Disaster For Monarchy: It's a boy.

I would not be surprised if, when the gender of the new born prince was announced, the hearts of many Buckingham Palace officials dropped. A girl would have been a much more favoured outcome, as now The Monarchy is set on a path of probably at least 100 yrs of kingship.

With a recent poll showing that 53% of the population were not bothered or interested in the birth, Buckingham Palace must realise that, although they ‘appear’ to be going through a purple patch of popularity, that popularity is fragile and could be damaged irreversibly when the Queen dies and Charles assumes the throne.

Women make up a large majority of monarchy watchers and view it in the same way they view a soap opera. To many, Charles will always be the man who cuckolded Princess Diana, and in the eyes of many, it was his philandering and cold treatment of the Princess of Wales that indirectly lead to her death. Add into the heady brew of resentment, the fact that the woman who was the reason for Charles adultery, Camilla, will become queen and you realise that Charles will have a very small margin of error to work with, in the eyes of the British Public.

Prince Charles is not a popular royal among the public. He is seen as indulged, meddlesome and utterly detached from the everyday lives of normal people, people who do not have a royal equerry to put toothpaste on their toothbrush or be expected to work the birth of their first born into a polo schedule.

Watching a princess, who was born to be Queen, growing up, would have been a welcome distraction to the rather gruesome sight of King Charles and Queen Camilla sashaying around their kingdom. Add into the mix, the inevitable political meddling that Charles is already renown for, and you start to feel sorry for William and Kate, who may have to pick up the pieces of what could be a very unpopular reign.

 Charles and Camilla already have the disengaged and disconnected look of “let them eat cake” about them. Once the steadying hand and protection of the Queen has been removed, who knows what excesses they may be capable of, especially if their reign is conducted under a Tory government. King Charles and Prime Minister Cameron may be able to swap tales of chasing an animal across the countryside to the point of exhaustion and then watching it being ripped apart by a pack of hounds, but the conversation could be a bit thin, when they discuss the travails and problems of a working class family, living on a Wolverhampton housing estate, or anywhere else up north. The chance of that conversation ever happening is slim.

The concern is that the monarchy watchers will look towards William and Kate, and the younger royals, for a scintilla of hope appearing on what may be a very bleak royal horizon, and  they may struggle to fulfill expectations. Kate has the look of an eating disorder waiting to happen, while Uncle Harry strikes you as a likely candidate for fulfilling the role of a dissolute and debauched royal playboy. A role his own uncle, Andrew, it would appear from news reports,has tried to fill, but has only succeeded in being tainted with the stink of paedophilia, arms dealing and the abuse of his unearned position and wealth.

Oh for a cute curly headed, carefree princess to bound across the royal stage and raise the spirits of the royalists. But there’s still time. Kate should spend a few months increasing her pie and doughnut intake and put on a few pounds, before taking on pregnancy number two. If she produces a girl then her job is done.

What she will do for the rest of her life, other than waving at people keen to bask in her reflected glory, I’m not really sure.

Trolling.

The national discussion over trolling is being framed, by the media, in a biased and brazenly self interested manner. They perpetuate the image of a troll in the same way the media used to portray paedophiles.

 Rather than face up to the truth about child abuse, it was much more convenient to portray a child abuser as a dirty old man in a mac, who hung around playgrounds, when the statistically proven truth is that 90% of all child abuse is committed within the family, normally by a father, grandfather, or uncle. The public were happy to comply with this stereotyping because it allowed them to avoid facing up to the unpalatable truth.

Journalists, reporters and radio show hosts are now keenly portraying, without being challenged, trolls, as hate filled, inadequate, angry loners, who are still living with their mother and who bang out vitriol filled misogynistic messages on social media, whilst dressed only in their underpants, from the safety of a pizza boxed strewn bedroom.

The talk show hosts and media commentators conveniently ignore the professional trolls within their midst, who are currently active within the media and write and work for high profile media outlets and institutions. These trolls are allowed to carry out their own particularly abusive misanthropic and grossly misogynistic trolling in plain cover. Using the so called legitimacy of ‘being a proper journalist’ as cover. They are never challenged by their media colleagues because a) you don’t sh*t on your own doorstep,b) all so called legitimate journalists despise citizen journalists because many citizen journalists ably demonstrate, to all, that having a point of view and articulating it in the written word, is not a particularly difficult art,and c) celebrities, politicians and journalists dislike criticism of any kind from the 'plebs, so dismiss all citizen journalists as trouble making loons.It is easier than facing the truth of their own prejudices.

