This and that and rather a lot more

It’s increasingly challenging for me to find the time to blog these days so it’s frustrating to say the least when there’s just so much to blog about.  For instance, George Monbiot’s nuclear-powered, shot0gun-held-to-his-head U-turn on nuclear power.  Well he must have had a shot-gun held to his head when he wrote this.  Either that or his body was taken over and possessed by an evil force from the nuclear industry.  I mean how else do you explain such an aggressive change-of-heart from someone who spent most of their life campaigning against nuclear power.  He appears to have based his newly-found affection for nuclear energy on the fact that Fukushima was hit by an earthquake and a tidal wave and didn’t cause a global catastrophe.  Oh!  He plays down his pre-Fukushima stance by describing his then views as nuclear-neutral.  Well that’s a load of tripe!  He was never nuclear-neutral.  He was blatantly anti-nuclear.  Here’s what he said a few years ago…

“…nuclear power spreads radioactive pollution, presents a target for terrorists and leaves us with waste that no government wants to handle.”

There’s loads more where that came from.  Hmph!  Bloody turn-coat.

And what about this quiet little item?  A new EU directive comes into play soon which will give more power to Big Pharma.  More power! I hear you exclaim.  I know!  Anyway, this new directive sounds ok at first glance. Indeed, but there are implications.  A EU-wide ban will be in place in a few months but from the 1st of May, hundreds of herbal remedies that have been used in the UK for decades will no longer be available to people who have been benefiting from their properties.  This of course may result in people trying to get hold of them via the Internet thus making the control of such remedies impossible . . . and there’s also the added risk that some of these Internet-acquired products will be of a much poorer quality.  It’s a big win for the pharmaceutical profiteers but let me just ask the politicians who’ve made this decision (I suspect muchly due to some sneaky hand-shaking and bribery from the drug companies) a question . . . What do you think people were doing to relieve their illnesses hundreds and hundreds of years ago?  And actually, an important thing to consider is that many herbal medicines are taken by healthy people in order to try and prevent illness.  And we all know the saying about prevention and cure.  But there’s no profit in healthy people is there.  Avaaz have a petition up here.

They’d better keep their hands off my herbal tea!!

Is there room to squeeze in a little personal message to David Cameron?  Yes?  Ooh goodie. . . .

David, do be quiet dear.  Do try to stop being such a condescending twit.  I know it’s hard to keep up the facade of nice, popular man-of-the-people but please try harder to hide your real chauvinistic, homophobic character.  We know you were only trying to be funny and clever and that, but you’re not funny and clever.  You’re witless and boring so do hush up.  Oh and David dear, please try to keep that arrogant, snot-faced, creepy little chancellor of yours under control.  His sneering, giggly, immature face is really making me want to vomit bucket-loads each and every time I see it.  Thank you dear.

Speaking of the patronising Cameron, I’m taking bets on how long after the Royal wedding will it be before Shallow Cam starts using the happiness of the event to spin his ideological visions for Britain.

And to finish, I’ll pop up a picture or two, just to keep the place alive, barely, but alive just the same.  Oh and I’ve sneaked a little video in at the end – a party political broadcast of the Green variety.  Go on – vote for the Green party.  You know you want to.

My middlie taking part in the May Pole dancing for St. George’s day.  So there, BNP.  You can stop spreading the myth that celebrating Englishness is being outlawed.

Bolton Abbey Priory.  I took that picture with my broken little Nikon Coolpix L22.  Impressed?  I am.

Newscloud of sorts

Big Fish Rugby Tour in Swansea . Fabulous rugby-playing by our Under 11 boys . Much bad sportsmanship displayed by winning team’s coaches by-way-of entering two teams separately and doing some dubious jiggery-pokery with said teams . Me-laddie getting pushed about by huge brute of a boy of the ginger-haired variety . Me trying in vain to mask my blatant glee when me-laddie got his revenge on aforementioned huge ginger brute by making an enormously heroic tackle on him thus sending him flying into touch and me-laddie going on to score a magnificent try .  Magnificent try disallowed by dodgy and quite clearly biased ref . Gorgeous weather . Lot’s of freckles .  Too much beer . Too much food . Too little time . Late nights/early mornings . Back to work . Off work again! . Lot’s of pain and soreness, mostly caused by a confused immune system that wouldn’t know a healthy joint (that does not need it’s owners immune system to kick in and randomly attack it and all its brother and sister joints thankyouverymuch) from a real live streptococcal throat infection (that actually does require some attention by said immune system . . . and promptly if you pleaseandthankyouverymuch) . sigh .  Much outpouring of misery and feeling sorry-for-oneself . Back to work . double sigh . Much team conflict . sigh, wail, gnash teeth . Lot’s of regret for having returned to work instead of prolonging sickness leave by exploiting existing condition .

