lashing it down with rain here for the past 3 hours, rattling against the windows. sprogs 1 & 2 have gone to kip as has the missus.
all is quiet and peaceful, i can read online without the need to stop and answer a question or a phone call, or put rubbish out i can have the odd brew and a tab, without standing on a childs toy or being in the way in the kitchen as everyone suddenly wants to discuss stuff i get full control of the ramone (thats remote control to you) - theres never anything on, but i choose what not to watch!
i can crack on with writing official letters, plan out garden growing for the year, look into pipework, gawp aimlessly at the non ceiling roof and try to follow where the wiring needs to go.
at the moment, im looking through some pictures of jimmy forsyth - you can see some of his pictures here - he lived in newcastle through the 50s and 60s and documented it all in pictures, his community that was being knocked down, so recorded its history/its people, in photographs. ive always been a fan of this type of work, comparisons with lowry's paintings (taking photographs without a camera if that makes sense?) are easy to make - just because an area of the uk is totally different, doesnt mean that the history of the people that grew up and lived there need disappear.
i found out about him when i was flicking through a 2009 copy of the times and came across the obituary section, once again in another after midnight timewarp, this time it was wednesday heh.
these times of night often fly by, the "experts" tell us not to read before bed or we wont sleep, stuff that, i sleep much better now than ive ever done! (watch this now, bet i cant get to sleep for the next 3 hours) it may not be spectacular, it may not be exciting, but for chilling out.... the after midnight timewarp is the best!
"Taxi for labour" - reveals much more than it would appear!
the "taxi for hire" scandal that has broken tonight and revealed three ex labour ministers, advertising themselves "for hire" has opened up a whole can of worms, much more damaging to the labour party, than the three simple exclusions from the party.
byers, hewitt and hoon, suspended: byers is a fierce critic of gordon brown - attacking him back in 2008 he slated gordon brown for "putting labour party interests before the country" hewitt and hoon were ex ministers behind last year's failed leadership coup.
the fact that all three had top jobs lined up and they are all standing down at the next election AND they had all damaged gordon brown in the past, is bad enough - but to have all three suddenly stained in the press and then dragged through the mud in secret recordings is too much of a coincidence. all three have been suspended from the labour party - which will clearly tarnish them in the eyes of future business employers - very damaging to them.
this story reveals media bias towards the labour party: it proves nothing, i can hear the labour party supporters saying now... lets see then shall we;
News International is the majority shareholder of BSkyB and James Murdoch is CEO - sky news is no fan of the conservatives, despite the sun coming out in favour of the conservatives. sky news regularly has daily mirror correspondants commenting on "the papers" attacking the conservatives.
the times worked with channel 4 on this story - the story broke by the times on sunday, at a time when the unite union striking with ba and the unite union giving money to the labour party, MPs and labour prospective parliamentary candidates, was clearly damaging labour - monday on sky news, not a mention of the unite union's donations to labour or its mps or labour parliamentary candidates!
the program was shown on channel 4 tonight (monday) showing ex labour ministers who have attacked gordon brown being caught out selling themselves in secret recordings. according to the sky news correspondant, the parliamentary labour party meeting (before the show went on air) there were demands by labour backbenchers, that some form of action be taken. according to sky news after the program was aired, "they had meetings and discussions and felt action had to be taken" - resulting in the suspension of the three mps from the labour party in the commons. remember this little bit
- on the bbc, nick robinson's blog has no mention of anything about this story, very little about unite donating money to labour mps, and labour parliamentary candidates, instead the bbc website insists that last thursday the most popular read story was the lord ashcroft reports (yeh yeh as if) seeing that on sunday, last thursdays most read story was NOT lord ashcroft affair, shows how mysterious the bbc website is when headlining "news" and viewed stories. (anything to keep ashcroft on the front page of your website eh bbc?)
the bbc do cover this "for hire story" though - stating; "The decision was taken after Channel 4's Dispatches programme aired, showing undercover footage of various politicians who were approached by a fictional US firm looking to hire them for lobbying work.
