Thatcher's Children...

Evening all,

I see that the Home Secretary, Theresa May has announced that she would like to see the end of the much heralded ASBOs - on the basis that they are not working - and is wanting to combat thuggery and disorder by getting communities to work close together. Ah very conservative.

This idea that those communities who are in some of the worst parts of the country, should be encouraged to in effect police their estates is utterly laughable. Such communities have been cowering to the scum of this country for decades - probably since Thatcher's regime was in control. Thatcher's Children? Apt that.

By removing ASBOs, surely the government is encourgaing the lunatic fringe in each town to go about and shooting down thugs and criminals. Fucking make South Central look tame by comparison.

Utter Madness.


- Posted Straight From The iPhone...

Old Fashioned Ideas?

Morning,

I've just listened to an intriguing and entertaining interview with the Spurs manager, Harry Redknapp. In it he says that the problem with the England team, stems from the fact that we have lost our old fashioned methods of playing the beautiful game from a young age.

And I can see his point, completely. Back in the day, I remember playing Footy in the street, especially in the summer months till 9 or 10pm most evenings. Now, some 20 or so years later, those places are getting more and more reduced. Dare I say, outside Rooney and Gerrard, I am thinking hard of the last player of relevance that came from a working-class background outside of those two.

Perhaps we need to get back to those roots instead of continuing to go down this dark hole of nothingness.


- Posted Straight From The iPhone...

Slaughter Of The Innocents...

Evening all,

One thing that did not come across as much as the massive levels of cuts that were being proposed in the emergency budget is the way that it is going to affect the most vulnerable members of our society.  Of course, these include those who are unemployed and the disabled.  It is the case sadly, that you are more likely to be one of the former if you come from the poorest areas of the country, particularly in these times of austerity that we are in. 

No surprise, however as in previous Conservative administrations, (and before you start, do you genuinely think the Limp Dems have any power, then you are a fucking twat – that’s why I am a Labour party member now) – it has been the least represented in society who have been forced to take it up the jacksie when it has come to cuts.  Whether that is cuts in public sector workers, or cuts in school buildings, hospitals or the Police, it will always be those members of society who rely on the essential services who will suffer.

As always.

Of all the measures in that emergency budget that has undermined the government's bare-faced claim to "fairness", the paring of unemployment benefit has to be the meanest cut of all. Jobseeker's allowance, to which unknowable crowds of people will be condemned if George Osborne's 25% public expenditure cuts are implemented, is already a pittance, impossible to live on.

People who have lost their jobs are shocked, when forced to sign on, to discover they are expected to eat, pay their bills, clothe themselves and get around – including for job interviews – on just £64.45 a week if they are over 25. For those under 25, weekly subsistence must be attained on just £51.85.

And there is this somewhat twisted idea, that some people who go on the dole have some form of wonderful lifestyle.  Where the fuck do you get a cushy lifestyle on SIXTY QUID a week!  Just wait until the gas and electric companies put up their charges by 30-40% this winter, which they will do and we shall see people starving and freezing in their homes and then those cunts in government and their traitorous friends propping them up can chuckle at the very same people whom they said that they would utmost protect dying in the cold this winter.  Probably joining Ivan in hell.

Osborne's announcement that the rate at which benefits rise will decrease, by linking them to the consumer price index (CPI) rather than, as currently, the retail prices index (RPI), was actually set out by the Treasury under the heading "Fairness". 

Talking about Fairness, what’s fucking fair about those who are under 25 to be getting less benefit?  It’s been the case for fucking years, long before I had to take up the benefit.  There is legislation to ensure that people don't get unfairly treated because of their age at work, so why is it acceptable for the government to deem young adults to be second class citizens?  So much for Fairness.

Of course what would be fair is this, all Call Me Dave has to do is go to the banks they handed £1.2 TRILLION to and say WE WANT OUT MONEY BACK. If the banks go bankrupt, tough fucking shit, cuntflaps.  The post office can easily take over from them for mortgages, loans, savings etc and the government can lower taxes for the workers when they make money from the interest on loans and mortgages that they have seized from the banks.

But of course, they are not going to do that to their friends.  With the sheer level of cuts that are being proposed, and that sadistic misuse of the word "fair", the always ludicrous claim by Osborne and David Cameron, sons, both, of multimillionaires, that "we are all in this together", has irretrievably fallen away.

It is going to be an long, cold winter...

Save My Club...

Evening all,

Liverpool Football Club is in serious and dire trouble.

That has been known to anyone and everyone who has known the situation at the club over the past 18 months or so, which is slowly but surely coming to some form of grand crescendo as we speak.

It is for this reason, that several organisation including the SoS (Spirit of Shankly) movement have been formed in recent times, to not just fight off the owners who are in our midst at the moment, but to prevent anything like this ever again happening at the club.

There has been a website set up for all forms of ideas as well as information regarding the current plight of my beloved Reds at http://www.savelfc.org/

Raoul Moat – The Aftermath...

Evening all,

In the light of the death of Raoul Moat early Saturday Morning, one cannot help but be staggered by the sheer number of messages of sympathy and support that him and his family have go from well-wishers and strangers.

Let’s be fair, sympathy and admiration aren't emotions you'd expect to be engendered by a man who shot his ex-girlfriend, killed her boyfriend, maimed a policeman for life, and had a history of assaulting previous girlfriends.

But sympathy and admiration are, it seems, what a lot of people feel for Raoul Moat. By late yesterday, over 15,000 people had registered their "like" of a Facebook site called R.I.P RAOUL MOAT YOU LEGEND! [♥], and the numbers continue to climb even though (or possibly because) the Prime Minister has come out this afternoon to condemn this.  As we write, that figure is now over 30,000.  Perhaps that has some legs...