Thank the gods of mercy for weekends.

ALUNA

It’s getting to be that every time  I switch on the news, I’m closer to believing the Mayan 2012 prediction.  We appear to have seriously evoked the wrath of the gods and it’s all starting to feel a bit doomsday. Of course I don’t really believe all that.  I mean I’ve lost count of all the Armageddons that have been prophesied thus far but there’s no denying that the news is grim and while I say I don’t believe in prophecy, I do feel strongly that, as the masters of our own destruction, it’s not really that hard to predict some of the things that may happen.  I was thus intrigued when I read about the Kogi, a lost civilisation living in the mountains close to the Colombian/Carribean coast who live in harmony with nature and believe we are heading for a disaster of our own making and, as natural guardians of Mother Earth, they are making a (second) movie to tell us how we can still prevent it.

[Thanks Ecomonkey]

From the movie website:

The People

The Kogi are the last surviving civilization from the world of the Inca and Aztec, and their cities are untouched by our world. The mountain they inhabit is an isolated triangular pyramid rising over 18,000 feet from the sea, the highest coastal mountain on earth. It is on a separate tectonic plate from the Andes, and its unique structure means that it is virtually a miniature version of the planet, with all the world’s climates represented. The mountain is quite literally a micro-cosmos, a mirror of the planet on which every ecological zone is represented and in which most of the plants and animals of the planet can find homes.

The Message

The Kogi are profoundly frightened by what we are doing to the world, but also well aware that we have no understanding of the forces which we are unleashing. They believe that the only hope of survival for mankind is if we can learn why they are so scared, and they know that we will only believe what we can see.

The Movie

The Kogi say that without thought, nothing could exist. This is a problem, because we are not just plundering the world, we are dumbing it down, destroying both the physical structure and the thought underpinning existence. The Kogi believe that they live in order to care for the world and keep its natural order functioning, but they recognized some years ago that this task was being made impossible by our mining and deforestation. In 1990 they emerged to work with Alan Ereira, making a 90-minute film for BBC1 in which they dramatically warned of our need to change course. Then they withdrew again.

But now the Kogi have summoned Alan Ereira back to say that we did not actually listen to what they said. We are incapable of being changed by being spoken to. They now understand that we learn through our eyes, not our ears. In the face of the approaching apocalypse, they have asked Ereira to make a film with them which will take the audience on a perilous journey into the mysteries of their sacred places to change our understanding of reality.

This is not a work of fiction. ARE YOU READY TO BE CHANGED?

http://vimeo.com/20644411

Arts cuts, police cuts, nursing, crime and tangents . .

Isn’t it strange how the news regarding police cuts doesn’t seem to get the left as animated as they get towards other cuts.  I know the police have not won many public hearts lately due to their public displays of aggression and intimidation at recent protest rallies and suchlike – and quite right too.  We’ve seen some appalling police behaviour and the lack of accountability is downright criminal but I guess they’re not all our enemy.  Just as there are good and bad nurses and good and bad teachers, the same surely applies to the police.

I had three police officers at my house this morning.  Two officers came and went followed by a crime scene investigator.  They were here, in short, because my eldest daughter’s car was broken into.  The poor girl has only had the car for one week.  She was chuffed to bits about it.  What with the sky-scrapingly high insurance costs for new, young drivers, she thought she would never be able to afford a car.  But to her credit,  she somehow made it happen.  She chose the smallest, cheapest, cutest little car available – one with low economical running costs and not so harsh on the environment.

Being a student nurse,  she receives a little bursary each month which just about pays for said car.  But crucially, being a student nurse, she has to go on placements far and wide and at all times of the day and night so a car is really quite essential.  I was very tempted, incidentally, to talk her out of nursing.  She was all set up for university.  Had a guaranteed place at Liverpool and everything.  She couldn’t wait to start.  Why she changed her mind, I’ll never know.  And why she chose to go into nursing befuddles me even more but I suspect her boyfriend, and the reluctance to leave him, had something to with the decision. Ho hum.

Anyway (tangents dear girl, tangents), her shiny, new little car was violated right outside our house the other night and she was gutted.  The perpetrator just popped the lock right out of the door.  Nothing was taken because there was nothing to take.  The police officer said he was probably looking for spare change or hoping to find an ipod because the car came with an ipod thingy where you can plug in your ipod and listen to your playlist.