It is understood it [the decision to suspend the three labour mps] was taken by chief whip Nick Brown, in consultation with the chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, Tony Lloyd, and Labour's general secretary, Ray Collins"
so the labour party top brass watched the program and then had consultations about taking action against the mps involved did they?
oh contrare! tom bradbury for itv news (fast becoming the country's top political reporter due to his unbiased reporting) shot both sky news and bbc's website down in flames, with one simple comment:
"downing street watched the program (from 9pm to 10pm on channel 4) and at 1 minute to 10pm, i got a call from them informing me of their action in suspending the three labour mps!"
bbc and sky news reporting discussions took place, from the top brass at the labour party! itv reveal that the call informing them of suspensions comes 30 seconds after the program has finished.
it just shows how anyone attacking gordon brown for what ever reason, is attacked themselves, sometimes months later, when the dust has settled. what a good way to hide the uproar and bury the bad news of unite's donations to the labour party...
here come the april showers (albeit two weeks early)
a glorius february, very dry around here, very frosty, then as temperatures start to rise, we get windy days with showers/drizzle
now that our flower seeds for the garden this year are bought, we have to wait two to three weeks to be able to turn the gardens over and get them in... or could this be time to start them off in the greenhouse...
Denz on 03.22.10 @ 10:32 AM CST [link]
Thursday, March 18th
tax credits - slight of hand!
should government be improving lacklustre efforts to increase private sector job creation, rather than focussing on giving taxpayer's money out in hand outs?
i believe they should.
when labour came to power in 1997, the UK had inward investment levels - companies running their businesses and factories in the UK - at record levels, so much so that we were envied by the rest of the EU, as we had more inward investment than all the other european union countries added together!
* the UK had one of the lowest small business tax rates in the EU * the UK had one of the lowest rates of corporation tax in the western world * pension funds of the workers here in the UK were the best in the western world and working well towards providing good levels of income for our retired population * women could retire at 60 men at 65 * the numbers of businesses falling into foreign companies hands was very low as the legislation put in place by the previous conservative government protected workers, in that unless the worker's pension fund was matched or bettered, then no takeover could take place.
prior to a labour government in 1997, we had an environment that created and encouraged employment for the UK people.
today, we have a reactive labour government - pension funds have been decimated by a 5% tax on pension fund profits and the removal of company takeovers bettering the worker's pension pot - pension funds are no longer protected from company managements, in that the pension funds can now be used for investment in other areas of that company's business, paying off debts, new machinery, etc. so that when a company struggles or goes into administration, the pension pot is left bare and its the workers that suffer with a pension that is virtually worthless. - corporation tax continues to rise - small businesses are clobbered with ever increasing taxes - workers are whacked by national insurance rises in the wage packet - businesses going bust are at record levels - retirement age for anyone currently 41 and under will rise to 68 years old, for both men and women (thats a 3 year extra working time for men and an 8 year increase in working time for women)
so what use are tax credits? a staggering number of people now rely on a form of tax credits to survive, despite working full/part time. liam byrne let slip on the bbc weeks ago, that more than 20 million people now claim tax credits!
a basic wage should be enough for anyone to live on. the taxpayer is subsidising more than 20 million people just to live! but is it really help?
for millions of people that are claiming housing and/or council tax benefit, this is slight of hand, as these benefits are lowered if claiming tax credit payments. now take into account other factors: - travel costs (kept artificially high by government to raise revenue via VAT) - food and drink during the working day - child care costs ( i know of several people who work all week just to cover the cost of childcare, but lose out as they have to continue to pay this childcare during holiday periods to maintain the child's place)
more often than not, when these factors are added into calculations, the costs outweigh the tax credit benefits.
any government representing the people of the UK should be pro active not reactive. businesses should be free to start up and employ people, companies should be encouraged to invest here instead of other eu countries, why make a product in the UK and ship it into european markets, when its cheaper to make it in france or germany and sell it from there?
national insurance should be reduced, as this is income tax on wage packets by another name small business should have its taxes lowered and beaurocracy scrapped corporation taxes should be reduced - encouraging investment in the UK once again
the UK needs to get people off tax credits and return to a time when a person gets to keep more of their wages so a tax credit is not required just to live. the more people off tax credits, will free up funds for reducing taxes and allow the UK to become competitive once again. giving a tax credit with one hand whilst taxing people into reliance on a taxpayer funded benefit just to live, is misleading people and helps no one in the long term!
various ponderings from over the weekend and today:
how many of each season a person will see in their lifetime if i live until im 80 years old - how many spring seasons will i see.
the first 5 i woudnt even notice (5) the next 11 im at school so wouldnt really take much notice (11) then im busy with full time work until i see the light in my mid 30s (17)
so im around 33, already halfway through my life (should i live until im 80) that means id have just 47 to look forward to. this also applies to summers, autumns and winters, christmas' easters, birthdays, etc. im already 40 so im just down to 40 left. this is not a lot when you think about it.
