Story of the Year

The Death of Logan Mwangi, age 5 years

02/07/22

Logan's so-called mother Angharad Williamson, 31, his ape of a stepfather, John Cole, 40, and maggot of a step-brother, Craig Mulligan, 14, killed Logan in July 2021, in a brutal and sustained attack at home in Bridgend county, leaving him with catastrophic injuries, as if he had been run over by a truck. Then they dumped him in the river, like an unwanted animal. Events leading up to the death of Logan are just a re-run of the Peter Connelly case. All the agencies, supposedly in place to protect children like Logan were hopeless.  They will have a review, produce a report and then tell us ‘lessons are being learnt’.

Back to the 19th century

The failures at the heart of Logan Mwangi case, a 5 year old butchered by his parents, are typical of failures at an institutional level throughout the UK. Every thing is broken, posh boy David Cameron told us in 2010, "Britain is broken". He did not do anything about it, he just made things worse. In truth, Britain was not broken in 2010, the fresh air banking system was broken. The financial crash of that became obvious in 2008 was in fact an act of self-harm, driven by greed. Today, at the end of 2022, Tory politicians insist the chronic state of the nation is all the fault of Vlad the Impeller in Russia and the aftermath of Covid 19.

Every day they rise as if the antics of Liz Truss had no impact on the economy, as if the stupidity of Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his wall paper spaffing  made Britain the envy of the world. 2019 is as far back as the Tory mind travels, all else is blank. No point in dwelling on the austerity imposed by George Osborn, based on the foolishness of charlatans or the handiwork of Andrew  Lansley. The Lansley ‘reforms’ plunged the NHS into organisational chaos and financial instability, and the patients were the losers. No matter, blame Vlad, blame Covid 19 for a country in ruins. If that’s not enough to satisfy media inquisitors then blame workers complaining about their wages and condition of work. The Tory mind says, look at the poor pro's with their banners on the picket lines, don't they know that the flexibility and freedom of zero hours is the way forward for the working. A nineteenth century life-style is what they really crave.

December 2022

 

Sunak and Class War

19/12/22

The Daily Mail is telling us that Mr Sunak thinks his attack on nurses etc, all strikers in fact, is the fault of Mick Lynch. Apparently, Mick is spearheading a class war. This is why Sunak will not even talk to strikers, let alone meet their demands.

Note: In the year to March 2022, taxpayers contributed £13.3 billion in subsidies to private train companies, while passengers contributed only £5.8 billion.

 

Michelle Mone

08/12/22

The Guardian reported that Michelle Mone had received £29 million in payments from PPE Medpro to a secret offshore HSBC trust fund, of which she and her adult children were the beneficiaries. Her lawyer had previously said she did not declare PPE Medpro in the House of Lords register of financial interests as "she did not benefit financially and was not connected to PPE Medpro in any capacity. David Cameron put this liar in the Lords?

How many U-turns in a week Mr Sunak?

08/12/22

PM Sunak is showing just how desperate he is to last longer than Liz Trust as prime minister. In the last week or so we have seen U-turns on the school's bill, on-shore wind turbines, house building targets. On the latter, the government to abolish the target of building 300,000 homes a year in England. Instead, the target will be “advisory” and councils will be allowed to build fewer homes if they can show hitting it would significantly change the character of an area. The main part of the school's bill was designed to force all local authority schools to become academies, controlled from Whitehall. The target house building target has not been met since the 60s. So what better way to deal with it than forget it.

 

Race Row at the Palace

 

04/12/22

A little chit-chat took place at the Palace between  Lady Susan Hussey and Ngozi Fulani (from Hackney). They were there, with 300 other interested parties, to support Camilla’s campaign against domestic violence. The chit-chat turned into a car crash, the media described it as a race row, they also brought up the charge, made by Wills and the Meg, that the Royals are racists. Lady Susan, who worked with the late Queen for 60 years, was unwilling to accept Ngozi, a black woman, dressed like a Christmas tree, was from Britain. Lady Susan kept up her questioning, assuming she must really be from elsewhere. When in fact, it was Lady Susan who was from elsewhere - Planet Zog. The question is, why did the nation’s media of all descriptions waste endless time, for a whole week, on a very silly conversation?

November

 

Online Safety Bill

What is holding things up?

27/11/22

They say the Bill is due to return to Parliament in early December, following a number of delays. No one in the news media seems to know exactly what is holding things up. This Bill is unlikely to become law until 2024.