The first two officers who attended were very nice and helpful.  They showed care and concern towards my daughter and were very attentive.  After they’d completed their bit they left and told me a crime scene investigator would come along later to take fingerprints and stuff.  They asked my daughter if she would need to use the car today and she said yes – she had to go into uni at 12 o clock so they said they’d try to get the forensic guy to come before then.  I didn’t expect this to happen but lo and behold, the lovely lady turned up at about 10.30 with her little black bag of forensics tools.  I was impressed.  She too was very caring and concerned but she couldn’t do any dusting on the car door because it was raining.

I had been listening to the news all morning and there was much talk about the police cuts and cuts to the Arts.  Objections to the Arts cuts, by the way, are easy to dismiss but I don’t mind admitting that I object to these cuts almost as much as other cuts, not least because Art enriches all our lives but more importantly,  there will be many-a knock-on effect by way of employment, education and suchlike and will result in only the well-off being able to afford to study an Arts degree or pursue a particular ‘Arts’ talent.  And youth theatre groups, sports groups . . . what about all those youngsters who are committing time and energy to something fulfilling that they enjoy . . . something that helps to keep them fit and healthy.  We already know that too many unfit teenagers spend their time hanging around streets with nothing to do and nowhere to go.  Tell me what’s beneficial about taking away their facilities when those things give them a focus, where they can learn about commitment, self-respect and teamwork.  The Arts have the power to transform and vastly improve lives.  I’ve seen it working.  Dance teachers are creating community dance-groups everywhere.  It’s classless, genderless and available across the scale.  The kids who attend such groups are growing daily in self-esteem and self-confidence.  And they’re active for god’s sake!  Off the streets.  Not being thugs!  Not being a nuisance!  Not committing crimes!  Isn’t that the goal?  You need look no further than the absolutely fantastic Dance United to realise just how effective and empowering such groups can be.

Basically, Arts funding is there to provide equal opportunities for everybody to have their lives enriched and improved. The Arts cuts are regressive and will make Art and Culture elite and inaccessible to all but a privileged few.   Osborne’s few.

Anyway, where was I? (More tangents.  Focus girl!) My police experience, although brought about by a nasty and annoying crime, was an altogether positive one but it got me thinking about the cuts and how it might affect the three nice officers who dealt with our case.  I don’t know anything about the structure of police forces.  I know that like nurses, doctors, paramedics etc. police officers take a lot of crap from the public.  They deal with aggressive and abusive people on an almost daily basis and are always the first in line for a bashing and being blamed for everyone’s problems.  I do stand by my belief that a lot of officers join the police force for the wrong reasons (ie: power, means to bully etc) but generally speaking, I like to think that, like nurses, teachers etc., most of them are decent with a genuine desire to help others and like most of us, they face worrying times and insecurities.

There’s more to a police force than the images we see of police thuggery on our TV screens and the government’s promises not to cut front line jobs is meaningless given that front-liners depend on non-front-line staff to do their jobs properly so no matter how they spin it, the cuts will detrimentally affect the police and how they protect the public and no matter how bitter the relationship between activist and policeman is, it’s surely in our interest to support them at this time.

Gosh!  It’s all or or nothing with me.

On hating George Osborne

“No attempt at ethical or social seduction can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party. So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.” Aneurin Bevan

Did you know that if you google the words I hate George Osborne you get 612,000 results.

I try not to give in to the hate emotion.  I really do.  My mother always encouraged us not to use the word hate when referring to someone we don’t like but it’s not always easy to control those feelings when one takes an extreme disliking to someone.  The old emotions tend to take over the logical, calm side and its not usually a pretty sight.  And dammit, that bloody detestable fella George Osborne has gone and forced me to disrespect my dear mum’s sagely advice by making me hate him with a passion.  A fiery, burning passion.  I hate the Tories collectively but I’m feeling a dark urge to specifically target old Gideon.

There’s even a Facebook page called I hate George Osborne and I really don’t know what’s stopping me from joining.  Dignity probably.  I mean when I’ve done with the hate rant that I’m about to embark upon, I’ll need to salvage any dignity remaining and joining such a Facebook group would only make me feel even more sullied. Kind of like how I feel when I read Melanie PhillPots blog or accidentally tune in to the Jeremy Kyle Show.

So why do I hate him?

Lordy, where do I start?