 Examples of some hate filled vitriol by professional journalist’s trolls.

AA Gill – Sunday Times. Referred to presenter Clare Balding as ‘a dyke on a bike’.

 ( misogynistic and homophobic?)

Melanie Phillips – Daily Mail. She claimed that Britain was in the grip of“ a government-backed drive to promote the gay agenda” and that homosexuality was being forced upon schoolchildren. She went on to say that teaching children about emperor penguins and seahorses, animals where the males care for their offspring, was part of a wider gay conspiracy. ( Homophobic?)

Richard Littlejohn- mail online. Commenting on the murders of five prostitutes in Ipswich.

“Frankly, I’m tired of the lame excuses about how they all fell victim to ruthless pimps who plied them with drugs. These women were on the streets because they wanted to be…

These five women were on the streets because even the filthiest, most disreputable back-alley “sauna” above a kebab shop wouldn’t give them house room.

The men who used them were either too mean to fork out whatever a massage parlour charges, or simply weren’t fussy. Some men are actually turned on by disgusting, drug-addled street whores” (Misogynistic in the extreme?)

Toby Young – Sun on Sunday. Referred to the murder of Milly Dowler as ‘that murdered schoolgirl thing’. ”. (Young is involved in an Academy school involved in educating young girls).

Toby Young – On Radio 5live he commented. “women dress in short skirts and low cut tops and then complain when they get ‘noticed’ by men”. I think that's another variant of the 'she was asking for it' defence. (Young is involved in an Academy school involved in educating young girls).

Toby Young- Twitter. “serious cleavage behind Ed Milibands head. Anyone know who it belongs to? ”. (Young is involved in an Academy school involved in educating young girls).

James Delingpole – Telegraph. A twitter comment made to Toby Young, referring to Youngs reply to a Guardian piece written by Suzanne Moore. “ Toadmeister (Toby Young) gives Suzanne Moore such a seeing to, she’ll be walking bow-legged for months”. (unpleasant violent rape imagery?)

Katie Hopkins - Ex-reality show contestant. " Ginger babies.Like a baby, just so much harder to love". ( misanthropic?)

Giles Coren – Times. Comment on the suggestion that Polish was now the second language.

"Many of you is no doubt read in famous Times newspaper, yesterday before yesterday, how "Polish is now England's second language". This very interesting small information piece. For what is probable esteemed Times readership not aware: your columnist actual Polski man. Is come in boat from small willage..."

It went on:

"...today I am celebrate Polish is become number two language entire of England not count Wales by write whole opinion column topical observation of week's news for first time in actual Polish language." (Lazy racism or a pathetic twat trying to be funny?).

These are just a few examples of the type of comments made by so-called, except Hopkins, legitimate journalists, the contents of which appears just as abhorrent and repulsive as anything produced by a troll.

If you would like to see live trolling, I suggest you turn the sound up during Prime Ministers Question Time and listen to the verbal trolling from male MP's, mainly Tory's, when a female MP stands up to ask a question. 

PostSript. 01/08/2013. It was extremely gratifying to watch on Newsnight (BBC2 30/07/2013,watch on iplayer) Labour MP Stella Creasy ably demonstrate to the nation what an odious kn*b Toby Young is. Bravo Stella.

"We'll satisfy our endless greed and justify our bloody deeds, in the name of destiny, and in the name of God". (The Eagles)

Credit Unions V Payday Loan Companies.

For someone to know the difference between a Credit Union and a Payday loan company you have to know the difference between usury and lending.

Usury is exploitation. It is when someone benefits financially from exploiting another person’s situation. That is what Payday loan companies do. Built into their business model is the scenario where they hope the borrower will not be able to pay back the loan in the specified time, because the borrower is on a low income, allowing the loan company to apply exorbitant interest and penalty charges. The loan company is exploiting the borrower’s situation. It is as simple and pernicious as that. The premise of a payday loan business plan is that the borrower will default.

 Payday loan companies build a business on the backs of people who are victims of the policies implemented by detached and out of touch politicians who, in turn, receive party donations from the same payday loan companies committing the exploitation. It’s a lucrative arrangement and shows capitalism in its most destructive, insidious and harmful guise.