Not well known Culture Secretary Michelle Donelan said she was strengthening the bill "to make sure these vile acts are stamped out". "I am determined that the abhorrent trolls encouraging the young and vulnerable to self-harm are brought to justice," she also said. Michelle wants to get rid of content on social media platforms that encourages children, in particular, to physically harm themselves.

Most sane people would agree with Michelle, well most but not right-wing fascists. The Daily Torygraph had this for a headline:

The Online Safety Bill has terrifying implications

They are worried about the spooks looking at all your WhatsApp messages, about your online freedom being curtailed. There is a simple answer, stop dealing drugs using WhatsApp and if you do, you deserve to have your freedom curtailed.

Undate: 30/11/22, Controversial measures which would have forced big technology platforms to take down legal but harmful material have been axed from the Online Safety Bill.

Solihull murders

Another police failure

19/11/22

"Shocking" police failures contributed to the murders of two women stabbed to death in the West Midlands, a former inspector at the police watchdog said. Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem died outside Mrs Saleem's home in Solihull in 2018. An inquest jury found police errors contributed to the deaths.

Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary said: "In all steps, the victims in this particularly tragic and shocking case were failed and let down by the police". In their final hours, Ms Oudeh made six 999 calls after Tarin hit her at a restaurant and followed them home, but officers failed to reach them in time. Unbelievably, the call handler can be heard telling Khaola that they would send someone round in the morning.

Killer Tarin's domestic abuse had been reported 10 times to West Midlands Police between April and August. The police interviewed him and took no action.

Tarin admitted murdering the two women and was jailed for a minimum of 32 years in December 2018.

 

Hunt's Budget Detail Nov' 17blast-it-2

 

Nothing Social About Rochdale Boroughwide Housing

15/11/22

A toddler died in 2020 from a respiratory condition caused by exposure to mould in his home, a coroner has concluded. Rochdale Boroughwide Housing were described as “not proactive”. In fact, they ignored requests for help from the child’s family. They ignored reports from their own inspectors. Their response or rather non-response was negligent, if not criminal. The chief executive of RBHousing, Gareth Swarbrick, is paid £185,000 a year. Michael Gove, the leveling-up, housing and communities secretary, said the death was “an unacceptable tragedy” and that “it beggars belief” that the chief executive of the social housing provider was still in office. Mould in RBH social housing has been a long-term issue. However, The child, prior to his death, received hospital treatment as a result of his living conditions. The coroner expressed concern about an “evident gap” in information sharing between health visitors, midwives, early help services and the GP.

 

Alexis Jay: The Final Report, Really?

12/11/22

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales the inquiry examining how the country's institutions handled their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse. It was set up on 7 July 2014, produced its 19th and final report on 20 October 2022. Those eight years saw thousands of witnesses to abuse and assault in institutional settings. The list of recommendations to correct the existing barbaric system this time is literally longer than your arm – and will it change anything?

 

Reporter Arrested for Knowing

Pre-arrests used in the fight against precognition

09/11/22

LBC reporter, Charlotte Lynch, was covering a Just Stop Oil protest on the M25. She was nowhere near the protesters. She was standing on a footpath on a public road over the M25 between Junctions 20 and 21, near to Watford. Two officers approach her and asked her what she was doing. She told she worked for LBC and showed her pressed card. They arrested her for conspiracy to commit a public nuisance. She was handcuffed and put in a police van bound for Stevenage Police Station where she had DNA swabs taken from her mouth, fingerprinted and had her mugshot taken. Then, she spent 7 hours in a police cell. No charges were brought. The police were upset because Charlotte didn't share what she knew about protests with them. Odd really, given that protest locations are available on the Web. They probably suspected her of being a precog.

Chief Constable Charlie Hall wants an independent force to examine his approach to these increasingly common arrests to identify any learning we should take in managing these challenging situations. He doesn't need an exmination, the law now allows the police to arrest people for what they might do.

 

October

Sunak brings back a disappointing bunch of losers

26/10/22

Gavin Williamson, sacked twice for idiocy at Education, Robert Jenwick sacked for doing deals with Tory donors, and Suella Braverman sacked for breeching national security. Bringing these chumps back into government suggests that the arm of the ERG is dictating Sunak's actions.

Sunak gets the keys to No.10

Government is getting more like the Muppet Show, complete with a glove puppet and a host of nodding dogs.