It’s not just his lamentable and downright spiteful budget or the callous cuts that make me detest this vile person.  It’s the smug, uncaring and grossly arrogant demeanor of the man.  He sneers at people folks.  It’s not an unfortunate act of nature that makes his facial features appear to look sneery.  He really does willfully sneer.  And remember when he poked fun at Nicholas Sarkozy for being short.  Now I’m no admirer of Sarkozy, far from it, but for a politician who should be displaying a mature and responsible public face to make fun of a person’s  physical appearance is a personal and really rather shallow thing.  Not funny at all. Gideon thought it was though.  You can see the egotistical twerp laughing hysterically at his own joke here.  Don’t watch it.  You will cringe. He’s also got away with ageist slurs against Dennis Skinner and homophobic jibes against Chris Bryant – letting slip the true bigoted colours of the Tory boys.

And there’s even more to hate.  It’s not just the deliberate targeting of the poor and the squeezed middle.  It’s the unethical pro-wealthy, right-wing ideology that drives him.  It’s the grim fact that he really does aspire to keeping the poor in their place while preserving the luxuriously elite status of a small group of wealthy people.  It’s his blatant generosity towards big business in the face of those at risk of losing their jobs/homes/benefits.  It’s the stealthy tearing away of workers rights and family-friendly flexible choices so that employers can use people as they wish and pay them rock-bottom wages.

In a nutshell, it’s the fact that he is stubbornly pursuing this Tory ideology of a Thatcher magnitude without ever having won a true mandate.  I really believe he is actually enjoying inflicting this pain.  I hope to goodness the karma gods are paying attention.

I must now go into a dark room and chant a mantra or two, before the hatred consumes me completely.

Weekend!

Have I really been away for that long?  What happened to February?  And March!  March downright sneaked right by me without so much as a wave or a by-your-leave.  Well technically March hasn’t gone yet but it’s almost the end of another month.  Time really does fly.

Well anyway . . . how are you?  T’as been a while.

And, making every effort to avoid the doomsday talk, it’s been quite a weekend folks.

We had that lunar perigee and would you know it, it even came with a full moon – and a clear night!  Who the heck planned that?  Not me that’s for sure.  In all honesty, although it was all very pretty and enchanting, I didn’t notice old Mr. Moon looking any closer than he does any other night but then, as  my wise son told me, if we looked at the moon sans perigee and compared it to the perigee (a kind of ‘before and after’ picture) then I’m sure we’d see a difference.

Moving on –

Drum roll if you please . . . England went and won the Six Nations which of course is just as it should be.  And then – even bigger drum roll ( and hey, let’s add huge trumpet fanfare . . . . . . . . . . . me laddie scored the winning try at Sunday’s game in the local rugby tournament.  He also came off the pitch sporting a lovely swollen and bruised cheekbone but, being the roughy-toughy, steely-eyed boy that he is, my concerns were abruptly (not to mention disgustedly) rejected.  [Note to self: must stop calling him me laddie, especially in front of his rugby buddies].

Then we spent some time cabbaging on the sofa with the TV on, mostly Tracy Beaker (yes, you heard! Well he’s a big softie at home).  Tracy Beaker is a childrens TV show based on Jaqueline Wilson’s series of books all about a childrens care home.  Well after watching a couple of back-to-back episodes me laddie (sorry, old habits and all that) now thinks I should put him into care because apparently kids in care have much more fun that he does.  Well that may be so if all care workers were like the ones in Tracy Beaker, and it has to be said, the ones in Tracy Beaker are pretty cool and fantastic, but they are actors – with written lines and stage props and stuff.  And the sad reality is (and to our  great shame my friends) that we are failing our children in care.

And on that note, before I pour out a torrential rant, it’s ta ra for now.  My comeback has gone back and there’s no telling when it will come back again so in the meantime I’ll leave you with this timely little video by the very lovely  . . . .

The Idiot Cycle. Cancer and the Chemical Industry

A new film has been brought to my attention.  It’s called The Idiot Cycle and two free  screenings are being held in York and Cambridge to coincide with World Cancer Day.

From what I can see, the film tells some pretty disturbing facts about cancer and the chemical industry.  Cancer is a very profitable disease and sinisterly most of the large chemical companies also have huge business involvements in cancer treatments.  I’m pretty sure it’s not because they care.  When the chemical industry produces phenomenal amounts of carcinogenic pollutants and then profits from drugs used to treat cancers it’s hard not to be cynical.  In fact it’s glaringly obvious that yet again big industry is not only profiting from misery but is most probably helping to cause the misery in order to profit from it.

It has now been scientifically demonstrated that there is indeed a link between chemical products and the appearance of diseases, such as cancers, infertility, degenerative diseases of the central nervous system and allergies.CPME – Standing Committee of European Doctors, 2005

There is little direct evidence of widespread ill health or ecosystem damage by the use of man-made chemicals. Alan Perroy, Director General of the European Chemical Industry Council, in a 2001 letter to European Members of Parliament.