Credit Unions also lend. However, to borrow from a credit union, you must first be a member of the credit union and be saving a certain amount with the credit union each month. When you apply for a loan you must submit all your outgoings and the credit union will only agree an amount of borrowing the borrower can afford, and it will be at low interest rates. Credit unions are not exploiting a situation they are alleviating one.

The only drawback of credit unions is the lead time between applying for a loan and actually receiving the funds. It can be up to four weeks. This weakness is the main trump card for payday loan companies and they capitalize and succeed largely through this opportunity to offer quick, almost immediate, access to funds. In order for credit unions to compete with payday loan companies and to threaten the existence of payday loan companies, they have to update their processes and decrease the lead time between application for funds and receipt.

Credit unions are humanitarian and compassionate in their endeavours, help to enrich people’s lives, and alleviate poverty, while payday loans are callous, manipulative and abusive organisations that destroy lives for profit.

Prince George.

The coverage of the birth of Prince George was overhyped and ridiculous, a classic case of ‘bread and circuses’ for the compliant and brain dead masses. When a BBC journalist is gleefully reporting that the Duchess of Cambridge’s cervix is dilated 9cm you realise we have crossed the Rubicon into celebrity absurdity.

The sad truth for the lad, is that currently he is wrapped in a nappy and when he assumes the throne of, what will probably be Londinia, as the rest of the UK will have gained independence, in 90 yrs,he will also be wearing a nappy.

I would find the whole situation much more interesting, if I thought there was a chance that in 30yrs, Prince George would be sat astride a fiery steed, parading in front of a mounted cavalry, about to charge down a hillside and do battle with the troops of his father, King William. That would be so much more fun.

Stupid GP’s.

Apparently, over half the number of GP’s, think a charge should be paid when you attend a doctor’s appointment at a surgery. This is proof that even if you are paid over 100k a year, it doesn’t exclude you from being an imbecilic f**kwi*.

If charges are applied, apart from destroying the ethos of the NHS’ being ‘free at the point of access’, it would be calamitous for the health of the poor and the nation generally. People would only seek medical attention when they were gravely unwell, which would probably be too late, parents may delay seeking medical attention for poorly babies and children, which would increase infant mortality rates for illnesses such as meningitis and Accident and Emergency departments would be over run and descend into chaos because patients would avoid attending surgeries in favour of A & E’s, to avoid the charge.

It is an idiotic and foolish suggestion, made by people who appear, possibly due to the excessive salaries they are in receipt off, to be out of touch with the majority of their patients.

Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the NHS, said he would “have to stuff GP’s mouths with gold” to ensure their cooperation in the creation of the National Health Service. You couldn’t stuff GP’s mouths with gold now. They already appear to be full of bul*s*tt at the moment.

Police Inaction.

The police response to the abuse and threats, Caroline Criado Perez has received via Twitter, has been truly pathetic. Perez was the woman who started a petition to give women greater representation on UK bank notes. This lead to a torrent of misogynistic abuse, via Twitter, including threats of rape, as well as someone posting her address online, thus, presumably, encouraging someone to carry out these disgusting threats.

Apparently, the police response to these threats, after four days, has been one phone call. When you consider how the police responded to Paul Chambers, who made a joke of blowing up Robin Hood Airport, due to delays, which involved arrests and a court case and the response to ‘criticism’ of the Olympic diver Tom Daly’s performance at the London Olympics, also involving the police springing into immediate action you wonder how more obvious can the police be in openly demonstrating their institutionalised prejudices and chauvinism.

Now obviously, in this new world order, the criticism of a ‘sleb’ is just beyond the pale and it’s quite right the police should divert thousand of £££’s in funds, resources and wailing sirens to alleviate the suffering of a teenage diving ‘sleb’. Obviously, dealing with an uppity woman, who is living in fear for her life, while being harassed and threatened with rape, just doesn’t rack up the same PR brownie points a high profile arrest of someone who said something unkind about a ‘sleb’ does.

I expect, when the desk sergeant was filling out Miss Perez’s complaint and issuing her with a crime number, he was thinking “she‘s asking for it anyway”, what with her being a women and having a point of view an all.

On the wider point of abuse and ‘trolling’via social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook. In the UK there are laws for abuse, harassment and threats of violence. It is not for Facebook or Twitter to censor contributors, but the responsibility of the police and the justice system to prosecute impartially, without fear or favour, if these laws have been transgressed.