25/10/22

Bonkers Johnson did not get the 100 backers to qualify for the top job. He spoke nonsense about having the numbers but didn't feel he could heal the riff in the Tory party... bullshit. He did not have he numbers! Penny Mordaunt was flogging a dead horse, the 1922 Committee did for her. Sunak got the job by default and all the silly buggers sat their banging on the tables, pretending they didn't know the result before it was announce. Now, all the lickspittles (like Rees-Mogg) are queuing up to lick Rishi's expensive shoes.

Visit Sunak Central for an apprasal of the lickspittles.

 

Liz Truss's fantasy ends

20/10/22

She resigned today. There will be three runners and riders for the next PM, Johnson, Sunak, and Mordaunt. Loony Tory members will be asked to vote via the Net. Each candidate must get at least 100 sponsoring MPs to qualify. People keep talking about democracy at work, choosing to overlook that the Tory party is a private club and this nonsense has nothing to do with inviting the people to participate. GET A DICTIONARY!

 

Art as currency?

12/10/22

Damien Hirst, artist famous for pickling dead animals in the 1990s, set fire to his dot art works. We thought, for a moment, - Brilliant idea. How wrong can you be?

It seems he created 10,000 unique dot paintings in 2016, each with its own title, they were later linked to corresponding NFTs and sold for $2,000 each. Buyers were given the option of keeping the NFTs or trading them in for the physical artwork. The collector couldn’t keep both. The exchange was a one-way process.
Twenty-four hours before a deadline of 3pm on Wednesday, 4,180 people had chosen to swap their NFT for a physical artwork, with 5,820 opting to keep their NFTs.

NOTE: NFTs - NFT stands for "non-fungible token." At a basic level, an NFT is a digital asset that links ownership to unique physical or digital items.

Anoter note: How on earth do you give unique names to 10,000 pictures of dots, that all look the same?

  

Covid 19 Inquiry begins...

Well, not quite, expect a six month listening process first.

04/10/22

The UK-wide inquiry proposes examining a broad range of issues including:

• the UK's preparedness for the pandemic
• the use of lockdowns and other 'non-pharmaceutical' interventions such as social distancing and the use of face coverings
• the management of the pandemic in hospitals and care homes
• the procurement and provision of equipment like personal protective equipment and ventilators
• support for businesses and jobs, including the furlough scheme, as well as benefits and sick pay.

The inquiry aims to produce "a factual, narrative account" covering decision-making at all levels of government and the response of the health and care sector as well as identifying the "lessons to be learned". (From the BBC website)

Really, yet more lessons to be learned.

 

 

 

 

 

September 2022

 

It's the end of the world as we know it!

 

Truss and tax cuts
She thinks it will create booming economy

21/09/22

Her war on tax, a cut stamp duty, reversing the NI hike and ditching corporation tax and the City bonus cap to boost the economy will announced in her emergency Budget on Friday – we can’t wait! The poor woman is being haunted by Arthur Laffer.

It all adds up to tax cuts for millionaires, the benefits will not trickle down to the poor.

Tories have forgotton 2008
You know, when the bankers crashed the global economy

17/09/22

Kwasi Kwarteng is considering scrapping the bankers’ bonus cap to boost the City. He would like us to forget that uncapped bonuses lead to the excessive risk taking that spawned the financial crisis of 2008. He’s telliing the fairy story of making London a more attractive place for global banks to do business. He claims that the cap makes the UK less attractive than the US or Asia. That is complete nonsense, nowhere provides more opportunity than Treasure Island.

The City bosses don’t like paying their employee's a salary, they want to lower their  fixed costs. Let’s not forget it was the bosses that turned a blind eye to the foolish bets of their employees and created the hidiousness of George Osborne’s austerity regime.

Zombie government partying again

13/09/22

It's the party conference season again. The Lib-Dems have cancelled their jolly-boys outing but the Tories and Labour are set to go ahead. Rumours that they may tone down their partying have been ruled out. The word is that it's important to get things back to normal - and we know how those Tories like to party.

 

Bank Holiday

10/09/22

The day of the Queen's funeral will be a bank holiday, it has been confirmed. The date for the funeral has been set for Monday 19 September.

UP

Price Cap for Energy Bills

09/09/22

 

As well as plans to limit energy bill increases for households, Truss also outlined proposals "to make sure we have security of energy supply for the long-term". This included issuing new oil and gas exploration licences for the North Sea, lifting the ban on fracking for shale gas, and looking to negotiate lower-priced long-term contracts with renewable and nuclear power companies.

