck a label on it and I can read. So the TV is on and I risk having a light on in the room at the same time. Again whats the point of the smart meter, how do I "Plan" my energy use, how do I "cut bills"?

I must be missing something, the government wouldn't make electricity suppliers put up our bills in order to fit a useless device would they. No don't answer that.

The only way a smart meter can save us money is if we turn everything off and sit and watch the smart meter by torch light.

I really must be missing something. Someone from an energy company please send me a comment and explain how this will work. Ta.

News of the World Phone Hacking - Who Cares

I can't be the only person who thinks the hacking fiasco has gone out of control, am I ?

I mean as Europe is in financial meltdown the House of Commons is spending hours going on and on about which dead person might have had their phone hacked and which celeb or one-eyed Scottish idiot might have been listened in on.

Its pathetic isn't it, for a start does it matter a fig when someone is dead who hears their voice mail for the simple reason, oh yes they are dead and wont give a hoot.

But the most annoying thing about all this nothing is that bloody bloke Milliband spouting about it for hours. Its not "disgusting" or "repulsive" that someone's phone is hacked, its even less so if they are dead. Its just rather stupid, possibly anoying and maybe some obscure crime.

Is it because GCHQ didn't realise that it was so easy to listen to peoples messages and had spent billions on unnecessary computers.

Hands up who actually cares, no go on please, tell me someone other than the plonkers in government really thinks its important. I mean for heavens sake if you want to hear a living persons phone calls just sit on a train and you will soon realise that most people talk more rubbish on the phone that I could ever write on my blog.

Yet as this fiasco goes on now we have to have the FBI getting in on the act saying some dead person in 9/11 might have been "hacked". Well actually I reckon phone hacking was the last of their problems.

Final thought on this, we keep hearing how distressing it is for the families of the dead involved, I ask this, why the hell did they have to be told. Oh yes so someone could write in a paper how distressing it was for them.

My advice , get over it, its so not important!

The Great Energy Stitch-Up

I received a letter from my energy supplier saying that my tariff ended and I am now transferred to their standard on-line tariff. Lucky me.
I immediately logged into my account and checked out what this means to the bills. After picking myself up off the floor I phoned Southern Electric.

According to customer services they can't introduce any new discount tariff similar to my last because there is a government inquiry into something. Yeah? really? sounds like a good govt we have here, helping the people as always. I questioned the ending of my tariff and what I would have to pay in future, oh good its just a mere increase of 65% on gas and 79% on electricity.

Hold on, I thought inflation was 4%, in the dream world of government statistics it is, but with one short letter our gas and electricity prices can sky rocket. That bloody Margaret Thatcher has so much to answer for.

Gas and Electricity prices are for some inexplicable reason linked to the price of oil. What about wind farms popping up all over the place providing "green" power, do they really use that much oil to lubricate it that it effects the price there too, it seems so.

Its obviously a profit scam and its amazing we all sit back and accept it.

I hit the www in search of a better deal, but without stretching this point too far there aren't any. Every price is the same no matter how they show it, and if you fix you don't gain, you just pay more to start with so that any saving on possible increases is wiped out. There is another problem in the UK, every rich Eco goodie goodie who sticks solar cells on his roof is costing the rest of us money, for every unit he generates we have to pay him 43 pence for the next 25yrs. even if he uses it himself. Fantastic, the rich get richer again.

A price that goes up with the price of oil (and never comes back down) and now takes into account the rising number of solar cell owners who want more and more money from the rest of us.

So basically we are screwed, change suppliers as much as you like and work your way through the multitude of plans available you will pay around the same amount over time and it will only go up!

I'm Back!

Its been a while and so much has happened that has gone un-blogged so here I am.

I have loads of excuses that I won't go into Ill just press on with catching up, but where to start, maybe points from the news:-

Phone Hacking - AKA please grieve more!

Its all over the news and even government is going on about it, news papers have been hacking into phones. It seems that the most outrage is against people who hacked dead peoples phones and the news is delighting in headlines such as "relatives of ..... have been subjected to further anguish" etc.
Last night some news station sent a reporter to stand in the rain in Soham to harp on about phone hacking in 2002. Apparently all this is very distressing for the parents and relatives of the dead. Ok, easy question, why are they doing it.
What possible reason is there for police or reporters to contact people about something that happened 9yrs ago. The dead are still dead, the hacking had nothing to do with the murders. The same goes for the London bombing victims and the hacking of phones there, what is the point of investigating it and contacting relatives.
Its not news and I have to wonder why the police are spending so much time on it when they are supposed to be suffering from cutbacks and lack of manpower. Dealing with crime occurring now would be a better use of resources. NO ?

Gypsy Scum - Outside the law again?

Near Basildon in Essex UK there is a huge site that has been taken over by gypsy scum.
To keep the story short they are there illegally and the council want to move them on. The Scum have said people will die if they try to move them on and they are obviously in possession of illegal weapons and are setting up barricades of gas cylinders.
Why do I mention this, well because its going to cost tax payers over £10million to move them on when it occurs to me that we have an army for this and should not be using the police and council. One tank a flame thrower and a napalm strike, problem solved.
And that leaves I about £9million to be spent on something more useful.