Medical experts can see the link between chemicals and cancer but proving it means taking on the legal might of the industry giants so this film will hopefully expose some of the things that the industry would rather you didn’t know.

Easy Meat

Jack Straw thinks that some Pakistani Muslim men see white women as easy meat.  He’s right of course.  I’m in no doubt that some Pakistani men see white women as easy meat but it’s not an exclusive club.  Far from it.  Vulnerable girls all over the world are easy meat to a proportion of men all over the world.  You don’t have to be a white girl to be easy meat and you don’t have to be a Pakistani Muslim to exploit vulnerable girls.

It’s a delicate issue because of the risk of offending the ethnic communities and accusations of racism but there are claims that it’s predominantly Asian men from ethnic minority groups (not just Pakistani’s) that are actively grooming vulnerable white girls.  Well if there is hard evidence to say that grooming and organised abuse by a particular group is a problem then we need honesty.  We need to acknowledge the problem and it should be investigated to the end but equally, to make sweeping generalisations without definite proof will make the authorities involved focus on that one particular group which could lead to them missing abuse in other areas.

I know it’s a dilemma.  Of course we really don’t want to see the likes of the BNP capitalising on these reports but what could be worse than having investigations into serious crimes against vulnerable girls – children actually – being inhibited or covered-up for fear of offending communities or fuelling the far-right groups?

Like I said, if there’s evidence to suggest the predators are predominantly Asian then the Asian community has a duty to look within itself.  Turning a blind eye is a crime in itself.  We demanded accountability from the Roman Catholic church regarding the child sex scandals and if the Muslim communities are protecting their members in full knowledge of what’s going on then we should be making the same demands on them.

I suppose the best thing is to make these vulnerable young girls aware of the dangers and educate them on the tactics that these predators use to lure them in.  And even if the evidence is strong that Asian males are the main abusers, the focus shouldn’t be on them exclusively because the risk then would be that the girls would drop their defences against young white males who could potentially be just as dangerous.

These vulnerable kids don’t care what ethnic background their abusers come from.  They just need protecting from despicable sexual predators and if the police are reluctant to respond to allegations for fear of damaging race relations, then there is something very wrong going on.

Erm, it’s been a while . . .

T’is rather hard to know where or how to start when one has been so ludicrously absent from blogs and the posting thereof but I shall give it a go, somewhat sheepishly but hey ho.  No. Actually.  Forget the sheep.  I think I’ll start true to form – with a rant.  Here goes . . .

Yule Tide

Another Christmas has been and gone and I made the same mistakes.  Every year, no matter how much I try to resist, I fall under the spell of consumerism.  Not obscenely so but enough to make for some serious self-berating.  I argue with myself and finger wag at my kids that we’re cutting back this year . . .  don’t expect so much because I really mean it this time!!! . . . but Captain Capitalism always manages to bewitch me at Christmas and forces me to buy all kinds of crap that no-one really needs (and probably doesn’t even want that much if truth be told).  The food wastage alone is a sin of biblical proportions but it’s the whole Xmas package (and packaging!) that gets so mental.  Well what’s done is done.  I tried to be as green and as ethical as possible but if I’m honest I failed on more levels than I care to admit.  Anyhoo, here are some UK Christmas eco-facts:

• Every year some one billion cards are used and only a fraction of them are recycled.
• Almost 3000 tonnes of aluminium foil is used to wrap around the 10 million turkeys we eat every Christmas.
• Almost half of the toys given will be broken or discarded within three months and because most of them will be plastic, they will be destined straight for our delightful landfill sites.
• Approximately 23 million jars of pickles, mincemeat and cranberry sauce will be consumed. If all these glass jars were recycled, it would save enough energy to boil water for 60 million cups of tea but alas only a small percentage are recycled.
• Over 83 square km of wrapping paper will end up in UK rubbish bins, enough to cover an area larger than Guernsey
• [End of rant]

Winterval

The snow queen visited her lovely self upon us for the second year running (well I know we’ve had snow other years but not with any intensity worth mentioning).  T’was another beautiful Winterval with some delightful bright snowy days and our enchanting moon providing some gorgeous nights with its orange silveryness above us (I know. Just use your imagination).  I sometimes find myself wishing I had a really good camera that would do justice to some of the moons I’ve enjoyed this Autumn/Winter.  Mind you, a proper, decent camera would be wasted on the likes of me so my little Nikon will suffice for my limited technical knowledge.  I don’t even use that to it’s full capacity . . . and I dropped it once so now an elastic band keeps the battery cover closed.  I’m really rubbish sometimes. Anyway, some piccies:

Comfort and Joy

Lovely Middlie provided the joy by dancing in the local theatre panto again and of course she was brilliant.  This year it was Mother Goose and it was hilarious.  And in a rare, out-of-character moment, I was actually organised enough to book tickets early enough to get the comfy seats with optimal viewing.