 

Fracking is back

09/09/22

The green light has been given to fracking companies to start making a mess again. The question is : will the gas produced be sold here or will it be sold on the world market?

 

Currently there is not much to report

04/09/22

Basically, the news is just like Freeview TV, all repeats. Vlad the Impaler continues his destruction of Russia's youth, in his attempts to destroy Ukraine. The world's other great power broker, Pres' Biden gets sillier by the day, as he drifts further away from the madness of the US and into some twilight zone. Here, in the UK, the hidious joust between Truss and Sunak is almost at an end and we are set to replace an idiot for a nitwit. Extinction Rebellion continue to glue themselves to roads and the newpapers are only interested in the oddity of the Royal family. All repeats.

 

August 2022

Public interest immunity

18/08/22

UK ministers who backed sending asylum seekers to Rwanda were warned by their own adviser that its government tortures and kills political opponents.And our Government tried to cover-up what they knew by claiming public interest immunity.

Contaminated Blood

Another cover up...

18/08/22

Thousands have died from contaminated blood products used by the NHS in the 1970s and 80s. John Major says it was bad luck and Ken Clark, then health minister, appears confused about what the government knew about the dangers being reported due the rise of Aids. Blood was being imported from the US, drained from prisoners, many of them drug addicts with Aids.

40 years on government has decided to pay compensation but largely the ignorring families of those who are already dead

 

Mocking Tribute for Alun Turing

14/08/22

The pile of steel bricks in the picture was put together by so-called artist Sir Antony Gormley. This lego mockery is supposedly a tribute to the man who saved thousands of lives during the war. GB repaid Turing for his efforts in 1953, with chemical castration. Now, Cambridge University will be asking the public to pay £10 to view Gormley's monstrosity.

Don't Pay UK

07/08/22

Don't Pay UK, a new campaign calling on Brits to boycott paying their energy bills by direct debits come October. So far 75,000 people have pledged to strike, yet the movement says it is gaining new members every day. Some are saying that this could be another Poll Tax moment. And should we be surprised when EDL increased bills by 7% in France and 62% here in the UK. Yes, here in the UK, where the regulator sat on it's hands and watched 22 energy companies go bust. A regulator that just allows energy companies to keep on robbing their customers, whilst blaming Vlad the Impaler and his Arab friends.

UP

July 2022

England women win Euro Cup

31/07/22

The BBC told us:

"In beating Germany, England's Lionesses have created a fresh defining moment for women's football and the impact on the wider women's game is set to be enormous." Let' hope so, we all remember the great legacy that was supposed to arise from the 2012 Olympics.

Fish Killers and Hose Pipe Bans

27/07/22

Water companies across the UK are losing two and a half billion letres a day due to leaks and now have the nerve to tell households to conserve water. Conservation will include a hosepipe ban. The truth is that these companies are not investing to improve the system. They are happy to take the profits and subsidies from the State, while dumping untreated waste in the rivers and the coastal shore line. Fish are being killed in their millions by the pollution this dumping causes.

Time to bring water back into state control and to tell the money grubbers to get lost.

Replacing Johnson - Who are the contenders?

UPDATE: Truss and Sunak are in the final two

Protesters take a dip in Sri Lanka

09/07/22

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has announced he will step down after protesters stormed his official residence and set the prime minister's house on fire. The Rafapaksa clan have been busy milking the country's finances for decades, reducing it to a basket case. The people have finally had enough, taking a dip in the president's swimming pool - there's no telling what they might do next?

Goodbyeee... Johnson to go

08/07/22

Serial liar Alexander Johnson has finally thrown the towel in following the Pincher lies. Hilariously, Johnson actually sacked Gove when he told him the game was up. Fifty odd ministers and spads resigned. Then, when Johnson agreed to stand down they wanted their jobs back. The people given their jobs were given figures like £16k for being in post for just two days. Johnson hasn't left Downing Street, he wants to squat until the Party elects a new leader.

UP

Another Tory Perv

02/07/22

A parliamentary watchdog is to examine allegations of sexual misconduct by former Conservative deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.

Pincher is accused of groping two men in a private members' club.

He quit his government job in a letter on Thursday, saying he had "drunk far too much" and "embarrassed myself and other people". He has not resigned yet.