Trolling is not exclusive to social networks. It is alive and well and being perpetrated by journalists in some of the UK tabloids, the likes of Quentin Letts and Richard Littlejohn come readily to mind. They may consider themselves, I use the word loosely, ‘journalists’ but their mindset is no different to that of any troll currently thumping away at his/her keyboard in his/her bedroom, dressed only in their underwear. Hate speech is as much a part of the tabloid repertoire as it is of the so-called trolls.

Our Brave Home Secretary.

Yesterday, it was announced, on the front page of The Mail On Sunday, that Home Secretary, Miss Theresa (“with a ‘h,’ she’s not common yer know”) May is the first person, in the universe, to be diagnosed with the disease, that will be forthwith know as diabetes. The courageous Miss May has (sob, sob, sniff. “Sorry reader I’m filling up”) vowed to carry on, like the millions of sufferers, around the world, that already have diabetes have to, to earn a crust (“hey, pack it in. Nobody else has ever had diabetes, right, Miss May is the first, Ever!”,) and continue in her role as Home Secretary.

It has been reported that she may have to, like thousand of oth….. (“I’m warning you, writer”) inject herself upwards of twice a day. Some people have to inject up to four time’s a day. (“right I’ve warned you writer. If you keep trying to suggest that millions of people, across the world, have suffered from the progressive illness known as Diabetes for many years and that they just get on with their lives, rather than being portrayed as some sort of medical martyr, like what Miss May is. I mean it writer, I will smash yer face in”), but this will not prevent her from carrying out her duties as being the best Home Secretary this country has ever had, well since the last one anyway  (“right you asked for it writer, now you’ve gone to far, besmirching poor brave Miss May”).

Sound of punches, grunting, cries of pain and tumbling chairs.

The Mail on Sunday did not go on to say that diabetes is brought on by lifestyle choices and that the type our gloriously brave and courageous Miss May has contracted was probably giving to her by immigrants, who as we all know, are all infected with the plague, or Islam or something unpleasant.

(“I think you broke my nose writer”).

Footnote: Writer has been a diagnosed diabetic for 15 years. Writer did not contract it via contact with immigrants. He contracted it via contact with cake. Writer thinks cake is bloody brilliant.

“Hey, farmer, farmer, put away your DDT. Give me spots on my apples and leave me the birds and the bees.” Joni Mitchell.

Cameron's Hypocrisy.

The Prime Minister's attempt to scoop the family fascist vote with his manufactured outrage over online pornography was easily torpedoed by the simple question 'do you think The Sun's page three should be banned?' For those uninitiated in 'page three', it is where a British tabloid, The Sun, prints a topless picture of a female, on the third page of its daily paper, for people of all age groups to gawp at. Cameron spluttered over his reply, realising he had been rumbled as the opportunist politician he is becoming renowned as, and also desperate to avoid criticising his paymaster Rupert Murdoch, who owns The Sun.
For the record I agree online pornography should be restricted. It can  be filtered if the correct parental controls are activated and access to certain websites are denied on the majority of computers that can be accessed in public areas such as library's. So to restrict it, would appear to be relatively straightforward.But Cameron has adopted a simplistic approach that is easily picked apart.
Cameron's grandstanding has nothing to do with preserving children's innocence. He is not really bothered about children accessing porn online, he is more concerned with attempting to portray himself as some sort of 'children s champion' and that is where the hypocrisy lies, when you consider that, due to the policies his government are implementing, the welfare of children is threatened far more by the current Tory government than it ever will be by online pornography.

Woman Has Baby Shocker!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations to Willie and Katie for giving birth to a child,( from the media coverage, it would appear it's never happened before), that will live a life of elitist detachment and unearned privilege, paid for by the British taxpayer. I hope you live to have many more healthy children that will be fawned over, never have a proper job, never know hunger and poverty and never have to pay for a single thing, simply because they happened to slip out of a particular persons vagina.I'm really happy for you. I really, really am.
 I would, however, like to give the royal baby one piece of advice. On the same day you were born, over 2000 other babies were born in the UK.They too will be born into circumstances they did not choose. Show them respect, because, although they will probably never know the opulent lifestyle you will take for granted, they will be the ones footing the bill. So do something that your forebears have failed miserably to do. Try to understand them as individuals and show them some gratitude!

