Key Workers!!!!!

On Friday, I caught a whinging whining report on the BBC, about how the poor hard done by, "KEY WORKERS" couldn't afford houses in todays market. We where treated to the sight of one poor soul, who informed us "she had been to university" but couldn't aford a house.!!!

My heart nearly broke with unhappiness for her, I mean, what would one do, all that training, those high wages and now, no house in her price band. What a sad sad tale of woe!! Forget the poor checkout girl on minimum wage at Tesco, or the council street sweeper, neither of whom earn enough for a cardboard box on the streets, let alone a house.... But of course, they are merely lower class in the eyes of our graduate teacher and therefore not needing to have a roof and four walls.

Why is it the media and the government are fixated on "key workers". All workers are important and to my mind, all equally in need of house to live in. The "key workers" seem to think that they should be a special case, why ? i cannot fathom, lets have affordable housing for all as a government aim, not just for a small minority of elitist whingers.

On a cheery note, i attended the annual "Tuckers Maltings beer Festival" in Newton Abbot on Friday. 200 beers to try and a superb event not to be missed. Will definately be back next year!!


Big Ian

The day off sick!

Yuk, what a horrendous day! felt like shit all last night and was ill going into work. My boss took one look at me and said "GO Home". So not being one to argue, I did and just made it home before projectile vomiting over my cat!!! Laid in bed all day, feeling like a sack of cack and have just crawled out of bed and managed a piece of dry toast.. yeeeharrr it stayed down. No idea what brought that little bug on, but their seem to be loads of bugs and sickness related things about at the moment. Lets hope i feel better in the morning, as I hate letting my fellow workers down, specially as its hectic at the moment.

Ian

News of the World

Hey, Ho, time for me to critiscise someone whom I have felt the need to support over the past couple of weeks. Our young wren, captured by the iranians. Sorry my dear, but what the hell possessed her, to sell her story to the "News of the world"!!!!

It has been bad enough, the stream of unfounded critiscism which has been aimed at the captives and at women in the military over this matter. But selling your story to the gutter tabloid press takes the biscuit. This has given the "anti" brigade a fistfull of amunition and I am sorry to say, does her cause no good at all.

The decision to allow her, as a serving member of the armed forces, to sell her story, should result in an instantaneous court martial, for whomsoever allowed it!. Whatever did they think they would gain? Whilst I do not doubt her story at all, surely the MOD would have been far better releasing a joint article by all the hostages to explain to the public their ordeal. Thus negating the levels of critiscism levelled at them. To go it alone in this manner has done the "senior service", a great diservice and if any fee has been paid for the story and the interview with Trevor Mc Donald on TV, I feel that all this money should be immediately donated to the armed forces charities, who help those maimed and disabled in combat. Having spoken to some active serving personnel about this whole affair, (both male and female) there is a certain level of disgust about this whole affair, which I feel can do nothing but harm morale and damage relations between men and women serving in the Royal Navy.

The hand of Blair!, seems somewhere to be present in this sorry tale of spin and propaganda I wonder what instructions where given by the government to those who pull the strings at the MOD, in an effort to regain some political standing for "his royal blairness?"
Whilst the way in which we are told the captives were treated, is not up to the standards we would expect. I do not think the way in which we support the Americans treatment and torture of captives at Guantanamo Bay, allows us any moral high ground to critiscise the Iranians for their treatment of our troops...however much I feel their seizure was wrong, we have played a crooked game of international chess with the Iranians for many years and meddled in their internal affairs, been involved in coups and all sorts of skulduggery, so unfortuanately this and incidents like it were always going to happen.

Let us hope that the MOD review its methods and ROE to avoid embarrasing situations like this occurring again.