why has my sleep pattern changed? always a light sleeper for as far back as i can remember - in the past two years my sleep pattern has changed, not only do i doze off sometimes, but i also sleep like a log. i nod off quickly and im out cold. i have also started having dreams - something ive not done since i was a teenager, now i dream almost every other night. very weird
why do i have less time now than i used to? as you get older, your priorities change, this happens to everyone i think. from leaving school to early - mid 30s, its all about work and play, one pays for the other. when mid to late 30s hit, things change and you start getting bored of the same old work all week then beer all weekend routine - well at least i did
now prior to this "change" i was always stuck for time, but now i only work part time, some days just a bit of cdriving and na hour at work, yet i have even less time now than i used to have..... im not very well organised but im forever chasing my tail or struggle to find time to do things.. bizarre
it is widely acknowledged today, that the financial services authority - FSA - brought in to regulate the banks, failed completely to stop banks from over stretching in their borrowing.
it is also widely accepted that because banks over stretched, as soon as cheap credit dried up (which was repackaged risky debt sold on to another bank - used as collateral for borrowing yet more money to lend out at a premium rate to make more profits) the markets collapsed - a complete and total failure by the FSA, a quango that gordon brown brought in to stop exactly this.
where is the much talked about "social justice" now?
two more classic examples for you: example 1 mortgage holder gets a letter when the rate of interest on their mortgage goes up, giving them 28 days notice - nothing wrong there. when the interest rate falls, they are told nothing for 18 months, instead they continue to be charged the higher price - not to worry, "social justice" will protect them and the issue will be resolved quickly and any refunds due will be forthcoming
the bank/building society that have done this will sort it out and safeguard their customers against this fraudulent activity? - wrong
the customer now has to go through a whole series of hoops and phone calls, branch visits, letters, etc. to find out the whats gone on. the customer finds out whats gone wrong, but no one is responsible or accountable for the error. once highlighted to all concerned, youd think the refund of monies owed would be forthcoming? - youd be wrong again!
more hoops and smokescreens, letters and complaints, just to get back what is rightfully the customer's money. only court action will force the bank/building to honour the law and refund 8% interest on top of what they owe.. which again must be instigated by the customer at yet more expense. not much sign of "social justice" there then!
example 2 gas company provide gas to a householder. gas bill shoots up to almost £600 for a 3 month period! customer wisely has a pre payment meter installed weeks later the gas bill has jumped to over £700! customer calls landlord to check equipment - landlord sends an engineer and finds fault with the thermostat on equipment at the property - which has caused the extremely high debt for gas.
not to worry - the landlord will be told of the error, fix the equipment and sort the huge bill out with the gas company? - wrong!
the customer now is a ping pong ball between the gas company and their landlord. the gas company are very nice and will reduce the arrears payments - so they can get their £700 extra funds from the customer the landlord are very nice as they will now fix their own equipment at the property, free of charge!
who has to pay the £700 bill? - the customer!
where's the "social justice" at now when the customer's out of pocket because of faulty equipment they rent off the landlord and the gas company who didnt spot that the bill has trebled from what it normally is?
in fairy land thats where - a complete waste of time and taxpayer's money - social justice, just another slogan to con people that those in power are doing something.... yet no one knows what!
back in september, we were in a time warp, waiting for the whole summer holidays and then a couple of weeks for her to arrive. she was our first child for more than 21 years, oh how the whole buying for baby has changed - no longer the odd things that are absolutely neccessary, its now a huge profit making machine that slaps down on anyone that hasnt got their wits about them, to prevent money from buring a hole in their pockets.
two weeks until lift off and we walked out in the stormy rains, we drove up and down bumpy lanes, we spent hours nervously talking about what we would imagine it being like, as long as, god willing, everything was okays with the birth. it felt like being in the twilight zone... we knew she was on the way, but no idea when she would put in an appearance.
finally, after walking around the house for 3 hours of labour pains, we set off for the hospital. within 5 hours sprog number 2 was with us. we have laughed, had panic worry periods, asked each other thousands of questions, etc. we had the months of sleepless nights, all the conflicting advice, but we wouldnt change things for the world. we are still tired, still zombified, still trying to balance normal routine with the unexpected nappy filling, but it is brilliant.
everytime she wakes up with a gurn on, churchill like and agro, a quick silly noise or poke and shes beaming her huge smile that fills the room. having children is a magical experience, itll rip the backside out of your world, send you to work with sick down the back of your shoulder, stick overlicked toast to the arse of your nice clean pants, but it will never stop amazing you. it is for me THE most natural feeling anyone can have, and something as simple as a baby burp can cause a room to erupt in fits of laughter.
its been a rollercoaster 6 months, juggling time, sleep, bills, feeding, jobs, work, feeding, sleep... but worth every second of it )
I am still looking, theres always a chance....