Go Home Ads.

The Home Office is embarking on a week long campaign, in six London Boroughs, of mobile advertising targeted at illegal immigrants.The mobile advertising will warn illegal immigrants to "go home or face arrest" and provide a phone number to call for assistance in living the country.
As far as political posturing, dog whistle politics, hate mongering and bigotry goes, this is right up there with  "Jews control world finance" ( 1930's Germany) and " boat immigrants drown their own children" ( 2001 Australia).
On a more practical note. Do they really think that an illegal immigrant is going to note the number down and ring the Home Office? No, of course they don't. The real reason for this nasty bigoted campaign is to ramp up tensions, create mistrust towards 'foreigners' and divide communities. It's the Tory's going back to basics.

"Journalism is dead, only propaganda remains" (anon).

Tory Lies and the NHS

The Tory strategy of privatising the NHS via stealth, is crude, arrogant and obvious. They understand that the NHS is loved and revered by the British public and it is one of the greatest institutions the world has ever seen. That it was conceived and established by Labour, sticks in the Tory craw to this very day.

So they have embarked on a smear campaign to undermine the NHS in the eyes of the public in the same way they have attempted to stigmatise people claiming benefits, in the hope the public will turn against the NHS in the same way.

The Tory’s are aware that there is a large minority of the public who will fall for the negative campaign tactics they use, because there is a large minority of the public who are stupid and incredibly imbecilic. However, unfortunately for the Tory’s, there is an even larger majority who cherish the NHS and are fully aware that the Tory aim is to sell of the NHS and install a health system that is no longer free to all at the point of access, and will enable their business buddies and old school chums to cash in through private healthcare and health insurances companies, leaving a large minority of the population unable to access any form of health care at all.

The Tory’s aim is not only ideological but also financially driven. You only have to look at the members interests to see how many MP’s have interests in private health care companies at the moment, and this will grow as they press on with their ideologically driven restructuring of the NHS.

The NHS scandals that have been uncovered, cannot be dismissed; they are truly shocking and disgraceful. There has undoubtedly been a culture, that has developed over the last thirty years, where the focus on empathy and compassion has been shoe horned out of the way and been replaced by an ethos of professional self preservation. Instead of looking after the patients interests the nursing and management staff have been more concerned with looking after their own. That must be reversed.  

 However,the Tory tactics have been disgusting. The lies and spin they have used, in an attempt to scaremonger, around the Sir Bruce Keogh report, have been a disgrace. Nowhere in the report did Keogh mention that 13000 excess deaths had occurred, forcing Keogh to refute the Tory claims but also point out that Labour had taken steps to remedy the situation. Steps that came to a crunching halt when the Tory’s came into office.

 Also reports have come to light that the lobbying firm, Crosby Textor, founded by the main Tory strategist for the 2015 Election,, Lynton Crosby ( The Lizard of Oz), has been advising private healthcare companies on ways to ‘take advantage of NHS failings’. These examples demonstrate how the Tory’s will happily lie and perpetrate falsehoods without shame.

Jeremy Hunt who as Minister for Health also holds the position within the government, as ‘Minister for Murdoch’, has attempted to portray himself as the ‘patients champion’ and, along with Cameron has persistently tried to undermine the strong credentials labour has on the NHS. They know that in the eyes of the public, the NHS is, and will always be, safe in the hands of Labour (they created it) and the public equally understand that the Tory’s were against the creation of the NHS and that they would gladly convert it to a private insurance model at the drop of the hat. The Tory hatred of the NHS is basic. They object to paying, through their taxes, for poor people to receive free healthcare. It really is that simple.

Since the introduction of the NHS, 65 years ago, the pattern has remained the same. Labour governments invest in the NHS and Tory governments strip cost’s out, and are always looking at the long term objective of privatising it. That is their wet dream.

The public need to wake up before the mendacious Tory’s realise it.

Royal Baby.

Why has Kate Middleton been booked into a private hospital wing? What’s wrong with NHS staff? After all, we’re paying for it.

Where’s The Uproar, the Terror, the Panic.

23^rd May 2013- Milton Keynes mosque firebombed.

26^th May 2013- Firebombs thrown at an Islamic cultural centre in Grimsby.

4^th June 2013- A mosque in Muswell Hill, North London, is burned down.

18^th June 2013 – Arson attack on mosque in Gloucester

21^st June 2013 – a small bomb is left outside a mosque in Walsall.