Six Police Forces in Special Measures

02/07/22

The forces are the Met, Greater Manchester, Cleveland, Gloucestershire, Staffordshire and Wiltshire. Now, they will be set targets to meet. We don't know what happens if they fail to improve? No one knows, you close schools down and send the children elsewhere. What do you do with a continually failing police force?

 

June 2022

Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act comes into effect 29/06

Roe v Wade no more

25/06/22

The Supreme Court, the so called protector of the US constitution, have undone Roe v Wade. Back in 1973 they argued that abortion laws in Texas and Georgia went against the US Constitution because they infringed a woman's right to privacy. By a vote of seven to two, the court justices ruled that governments lacked the power to prohibit abortions. Now, thanks to the handiwork of Trump and, the Christian gun-toting right-wing zeaalots, aboption is now illegal in several US states.

 

Johnson's footnote in history confirmed

15/06/22

After a lifetime of struggle, Alexander Boris de fuckwit Johnson, has achieved his ultimate goal. He has plumbed the depths, he has torn up the Northern Ireland Protocal (what ever that is), he has failed to get a plane to take off bound for Rwanda, full of boat people (well, at least 3 of them). Hence, he will dump ECHR. It was they who blocked his plane. None of that mattersf for Boris, he has reached the nadir of idiocy.

This week he announced that he intends to finish Margaret Thatcher's destruction of the social housing stock by allowing Housing Associations tenents on social benefit to buy their homes. Now, all he has to do is persuade the Housing Association to sell, they may need to be bribed and he needs to give the lenders a good reason to lend to someone on benefits?

Thatcher's scheme cost the country hundreds of millions, Johnson's scheme will cost in the region of 1.5 billion pounds. A footnote in a child's history textbook is now assured.

UP

 

Jubilee Celebrations

02/06/22

UK subjects have been awarded two days off work to enjoy celebration of the Queen's 70 years on the thrown. Day one had lots of soldiers and horses, and a fly past, and beacons of hope were lit. Day two had a gathering at Westminster Abbey. And the BBC had to go to an unheard of street in Preston to find a street party.

Day three: Concert in the Mail

Day four: Street parties 

May 2022

The End of Standards in Public Life

Chancellor Who Cannot Add Up

27/05/22

 

The Institute for Fiscal Studies calculates that taking account of previously announced tax increases knocks about £18bn from the value of the package, leaving it at £19bn. £19bn is just 0.8% of GDP. Chancellor Sunak said that his £37bn package of support was "higher or similar to countries like France, Germany, Japan and Italy". It was only similar to Germany but less than the other countries he cited.

 

UP

Sue Gray Finally

25/05/22

Waiting for the Sue Gray Report has been like waiting for a DHL parcel. Well, it’s with us now and is it earth shattering?  Not really. It does, however, show that Boris and his chums at No. 10 couldn’t care less about lockdown rules and they should head for the job centre. It is also clear that Johnson lied to parliament when he said no rules were broken. Will he go of his own accord – probably not? We will wait now to see if the backbench Tories tell him to get lost?

 

 

 

 

PM Mahinda Rajapaksa Quits Sri Lanka
Not the place to go for a holiday this year

10/05/22

Rajapaksa is the rat that massacred Tamil women and children with a smile. Now, the people of his own tribe have told him to get lost. They are now calling for his brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, to join him on the plane to the country’s missing billions in a Switzerland. This would be a good time to leave since the army have the whole country locked down, demonstrators to be shot on sight. Meanwhile, the rating agencies are telling us that the country is defaulting on its debts, everyday medicines are in short supply, in fact, anything that’s being imported.

 

Local Election Results

05/05/22

The projected national share, which estimates what the result would have been if all Britain had been voting yesterday, puts the Tory party on 30%.  This result confirms that the party is now electorally weaker than at any point since Johnson won his majority of 80 in 2019. Labour ended on 35%, quite good but not enough to win overall, if there was an election tomorrow. Basically, on these numbers we would end up with a hung parliament.

 

April 2022

Cutting Corners that’s Tory economics

A dearth of ideas at the Cabinet table

27/04/22

Ministers gathered around the shiny Cabinet table to tackle the cost of living crisis. Johnson was looking for ideas that would not cost the public purse any money. Leave aside the dangers to public health. The man with three names, Mr Shapps Green Fox suggested relaxing the frequency of MOTs. Genius. Bonkers himself came up with a killer, he wanted to reduce childcare costs by easing health and safety rules. He knows all about the cost of childcare, he has fathered at least seven children but he knows nothing about childcare. He was not finished, he threatened to privatise the Passport Office, he wants better value for money.