Denz on 03.09.10 @ 09:54 PM CST [link]
polls - how we are conned
a classic example today, posted in the times newspaper about the gap in support between conservatives and labour is narrowing.
the headline shows neck and neck in marginal seats between tory and labour now on first read, it gives the clear impression that the gap is closing, which is a fair point as people make their minds up as the election on may 6th gets closer.
on further inspection however, the "story" starts to fall apart:
the 100 seats/areas they used for the polling in DOES NOT include the top 50 seats, where the majority for the sitting labour MP is only very small - why not? id have thought that this would give a clearer picture? why did they ignore these seats?
the poll also doesnt include seats where the liberal democrats are the sitting MP with a small majority, again, why not?
classic example of mis-leading the public nice story, no doubt full of opinion and counter comment, nice headline that would attract many with a political interest, factual basis is very poor.
theres a warning here for pollsters and the government - believe your own polls at your peril! many times in the past, come elections, the polls and estimates have been way off the mark. it should be an interesting may 6th!
good fun this one, whenever gordon brown is out and about and caught on camera - which is far too often for my liking but never the less - see if you can spot the general public
in the past two weeks ive seen him on tv in hospitals, universities, with the police, in coventry and even on a rough council estate at mid-day, and not once have i seen the general public!
spot the public with gordon game scoring:
5 points - if you spot a member of the public out in the open, talking to gordon brown whilst the cameras are there 2 bonus points - if you can hear what the member of the public are saying to gordy 1 point - if you see the public in the distance behind gordon, but too far away to be heard
of course you get no points at all if you watch gordon out in the open but you see no member of the public anywhere near him (his own advisors and labour workers dont count as members of the public)... which in the past two weeks and from labour party conferences has proved to be the common occurance!
so the TV election debate between the party leaders of the 3 main parties is to go ahead, TV stations are plugging it as a fantastic opportunity for the public - poppycock!
X factor style debates with questions selected by journalists are exactly what the public do not need.
included in the "conditions" for these debates, will be that each show will only cover certain policy areas - the public will be able to ask questions but not heckle or be allowed a chance to reply to the answer given - email questions from the public can be sent in, but will be filtered by journalists who decide which questions are asked.
the three party leaders, as with any wannabe MP, should be out in towns and cities facing direct questions from the public, a fact that only two of the three party leaders are doing also. gordon brown should not be allowed to go through a general election campaign without facing the public who have to live with the policies that he imposes on us all.
i have never in my lifetime witnessed a party leader of any persuation be able to get away with not facing the public directly
* gordon brown was recently on one of the worst council estates in britain, highlighting law and order policies and defending his record, yet when he was on camera, not a single member of the public could be seen around him * gordon brown was seen on the street this week, again "speaking to the police" - hardly any public were around him and he was flanked by (what i saw) 3 burly bodyguards, 6 flourescant jacketed police officers, 3 top police officers, either the public were kept away or at dinner time in a town centre is like a ghost town!
just two examples of how our beloved leader is avoiding real people.
if gordon brown is happy with his record in office, if he is happy with the policies that he wants to bring in, during the next parliament (what are they again? ive not heard of a single one yet) then why is he avoiding answering questions from the public unscripted?
- going into hospitals and schools on official visits is NOT meeting people, its a stage managed environment in which nobody can ask awkward questions, as they will be in trouble with their employer - giving speeches in university or school gymnasiums to party activists, is NOT meeting the people - visiting areas of the country and keeping the public behind barriers 300 yards away as he saunters into a building from his official car, flanked by personal bodyguards and police, is NOT meeting the people!
when was the last time gordon brown walked down a street and spoke to the people he dictates over? i cant remember the last time i witnessed this!
what is gordon brown scared of? unscripted questions? a member of the public tearing a strip off him and proving he is wrong on a subject?
it needs the media and journalists to address this... but then again they will be happy, as they have now secured the tv debates. as nick robinsons blog demonstrates, journalists of all political persuations are NOT independant, the public should be asking unscripted questions of those wanting to represent us and no one else!
graham jones is unwilling to debate his views - after posters of comments opposed his narrow minded views on what he was posting, he decided that the best policy for him, was to turn the comment option off - stopping anyone from correcting him!
graham jones has no policies, like the labour party he claims to represent and would be best for the people of britain at the general election - visit his "blog" - half of the posts come from pro labour articles (not even his own opinion) in the media, the other half are ridicule and his half baked opinion.
NOT A SINGLE LABOUR PARTY POLICY! - so what does that say for the party and him?
a hypocrit of the highest order who is not fit to represent the constituancy he his standing for election in, hyndburn and haslingden!
got a problem with this graham? notice that comments are left on as unlike you and your party, i prefer to have a healthy debate!
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