28th June 2013- nail bomb detonated outside mosque in Wolverhampton.

12^th July 2013- nail bomb detonated outside Tipton mosque

Where is the outrage at these TERRORIST attacks? Where is the rolling 24hr news? Where are the front page headlines? Where are the politicians, spewing out  self serving platitudes and trite clichés`?

If they had been attacks on churches we would have been knee deep in moral indignation and fury.

I suppose they’re only Muslim’s, after all, hey. Move on ladies and Gentleman. No votes to be won here.

Britain's Golden Age is Over: It's Official.

Now that Education Minister, ‘gottleofgeer’ Gove, has given head master’s the power to alter the school year because, in his drive to monetarise childhood, he has decided that long summer holidays are no longer cost effective, I think we can safely say that the golden age is over, and has been for at least two decades.

If you wished to assign a period of British history as the golden age, you could probably safely say that the period when rationing ended (early 1950’s) to the advent of the home computer (early 1990’s) fitted the bill.  

During this forty year period, standards of living increased substantially for the less well off.  Good quality housing was built, allowing families to move from cramped, fetid, and poorly maintained tenements, in towns and cities, to open planned estates with indoor plumbing, hot and cold running water, and gardens for children to play in.

Employment was stable and available, as well as employment conditions, wages and opportunities increasing to a level which allowed people to support their families without the need of state aid, a situation which is being destroyed by current Tory policies, and is unlikely to return while this wealthy government continues to govern for the wealthy 1%, exclusively.

 As full employment, a situation taken for granted in the post war era, now becomes an unattainable, almost mythical dream, and short term contracts, part time hours and zero hour contracts begin to proliferate, which are beneficial to business, as it provides a compliant reservoir of exploited workers to dip in and out of, but provides no benefit to those workers, as it prevents them from planning long term, starting families, accessing the property market or building a robust future.

Opportunities for women rose to a level that allowed them a control and freedom which was unprecedented, but unfortunately, is being undermined by a re-emerging patriarchal society, driven by the right wing, that would feel at home in Queen Victoria’s time. 

Children growing up during the late twentieth century experienced a level of freedom and personal fulfillment, children of the current generation can only dream off. Today’s generation suffer helicopter parenting to the enth degree, denying them the opportunity to grow and develop by exploring their surroundings, expanding their imaginations, making new friends and learning from their mistakes.

 I fear an indulged, pampered, molly coddled and cosseted generation is being reared, afraid of their own shadow, when they should be falling of their bicycles, falling out of trees, running down hills, screaming, and being caught, scrumping apples. Parents seem fearful of letting their little loves out of their sight, a fear encouraged and perpetuated by the right wing media, when, during the summertime, kids should be punted out of the door at daybreak, to explore and experience life, and not expected to be seen again until dusk.

Parents are desperate to be their offspring’s ‘best friends’, rather than their parents, a situation, children gladly utilise for their own aims.

 Too many parents are living their lives vicariously, through their children, because their own lives have been a disappointment, or they are driven, through an orgy of consumerism and materialism, to attempt to validate their own existence through their children, which they use as human advertising boards, to scream at the world “look, I am successful, really I am. Look at little Olivia/Toby (delete as applicable), they’re wearing all the latest fashions, they've got all the latest gadgets, they've got loads of friends (on facebook?). I’m not really dying inside, pining for long ago, shattered dreams, desires and ambitions, that I know, now, will never be fulfilled, really I’m not”. (sob, sniff)

 In the seventies, if you were a kid with a bike, you thought life was bloody brilliant. You didn't need facebook and ‘pretend friends’, because all you had to do was go around your ‘real friends’ houses, knock on the door, and ask them if they wanted to come out and play in the woods. Simple pleasures. If you were a parent, all you wanted to do was to bring up happy, well adjusted children that grew up to be happy, well adjusted adults. The fashion parade that occurs, daily, at the school gates now, would have been anathema to them.

The threats of stranger danger and child abduction are widely exaggerated, and have not altered statistically, over the last 80 yrs. When it does occur, to increase circulation, the media uses it as a form of black entertainment, and the public are happy to play the part of the compliant audience member, treating the murder or abduction of a child like a reality show, as it conveniently allows them to avoid the unpalatable truth that, statistically, the monster isn't out on the street. Statistically, the monster is already in the house, and probably climbing the stairs now, to read a bedtime story.