In Sum: the whole bunch were devoid of useful ideas.

Note: Current legal requirements in England say there must be at least one member of staff for every three children in groups aged two years and under. For two-year-olds and over, there must be one member of staff for every four children.

UP

Tory Misogyny + Depp and Heard

26/04/22

A story in the Mail on Sunday reported that Angela Rayner was trying todistract Boris Johnson in Parliament by crossing and uncrossing her legs as she sits on the frontbench. The hopeless Mail tried to make the story stand up, by including a picture of Sharon Stone from the film Basic Instinct, just in case their readers did not understand what crossing and uncrossing her legs meant. The source of this non-story the Mail claimed was a Tory MP. The tale occupied the news on all channels for two days.
Media have also been obsessed by the defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. He was a drugged up drunk and she was psychologically disturbed, they were just right for each other but why should anyone care if they liked beating each other up?

 

Patel boosts trade with Rwanda

UK will traffick people 4000 miles away

17/04/22

Home Secretary Priti Patel has taken full responsibility for people trafficking to Rwanda. This is a clever move. Basically, the cloak of responsibility she has just taken on is in the same moment discarded by outsourcing the processing of the trafficked souls, seeking asylum here, to a Rwanda hotel. The hotel in question can take 100 guests, while they are being processed. This process, we are told may take up to three months. This means that trafficker-in-chief-Patel can only shift 400 a year.

Last year 28,526 people crossed the Channel in small boats.

The cost of the project is unknown, we know that we have provided £120m initially for educational projects but expect to be shocked if this nuttiness every gets underway. It’s nuts because once people are processed as good citizens in Rwanda, they can’t come here, they can stay in Rwanda. The bad citizens will have to start paddling across the seas again.

Justice and migration minister Tom Pursglove said Rwanda was a progressive country that wanted to provide sanctuary and had made "huge strides forward" in the past three decades. The Tories have convinced themselves that Rwanda is “one of the safest countries” despite reports that critics of its government are jailed, tortured and go missing.

Note: 3,610 Rwandans have sought asylum in European countries in the past five years.

Catch 22

We have a prime minister in Johnson who is clueless about everything, he doesn’t know when he’s at a party, he doesn’t know who paid for his wallpaper, and he thinks that the small boat Channel crossers are queue jumpers. He actually thinks you get in an asylum queue to get here legally. The fact is you cannot get on a train, coach or plane and claim asylum, you cannot go to a British embassy and claim asylum, all you can do is arrive in the back of a lorry or small boat.

 

UP

Where' Sue Gray?

Johnson and Sunak fined for parties they said did not happen.

13/04/22

Sue Gray was appointed to carry out an inquiry of her own into the gatherings in Downing Street during lockdowns. But her much anticipated report was delayed after the Met announced it was looking into the events as a result of information Ms Gray's team had passed onto officers.

Since the Metropolitan Police launched their investigation in January, the force has issued more than 50 fixed penalty notices (FPNs) for breaking Covid laws in No 10 and Whitehall.

Gray’s interim report, blamed a "failure of leadership" for allowing parties to take place and she criticized the "excessive consumption of alcohol".

But her full detailed and damaging findings will be released when the police's job is done. About next October?

Government Continues to Ignore Rip Off at the Pumps

10/04/22

FairFuelUK witnessed pump prices being hiked in the 48 hours leading up to the Spring Statement. The Fuel supply chain was given more than a week’s notice that the Chancellor was to cut Fuel Duty by 5p on Wednesday 23rd March. So, they had ample time to manipulate prices in their favour to absorb the Fuel Duty cut. A sickening PR misjudgment by the Treasury.

March 2022

Hospital of Horrors

Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust

30/03/22

A report from senior midwife Donna Ockenden carried out a five-year inquiry into maternity care at the trust. She examined 1,862 cases, finding that 201 babies might have survived had better treatment been given by the trust. The vast majority of cases date from 2000 to 2019. Ockenden found the trust presided over catastrophic failings for two decades – and did not learn from its own woefully inadequate investigations – which led to more babies being stillborn, dying shortly after birth or being left severely brain damaged. A lack of staff, a lack of training, and a lack of oversight or sufficient concern from trust leaders also to blame.