Big Ian

Two faced "back stabbing media"

Well well, our good old two faced, back stabbing media, are really sticking the knife into our brave sailors just released by the Iranians. The Daily Mail today, was like a propaganda broadcast by the Tehran government and Littlejohn and Max Hastings just went down to the bottom of my list, for the way they both slagged of the captives. Nice isn't it, when you sit behind a desk or push a pen, how you can state, you feel the hostages were weak under the pressure from their captors and buckled too quick in front of the cameras.
I wonder if it has ever crossed the minds of the idiots that run the media in the UK, that if they were not so happy to show propaganda for the enemy, stunts like capturing 15 sailors would have no propaganda value at all! The trouble is, that our press is just like the press in the USA during the Vietnam war, all too ready to beam enemy propaganda into the homes of ordinary members of the public, whose "need to know" is questionable, with the resulting backlash and positive PR for the enemy!
Can anyone imagine, Winston Churchill, allowing Pathe News and the BBC to show pictures and film interviews of British Airmen captured after being shot down, then forced to apologize for bombing the third Reich? Of course bloody not! because back then, we had some patriotism and pride, in both our country and our armed forces. Now however, the prime minister, the media and the press would happily burn our flag and abandon our soldiers for the sake of a headline....
As for some of the weak kneed desk jockey generals who are calling for heads to roll over this affair, perhaps they should ask, who is it who hamstrings our forces, who writes the rules of engagement and who puts our troops at risk with outdated equipment and insufficient support.
Add to that, the vulture like legal aid brigade, clamoring to support the poor "innocent" Iraqi's
whilst heaping blame and claim on our troops and I am surprised we have any military left.
I have been a Daily Mail and Sunday Mail reader now for over 25 years and I am afraid after your comments today from your "leading columnists" , I will never purchase a Mail again.

WEEE!!!

Have you ever had one of those days where your blood starts clotting in your veins? and you find your head shaking in disbelief so much your neck aches?

Well that was today and yesterday. i had the joy (not) of registering the company I work for on the governments new "cash generation scheme" known as WEEE!! or for you laymen/women The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE Directive)

If you thought WEEE was Yellow liquid waste matter, think again! this WEEE is government bullshit under an environmental guise!. Yes folks, good old Gordy and the "tree hugging" revenue boys have found a new way to destroy more British business's and reduce our competitiveness.

Surprisingly, the good old boys from the EU have got their sticky little fingers "tainted with weee!" and now they are forcing us to "take the piss" (how many more toilet puns can i get in one post?) From just about now, any Uk producer/importer and distributor will have to label all electrical products with a new symbol (wheelie bin with a cross through it) to denote that all electrical goods must only be dumped at approved recycling centres, set up expressly for that purpose. But to cap it all, the said producers, are obliged to pay the cost of collecting the dead item from the purchaser, then paying for its removal and ecological destruction.

It beggars belief! can you imagine, if everyone who bought a TV from currys, rang them up and demanded that their scrap telly s be picked up, the cost alone would be horrendous, yet this government would rather bring in this stealth tax, than make it easier to let people dump old electrical goods at current waste facility's. I dread to think the level of fly tipping we will see after this ghastly piece of legislation becomes fully implemented or the number of people who will fall foul of it.

The government dept that creates acronyms was obviously on Weee, when they wrote this or "double time",because I have never seen so many acronyms in one document.

I await with interest the continuation of this saga..................................................

They are free, now leave the poor maid alone!!

3 Cheers for the Royal Navy, how nice to see that Iran has shown the good grace to free the captives. Now let us see the stinking British Press, leave Faye alone. I for one am sick to death of jumped up a***holes, whining on about this "showing women should not be in the forces". She was perfectly capable of doing her job, as were her male colleagues. They were just the victims of a "political problem", made worse by the press in this country pandering to Iran.
I wish them all well and hope they are in the arms of their loved ones soon. Whilst also thinking of those brave souls who will not be coming home and have made the "ultimate sacrifice" for this countries folly in Iraq and Afghanistan..God bless you all...

The value of propaganda!!!!!!

So, when are we going to realise our stupidity? Why is it that our "lefty chums" in the media are doing the job of the Iranian Propaganda Dept? Can you imagine Winston Churchill in wwii, allowing the Germans to parade allied troops who had been captured on the BBC, "i don't bloody think so". What is wrong with the stinking press? screw the bloody Iranians, they should not get one lousy minute airtime to embarrass our brave troops and they certainly should not have their propaganda aired by our media... Good old beeb! suopportive of our troops to the last!!

Ian