And finally:

The best thing about 2011 is going to be

England lifting the rugby world cup on my rugby-mad son’s 12th birthday.  Yay!

Well that wasn’t so bad.  TTFN folks.

The Work of the Devil – a quick, random, bullet-pointy post

• I don’t think anyone has made me want to throw up more than work-of-the-devil David Cameron and I’m thinking particularly about when he was talking to the BBC today from China about the naughty students and the extremely brave police officers at Millbank during the student protests.  Gawd, he is an unbelievably patronising git.  As for that violence caused by a minority, as overblown as it is, the question has been raised – has this ignited a wider public backlash against the cuts in general.  Who knows?  But hey, who said students and young people were politically apathetic?
• It”s no secret that I am a nervy, jittery person and it doesn’t take much to make me all jumpy.  Well the damned wind outside is proper spooking me out folks.  The letter-box keeps rattling, my lounge door keeps blowing open and, in spite of the double-glazed windows, the silver metal blinds in my boy’s bedroom are blowing right out.  It’s the work of the devil I tells ya.
• Those memoirs.  There’s no way I will be reading George Bush’s feel-good book-of-love but I did just finish a book called The Help which was utterly unputdownable and highly recommended.  I won’t say too much about it except to quote this line . . . Jackson, Mississippi 1962 – black maids raise white children but aren’t trusted not to steal the family silver.  As for that other book – the work of the devil (probably literally!), like I said, I won’t be reading it – remember, I’m easily spooked, but I have read the news and I’m well aware of what he said about torture in the form of water-boarding having saved British lives but he fails to mention that his torture policies, hell, all of his policies, have put people in more danger than ever.  Clearly there’s no limit to the man’s stupidity and inhumanity but enough about him.  I won’t sleep tonight as it is.
• I don’t get the The Labour party.  What are they playing at rebelling against the expulsion of Phil Woolas and his anti-immigrant rhetoric?  We know they’re not doing it out of concern for Parliamentary sovereignty.  They’re dividing themselves again.  Are they trying to lose the next election?  Woolas played the race card and lost.  He pandered to the Daily Mailers and we all know that the Daily Mail is the work of the devil.  Harriet Harman was bang on when she gave him the boot.
• Magnums are utterly yummy.  And probably the work of the devil.

Of spooky days out and broken pinky fingers

Me laddie has been put out of action for a few weeks due to breaking his little finger in two places during a rugby training session.  He had to have surgery to manipulate it back into place.  The orthopaedic registrar informed us that surgery was necessary because the breaks were on growth plates and his finger would not grow properly without the surgery.  They even kept him in overnight and I got to sleep on a chair bed right next to him.  All very dramatic for the sake of a broken pinky finger but we were looked after  very well.  Yep, I experienced for myself the greatness of the NHS, but despite the pledges and the ring-fencing, be in little doubt that the cold, hard hands of Cameron and Giddy-boy will soon be felt around the neck of our beloved NHS.  It’s already happening folks.

Anyway, me laddie . . . the poor boy is gutted.  He can’t play rugby for another four to six weeks and to rub the salt well and truly in, after waiting nervously for weeks for his teacher to make the team announcements, he just got chosen for the the school’s football team and hasn’t been able to play a single game for them yet.  He was chosen to play goalkeeper, the position that everyone usually dreads but I think they gave him that position on account of his catching skills.  Well, probably more likely because, having played rugby most of his life, he kept trying to catch the ball instead of kick it.  He doesn’t mind being goalie though.  Loitering idly whilst picking paint off the posts and wondering what’s for tea suits him splendidly.

Anyhoo, well and truly out of action is where we are right now and even cycling is out of bounds so we’ve been going on lots of walks – just so his stamina and fitness levels don’t walk away altogether never to be found again.

Yesterday we went to Bolton Abbey and to my delight, there were lot’s of Halloweeny things going on which included a pumpkin trail.  My boy, having turned eleven just last week, was a bit disgusted at such childish nonsense but I have a sneaky feeling that his buddy who came along with us unintentionally induced much of that disgust.  So, not one to miss out on anything, I took part myself and just as I thought, it wasn’t long before they were both butting in and shouting out with unreserved excitment whenever they spotted a pumpkin or a witch.  Even the hubby was caught up in it all.  T’was jolly good Halloween stuff.