Wills and Kate told to get lost

25/03/22

Kate and Wills decided to take a trip to the West Indies, visiting Belize and Jamaica. They swiftly moved on from their first stop in Belize, following a protest. Their stop in Jamaica was generally untroubled but their was also a small demo’. However, the meeting with the Jamaican prime minister was an eye opener, he told them he would rather not have the Queen as head of state any more.

UP

P&O Sackings

24/03/22

P&O sacked 800 staff without notice and replaced them with agency workers paid less than the minimum wage. P&O referred to the sacking as redundancy and said its 800 redundant staff will be offered £36.5m. P&O are effectively trying to buy their silence with a big payoff.
However they seem to have chosen the wrong moment. The government needs to be seen to be on the side of the sacked workers. Its performance to bring Ukraine’s refugees to England has been woeful. Sunak’s Spring Statement was woeful, helping few except those who don’t need help. Shapps and Johnson are both telling Director Peter Hebblethwaite to step down after his "brazen" law breaking.
DP World boss Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem snapped up P&O in 2006. Why did the government then allow that to happen?

 

Child Q Assaulted by Met Police

18/03/22

A black schoolgirl was strip-searched by police after being wrongly suspected of carrying cannabis.

The "traumatic" search by Metropolitan Police officers took place without another adult present at the girl's secondary school in Hackney in 2020.

A safeguarding report on the incident concluded it was unjustified and racism was "likely" to have been a factor.

Scotland Yard said the officers' actions were "regrettable" and it "should never have happened".

Note: this happened in 2020

Update: 27/03/22, Child Q is taking the Met to court. The female PCs who carried out the abuse of Child Q have been reassigned to desk work. As usual the Met is carrying out a review, pretending they are unaware of the details.

Nadine Dorries and Channel 4

06/03/22

“And...so... though it’s...yeah and that...”

The above is what the Culture Secretary said when she was told that Channel 4 was not publicly funded. She turned up to a Select meeting to discuss the privatisation of C4 believing it was funded like the BBC. Nadine should have read the C4 Annual Report, containing its financials, then she would might have appeared smart for a moment. Just a moment. The Tories have several chocolate teapots like Raab and Hancock but the likes of Nadine are far rarer. She does not give a shit about anything, just like brainless Boris, she just can't be bothered.

 

UP

 

Johnson's second-hand six-point plan

06/03/22

Prime Minister Bonkers annouced his six point plan to defeat Vlad the Impaler. Unfortunately, there's nothing new in any of it. It was all suggested by other people. Vlad's attack on the Ukraine is at day 10 now and he wont be happy until he has killed all the men, women, and children in that country.

World leaders should mobilise an "international humanitarian coalition" for Ukraine

They should also support Ukraine "in its efforts to provide for its own self-defence"

Economic pressure on Russia should be ratcheted up

The international community must resist Russia's "creeping normalisation" of its actions in Ukraine

Diplomatic resolutions to the war must be pursued, but only with the full participation of Ukraine's legitimate government

There should be a "rapid campaign to strengthen security and resilience" among Nato countries

 

 

 

February 2022

Vlad the Impaler Attacks Ukraine

Oligarchs to lose all their Nector polints

26/02/22

Ukraine's President Zelensky says

"We've derailed their plan," he claimed, after Kyiv was hit by strikes overnight but Russian forces did not break through. Most of Russia's soldiers don't know what they are doing there.

Note: The term "oligarch" derives from the Ancient Greek oligarkhia meaning "the rule of the few".

 

Royal Win(d) Fall

16/02/22

Almost all of the UK’s offshore wind energy capacity is generated on seabed owned by the Crown Estate. The Estate earned £17.25 million from its wind farm property portfolio in 2020/21, that’s 25% of the total profits generated by its wind farm property portfolio of £69 million. The rest went to the Treasury, for Boris to spend on his parties.

Note: note the Sovereign Grant Act means that if the Crown Estate’s revenue falls due to economic conditions, then the difference will be up by the Treasury. Also, inflation will not be allowed to affect the Royal finances. Currently, the Royal Family’s net worth is estimated at £20 billion.