On the one hand, are those who bizarrely blamed the entire fiasco on women, from his girlfriend to women in public service: "At his court appearance they would have handcuffed him to a 'policewoman' to prove a point," suggested one. "If there had been any police 'women' armed with guns he should have opened fire on them and taken one down with him. Women are the problem today."  Twisted indeed...

But many thought he might be mentally ill: "Poor Man. He obviously had a problem, what I don't know, but I just think he desperately needed help and didn't know it," wrote one reader of the Daily Mail website. "I don't think this guy is evil or a bad person i think he made a huge mistake . . . Everyone makes mistakes," wrote another.  Hmmm.  Perhaps.

While repulsed by what Moat had done, there were people were also impressed that he had managed to elude such a huge operation for an entire week. "I don't agree with wat [sic] he done but he did have his reasons, the lad is a legend in my book – he out ran and out smarted the police for over a week."

While in some eyes, that created a kind of twisted glory – "enuff respect my man . . . your da best soldier 2ever cum outa da north" – criminologist David Wilson's glib and patronising assessment, to Sky News, that Moat had tapped into "that dispossessed, white working-class, masculine mentality" and become a "kind of anti-hero" might also have a certain ring of truth in it.  The Daily Mail has described it as some form of

And then there are those like myself who felt nothing but pure and utter revulsion at the 24-hour news coverage and size of the police hunt.  Broadcasting the comments from his mum was completely irresponsible – and as for the news conference where he was described as a "nutter"...

Perhaps the tide is turning against the 24-hour news lust for a story by any means.  This might be the start of people standing up and thinking for themselves.

Night, Night.

Blatant Cheating..

Fuck me,

That was an extraordinary game in Jo'burg this evening, ruined by a shocking act of football vandalism by Ajax's Luis Suàrez.

Fucking dreadful handball. Thinking that perhaps something like a penalty goal should be thought about for episodes like this along similar lines as Rugby's penalty try.

But that'll be too much common sense for FIFA...


- Posted Straight From The iPhone...

What If The Electoral Gamble Goes To The Shitter...

Evening all,

So it looks as though we are going to get that much vaunted referendum on electoral reform – and the alternative vote (AV) model – and much earlier that we all thought it would be, with Mr Clegg having been able to persuade Call Me Dave to go for 6th May 2011, as reported by the media this morning.

If this was easy it would have been done by now, but voters inconsiderately insist on getting on with their own lives and moving jobs/homes without regard to constituency boundaries. The more they move from city to suburb and beyond, the more Conservative votes pile up to no additional purpose – and ditto with the lorry loads of Labour votes stored in the urban areas of deprivation.

And there is the serious possibility that Clegg loses the vote. 

If Clegg were to lose his referendum, he would be put in a situation where overnight, massive party management problems among his MPs and activists could cause an implosion not just within the Parliamentary party but to the coalition – and at a time when the Lib-Con cuts would be biting deep into public services and jobs. Many activists have already jumped ship and joined myself with Labour. 

Worse still, even if he was to win, Cameron might be able to hold the promised 2015 election under FPTP and the current boundaries. 

If we are locked in deepening economic crisis – and we may well be – it may all look a bit frivolous, as the AV deal offered by the Labour minority administration to Lloyd George's Liberals did in 1931.

It's all a gamble, as life so often is.

And it can be argued that he already taken the biggest gamble of all.  Jumping into the same dirty bed as Cameron.

Beautiful.

Coping With My Depression...

Evening,

As I lie down naked on my bed, sprawed all out and sundry, I am suffering one of my all recurring depressive moments. They can come about at just about any time, with or more likely without reason and can keep me down for minutes or days or even weeks.

This time it is in the aftermath of a spat between myself and mother dear - and it's all my fault. I was looking for one of my much adored AllSaints tops (it's the one with the Houston, Touchdown tagline, for those of you into fashion!) and mother dear (bless her) had been constantly telling me that it was downstairs, but of course - yours truly doesn't believe that for one minute and so wants it back in his drawers for future wearage.

Inevitably, mother sees the mess that I leave her room (that's where my wardrobe is) and quite rightly kicks off about it.

It is a typical reason for a row, and normally it can escalate to something else, but this evening I cannot be asked - the weekend is coming and it's gonna be fun and games down
the beach with some of the guys, so I cannot be asked to take up the baton and mouth off.

Getting back to the point of the blog this evening, as readers would have realised from previous postings, I have suffered from depression for about 14 years - predominantly due to some pretty traumatic experiences as a child, which I will not go into right now, because to do that I would need to be in a dark place psychologically and I'm not there at the moment and don't want to go there because that would take a few days to get away from that state of mind.

At first, I found dealing with my depression extremely hard, if not impossible - the counselling sessions I had both at school and particularly back home in the aftermath of Dad leaving Mum was not that great - as it made me have to go and trough through all the shit that had been thrown down on me.

I admit there was times when I was very worried and concerned for my own welfare - in the immediate days after having my birthday money stolen from me by a Crack-Head on a training course just before my 18th birthday, I will admit, the thought of suicide truly did seem like the logical and only plausible option available to me - something that reared it head twice since - the days after Dad left home, and about 3 and a half years later, when I left a Christmas job at Argos and everyone I knew was working but I wasn't and it felt like I was going nowhere.

As time has moved on however, I have been able to deal with it in small and manageable doses. In some aspects it can be a good thing, in getting me off a massive high after a night off.

Having the support of my family (when they themselves are not down there themselves) but more pertinently my friends at work and elsewhere has been invaluable. You cannot deal with depression on your own. I tried for six years, and my sheer stubbornness almost cost me my life. Only with those around you can you deal with it - and work, live and play around it.

End of essay!

Night, Night!!


- Posted Straight From The iPhone...