I even managed to take some pictures of the beautiful Autumn day so, for your Autumnal pleasure . . .

On Frustration

How’s it going folks?  Are we enjoying all the political shenanigans or are we totally exhausted by it all?  Personally, I’m feeling a wee bit weary of the whole sordid business but some things get me so aggravated that I have to shout.  But there’s little to be gained from blanket-bashing our MP’s just for the sake of it so I’m not going to.

Oh hell, of course I am.

And just so you know, my eyebrows are now firmly planted on the top of my head at the cheek of it all.  First I hear that the staggeringly arrogant David Cameron refer to the cuts as ‘delicious’ then Nick Clegg comes over all moral and outraged at PM’s QT when the opposition used the term social-cleansing to describe the Housing Benefit cuts even though we all know he’d be saying  the same thing if he hadn’t got into bed with the Tories.   What’s insulting and offensive is his use of diversionary tactics to avoid arguing the point in case (or is it case in point?).  He’s got a nerve anyway, calling things outrageous when he’s basically sold out his own values for a brief moment of power.  (I wish he’d just hurry up and defect to the Tories.  We know he’s going to do it eventually because he is a career politician who knows damn well that his own party is finished).  And, thinking about it,  some of those very people he says will be offended by the term social-cleansing are probably about to be forced out of their homes again.  I wouldn’t mind betting that a fair few of those people who will be affected by the HB cuts are of ethnic origin and already victims of cleansings of one kind or another.

An audience member on this week’s Question Time mentioned the disturbing drama Cathy Come Home in reference to the HB policies and lordy-me, that made me shudder.  The consequences of these rushed policies are going to hit hard.  They are rushing through sweeping policies without looking at the finer detail, using the “it’s to avoid expensive bureaucracy” excuse but as we all know, the devil is in the detail and just maybe there was a valid social reason for some of that bureaucracy created by Labour after all.

Then lordy-me again!  I find out that the government is going to sell off our forests to private firms. Typical Tory tradition – the minute they’re in power they sell off our assets.  Thatcher did it in the eighties and this time Cameron’s doing it under his  ‘Big Society‘ plan, pretending it’s so that private and civil society partners can own the forestry estates and take a greater role in the management thereof.

So, potentially, unscrupulous private developers from anywhere can swoop in, buy up and abuse them as much as they please in order to make money. And even if these business guys want to maintain the woodlands, they could deny access and and ban the public from enjoying the beauty of our own woodlands.  I have no doubt that a Tory-led government will attack the right-to-roam law – a hard-earned law fought for not least by the hugely respected John Smith RIP.

Our only hope is that some wealthy nature lover or a well-funded environmental charity will buy them up just to keep them protected.  Swampy, we need you.

And the last lordy-me goes to the Lib Dem’s  Chris Huhne who has  quietly scrapped their No to Nuclear Power policy.  I know.  I know.  Coalition = compromise.  Blah, blah.  But come on!  We’re talking core values here.  Key pre-election pledges that they’re now totally abandoning.  Have they really got no guts at all?  Hell, they’re even denying they ever had this policy. The Lib-Dem website page on their anti-nuclear power campaign has mysteriously disappeared but one guy here has the evidence which deliciously (up yours Cameron!) includes a video starring Chris Huhne himself no less speaking against nuclear power expansion.  I wonder what tomorrow’s policy-of-the-day will be.  Cowardly U-turns are fast becoming a speciality for the Lib-Dems.  Here’s the video to finish off . . .

Austerity – the rich need not apply

Well folks, on the political front, there’s so much been happening in my absence that it’s hard to know where to start but I think the child benefit fiasco is as good an issue as any to begin with.

First off, I know I’m not alone in being utterly bewildered by the fact that they are allowing such a glaringly illogical inequality to occur within the policy and it beggars belief that they can’t come up with a process so that joint incomes are taken into consideration.  I mean come on guys.  You have two policical parties working at this. You can’t all be as dim as dusk!

Anyhoo, the cut itself (and, true to form, here’s where I start contradicting myself again), I really, reeally, reeeally want to defend keeping the child benefit universal, if only on the grounds that it is a citizens income for children and all children are equal etc. but I just can’t bring myself to argue against a principle that says we should stop paying benefits to the well-off and I’ve been quite surprised at how much the left-wing has stretched the universality argument, coming up with all kinds of romantic socialist reasons as to why it’s wrong to take this benefit away from the middle classes  – one being that the they’ll stop supporting welfare for the poor if they don’t get any benefits themselves.  That’s just silly.  There’s nothing bad at all about cutting benefits for the well-off but of course, me being me (I did warn you), I’m not straight -down-the-line in support of it either.  I mean it’s complicated isn’t it.  £44k is considered to be a high income but that high income isn’t quite so high if you have kids is it.  But ultimately, I can’t believe it will impact these families so much as to cause serious hardship so like I said, all things considered, I just can’t bring myself to oppose cutting a benefit to families that could manage quite nicely without it.  A higher threshold maybe but not universal, at least not under current circumstances.