UP

Shoot-to-kill Cressida resigns

On £400k payoff and a pension worth £100k a year

11/02/22

Mayor of London, Sadman Khan, said he trusted her. Then, like Janus, he faced the other way, realising his head, which ever way it faced, would also be lopped off. So, Cressida had to go. She failed to come up with a plan to fix the toxic culture at the Met. Her plan was slight. The Met's answer, Baroness Louise Casey. The socalled public policy trouble-shooter, who has advised governments on everything from homelessness and families in crisis, to violence during the Euros at Wembley Stadium in 2021. Although what she did for families in crisis is unknown.

One ex-Met female officer described the toxicity:

"They get so comfortable in their own company," she says, "that when new people come in, they get indoctrinated to that way of thinking." It is a culture of "corridor comments". They call it banter.

The Lone you can’t refuse?

Sunak short-term daftness

04/02/22

Rishi Sunak announced a repayable £200 discount on bills for homes in England, Wales and Scotland from October. Although it’s not a discount, it’s a lone that you will pay back in £40 instalments. No, you cannot opt out. And why are you having to take the lone. In April average bills will be going up by £700 due to Vlad the Impaler’s nastiness and the fact that our large energy firms have only been interested taking the profit and not in investing.

Policy failure

Some 28 energy companies have stopped trading in the UK since last August leaving more than 4 million customers seeing their energy firm collapse. This happened because these companies were clueless money grubbers. 10% of the energy price increase will be used to cover the cost of these companies failure.

Failure of regulation

Ofgem are supposedly working with the sector and the market needed to be more resilient. We may well ask when Ofgem came to blinding insight – was it on the road to Damascus?

More Sunak short-term daftness

There will also be a further £150 council tax rebate for most households in England, with additional cash for the devolved nations. The council tax rebate will apply from April to homes in council tax bands A to D, benefiting about 80% of households.

New Highway Code

Communication woeful

01/02/22

Accoring to the Times millions are clueless about changes to the revamped Highwasy Code, introduced a few days ago. we don't know how the Times knows this but we do know that the half a million ad' campaige will not launch until Feb 14. The show will be run by Think!, an off-shoot of the DoT. Beyond ad's on radio and social media they will move to phase two: behaviour change. However, we will have to wait until May or June for phase two, whatever it means?

Note: Baroness Vere of Norbiton is the roads minister - who knew?

 

Feudalism to end

07/02/22

Perhaps that should be fleecehold to end. The government is planning to stop builders selling leasehold properties and then passing the freehold on to private equity firms, who keep raising the fees and ground rent, forever. Thus, leaving leaseholders sitting in properties they cannot sell. We shall see when a new law arrives?

 

Stealth Tax

06/02/22

Stealth tax on graduates who will pay an extra £113 per year on student loans as Tories freeze salary threshold for repayments.

The salary threshold will stay at £27,295, despite inflation rocketing to 5.4 per cent, the highest in 30 years. Graduates pay back 9 per cent of earnings above threshold so the lower it is the more they pay. Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank said the decision meant graduate earning £30,000 will pay £113 more towards student loan over next year than previously.

 

 

January 2022

Andrew Windsor out of the R&A

29/01/22

Andrew, no longer a prince has stepped down from his lifetime membership of the Royal and Anchient Golf Club of St Andrews. They said: "We respect and appreciate his decision." We bet they do.

Novak Djokovic 2

16/01/22

Djokovic was sent packing from Australia due to his anti-vax notions. He lost out on his chance to win a record 21 grand slams.

 

Novak Djokovic 1

09/01/22

Djokovic, millionaire tennis star and anti-vax nut, doesn’t think the rules apply to him. The Serbian tennis player flew into Melbourne last week, hoping to defend his Australian Open title. Hopefully, they will send him home then small people will have a chance of winning the Open.

 

Kazakhstan Madness

09/01/22

Putin stooge, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, described his citizens demonstrating about fuel prices, as bandits. Over six days of unrest he has shot 160 people and had 6000 put in the cells.

 

 

Morrisons admits its milk keeps going off

09/01/22

Supermarket Morrisons is to scrap 'use by' dates milk. They want to encourage customers to use a sniff test to check quality. Never mind the sniff test, perhaps they might consider putting the milk in the fridge when they receive a delivery and notleaving it out all day.

 

Covid Latest

02/01/22

Plan B will end on the 26th January but a review will take place on the 4th. School children will have to wear face masks until the 26th, teachers are not required to wear masks. The government is making 7,000 air cleaning units available to schools, that will be enough for 1 in 4 schools, i.e., not enough.

 

UP