Nuclear Power Stations
I live close to an old nuclear power station which will hopefully soon be re-built.
There is a group of local old gits running a group called BANNG (Bradwell against new nuclear group) which is headed by a self appointed expert on saving the world who will say anything to stop nuclear power and who must be spinning in their graves, oh sorry they just look dead, with the news that the government is going ahead with new nuclear power in the UK.
The thing is there is no cleaner cheaper or dare I say it greener form of electricity available. The tree hugging unwashed anti nuclear groups are now harping on about the Japan earthquake and the destruction of ohfukisdisintegrated power station, but seem to forget that Essex is not likely to have an earthquake that massive.

So before the lights go out lets hope the new stations are built and up and running, because I for one don't want to go back to living in dark unheated homes and living on stale bread.

GADGETBOOST.COM

It's not often that a company gets a mention on here but this one deserves it.

The company is called Gadgetboost .com and other . endings and the reason they get a special mention is because they are scamming people out of money. Including me!

They have fantastic web sites, blogs and even pages full of press releases and excellent reviews, the trouble is they seem to be producing all their own good reviews.

If you try to buy from them they will more than likely take your money and even send you a spoofed posting tracking number. And that will be the last you hear.

They won't reply to emails and they have no other contact information on their sites.

Beware, don't buy from them!

Must have more gadgets.

It amazes me the number of gadgets I have, especially when I don't think of myself as a gadget person, I still think that my gadget habit is nothing compared to some.

There are those who must always have the latest version of everything, they would never dare be seen with a Gadget version 3 when a 4 is on the market. There are also the "ill wait until" group of gadget people. These are the "well I was going to buy a ipad but the ipad x is released in 4 months so there is no point buying the x-1 is there" group.
No probably not any point buying anything using their logic because the x+1 will be out in a year.

How did we ever get this way with gadgets and can you imagine what would happen if this style of shopping spread.

I imagine a trip to Sainsburys for the weekly shop could go like this :-

Apples, um no there will be new season apples in 7 months so leave those, cheese, no perhaps not I hear they are making a new style low fat cheddar so I should wait. Milk, ah no there is a new recyclable bottle on the way so best leave that for the moment. Wine, oh that's the 2009 the 2010 must be ready soon so that's off the list too.

Or the other extreme where the trolley has to be filled with every item that has the word "new" on it, even when we know "new" in the context of Sainsburys only means a different packaging or a few less grams in the wrapper.

But of course no one would dream of food shopping in such a stupid way.
So how did we end up in the cycle of gadget buying upgrading and buying more gadgets, simple, the advertisers tell us that we are not the person we should be if we don't have their latest piece of tech plastic.

And its true, if we don't have their latest iphone, ipad,i-gadgety-blueberry-techno-tv-googler we are not the person we could be, we are actually a little better, financially in any case.

Recycle if you can!

It is increasingly clear that once the government has finished cutting everything there won't be much of anything that isn't run privately. Although we pay more and more tax less and less will be spent on us, unless your a banker in which case you won't be allowed to suffer.

Its just as well that the majority of us won't be able to afford anything other than the essentials because the latest service facing cuts is recycling and rubbish disposal.

There is gossip that our local recycling it to close, this means a round trip of 14 miles to the next nearest site, not very eco all those extra cars making that trip, also not really worth going that far when there are plenty of laybys and ditches that have proved perfectly adequate for the gypsies to dump everything into for many years.

Once again I blame the politicians and bankers and so I propose a solution.

It is only fair that those causing the problem play a part in solving it and on this occasion its quite simple.

Bankers and politicians usually own big cars, often 4x4s that with the doors open can easily be used as a skip. They also usually have large gardens where we can throw such things as mattresses and the like.

So come on lets give them just a little of the crap they are giving us.

Ill happily publish all comments giving addresses of bankers who are opting into this scheme. When I say opting in I mean in the same way we opted in to pay them £million pound bonuses.

Your guide to having a street party.

Remember the past, when you organised something and it happened, when the street decided to have a party and the most important thing to organise was tables and 60 chairs.
The village where I lived put a post across the road set up the tables and had a party. The thunder cracked the rain fell like no tomorrow and a local school teachers house was hit by lightning and set ablaze. Wow, those were the good old days weren't they.

At last, we have a reason to have another street party "The Wedding" .

Hold on don't rush to make the fairy cakes just yet its not that simple now. In fact its now so complicate that one council has published a brochure and is running courses on how to put on a street party. Seriously!

The world has truly gone mad. But as these things have to be done I thought rather than decry their efforts I would help. One of the important things that anyone wishing to organise a street party has to do, other than arrange insurance and have police checks made on anyone who will help at the event or I guess anyone who is likely to walk within 40miles of the tables is to do a "risk assessment". This will be complicated so I have thought of a few things that must no doubt be included.

The following pose a risk, your risk assessment document must include what you will do if one or more happens:-

Cars drive along the road into the tables

The tables have splinters or sharp edges

The sun shines/ doesn't shine.

Tables collapse/wobble/drinks are spilled.

A Qantas A380 flies overhead and loses an engine.

The jelly doesn't set.

The rock cakes are burnt posing a cancer risk.

Someone tries to take a picture but has not obtained permission from everyone within 2 miles.

Someone takes a video clip on their mobile phone and Twitters it, they are not police checked.

A child has a nut allergy, is lactose intolerant, scared of cucumber or is allergic to weddings.

I could go on forever, the chances of anyone actually covering all risks by April is unlikely to near impossible. And lets face it Claims Direct are waiting to help anyone who so much as grazes a knee at an improperly managed event.

Still who wants to eat outside in April anyway.