Well anyway, for those just above the threshold, after the cut some of the luxuries will probably have to go – private music tuition and gardeners and suck-like.  Not such an hardship at first glance but there is a knock-on effect.  I absolutely get that it’s not right for low-incomers to have their taxes spent on benefits for the well-off so they can continue to have their grass cut or their kids enriched with private music lessons and I must stress that this is not an argument against the child benefit cut.  Its merely an observation related to unintended consequences or whatever but it has to be said that the people who provide these household services and private tuition etc. rely on fee-paying middle-incomers for their own livelihood.  Many small businesses have been started by ordinary people tapping into a growing demand from working families who can’t fit it all in and so hire people to help out with the chores.  But these are non-essential products and for families that are just above that threshold and have to take a cut in income, it’s the luxuries that go first.  Again, as I said, not a valid argument for giving benefits to the well-off  but the fact remains that it will have its impact on a chunk of small business owners who may be less well-off.  And anyway, more to the point, it really sticks in my throat that the Tories have suddenly found this to be a useful argument.  Does anyone actually believe that the Tories are sincere when they cry out how wrong it is that the hard-working poor should pay taxes to give benefits to higher earners.  Come off it Tories!  Since when have you cared about the poor being disproportionately taxed in comparison to, and to the benefit of, the rich?  Hark at them suddenly being in support of wealth redistribution in the favour of the poor!

Of course all this has deliberately diverted us from their real agenda ie the real cuts that will disadvantage the poor even more than they already are.  The cap on benefits will seriously plunge many families into deeper hardship and it really will come down to having to choose whether to pay the extortionate rent fees or feed their kids.

And this mantra about people on benefits being a lifestyle choice is a blatant insult.  These people do exist, I accept that but not to the extent that the coalition wants us to believe.  Where the hell are all these jobs that the idle spongers should be taking up anyway under threat of losing their benefits?  I know it’s been asked a million times but as far as I can tell, it’s not been answered so I ask again, how can a single-mum be expected to travel twenty odd miles a day to the only job offer she’s had and it’s a job that pays the minimum wage (which probably won’t exist anyway when the Coalition gets its grubby hands on it), while paying for child care and meeting expensive travel costs?  With the VAT increase taken into account how the hell will she make ends meet?

The thing that gets me is that they keep saying we’re in this together and that everyone across the class divide has to take a hit but I’ve looked and looked and I still can’t see where the rich are being affected.  They give this impression that they too are having to make sacrifices too but I fail to see where? The capital gains tax increase is a gesture that will slightly affect ruthless, buy-to-let landlords and second home-owners.  The rest is Tory ideology hidden behind a false, tough-but-fair slogan and everyone with an ounce of sense knows that the poor are going to suffer the heaviest impacts when their ideology goes live.  But what makes it so damn harsh and cruel is that it’s not neccessary.  There are other ways but in the world of Cameron, Clegg and Osborne et al, austerity only applies to the poor.  Top and bottom is, it’s an ideologically motivated attack on the two things that the traditional right-wing hate the most – the poor and the public sector.

The shared pain slogan is a lie.

Three years ago today: Sophie Lancaster RIP

Some thoughts to leave you with – in the wise words of the lovely Dalai Lama . . .

Despite the tremendous progress in material conditions the world over, suffering remains. The afflictions such as greed, anger, hatred and envy that underpinned much of our misery thousands of years ago continue to do so even today. Unless there is a radical change in human nature within a rapid period of time, these a…fflictions will plague us for many centuries to come.

The most important benefit of patience consists in the way it acts as a powerful antidote to the affliction of anger – the greatest threat to our inner peace, and therefore our happiness. The mind, or spirit, is not physical, it cannot be touched or harmed directly. Only negative thoughts and emotions can harm it. Therefore, only the corresponding positive quality can protect it.

A mind committed to compassion is like an overflowing reservoir – a constant source of energy, determination and kindness. This mind can also be likened to a seed; when cultivated, it gives rise to many other qualities, such as forgiveness, tolerance, inner strength, and the confidence to overcome fear and insecurity.

Dalai Lama