The introduction of the NHS (1948) ensured that child mortality decreased, while the overall health of the nation improved dramatically, whereas now positive health outcomes are diminishing, a situation which will only worsen, as the NHS is privatised and children are prevented from playing outside by over protective parents, or by the lure of playstations, televisions and iphones.

 Obviously computer technology has been used as a force for good in many areas, including education, but frequently they are used as electronic baby sitters which allow parents to, conveniently, keep children in doors and away from perceived threats that are often over-hyped and exaggerated for effect. A child spending time on a computer is not a bad thing; after all, if a child spent three hours reading a book, it would be considered a positive activity. Three hours spent with Jacqueline Wilson or Jk Rowling is far more beneficial towards a child’s intellectual growth, than three hours of Grand Theft Auto, killing prostitutes, or watching porn. It is not the vessel but the content that is the problem.

The post war welfare state provided a safety net for those in need, rather than today, where it is used to subsidise low wages paid by businesses, which increases their bottom lines, but reduces living standards, opportunities and motivation, within the workforce. This, in turn, leads to a sense of detachment that creates a feeling of social indifference, apathy and isolation, which can, if not arrested, escalate into mental illness.

Having been fortunate to have grown up in the golden age, I look around now, and feel sadness for children being brought up in an arid exclusive society, based on materialism and greed, where a vacuous and shallow personality is an ideal, epitomised by the celebrity culture of being famous with no discernible talent, other than self promotion. Whereas I saw a world full of excitement and fun, children today,appear to fear anything that lies outside their front doors and are happier retreating to their bedrooms and social networks, where they can be someone that doesn't actually exist anywhere, other than in their own heads. In the seventies, the only thing that stopped children going outside, was six foot of snow and sub zero temperatures.

Crime, not only is it more prevalent, but it is also much more violent. Respect for the police is crumbling, although they are partly the architects of their own demise, due to the corrupt and self serving practices that seem, lately, to be reported on a weekly basis. Although I do appreciate that corrupt coppers were active in the 60’s and 70’s, now malpractice seems to be a culture driven from the top down, that brings the entire service into disrepute.

Admittedly, racism, sexism and homophobia were much more open during the golden age, but it was also being challenged, along with anti-apartheid and war. Racism and sexism is considered unacceptable today, but rather than it being eradicated, it has only been driven underground, rearing its head, sporadically, either institutionally, politically, or socially.

 The political establishment was being regularly challenged by young people, who were much more politically aware than the current generation, who are happy to vote for a vacuous reality contestant, yet are totally disconnected and apathetic towards the current political environment. This attitude has been carefully nurtured by the political classes, who see apathy as a passport to inflict self serving policies on the nation with impunity.

Today’s politicians do not want to encourage government by consensus, the last thing they want is for children to exercise freewill, grow to adulthood, and demand a true consensual democracy. That would require politicians to share the wealth and power, they consider their entitlement. They want people to be shackled by materialism, to compete among each other for the best trainers and the most luxurious holidays and obsess about XFactor. Children today are taught ‘it’s not who you are that’s important, it’s what stuff you’ve got’ and if it doesn't work out then drink yourself silly at the weekend, because BigAlcohol and the advertising industry will try to convince you that getting ‘off your head’ every Saturday night is really ‘living the dream’ and if you can’t remember what you did the night before it’s not because you’re trying to self medicate your anxieties away and you’re slightly pathetic, it’s because you’re a ‘ real go-getter’, grr,grr.

I appreciate that many will disagree with my conclusions, perhaps because it reinforces deep seated fears that have remained dormant. Some will not have the reference points from which to make a considered judgment. I do.

 However I am happy to put forward a point of view that many may be thinking or asking. If it was such a golden time for adults and children alike, then how come they created a contemporary society that is so uncaring, self centred and materialistic?

 I cannot disagree with the anomaly, that the people who lived through this halcyon age, I write about, voted Margaret Thatcher in three times (1979-) and a Tory government in four times consecutively (1979-1997). My response to that question is that people thought they were still voting for a different type of politician that no longer exists today. They believed they were still voting for principled politicians of stature, who had the nation’s interest at heart. What they got, starting with the Thatcher regime, were politicians who were soaked in self interest and an ideologue of hatred for certain sections of the populations. This poisonous politics, in turn, has spawned the current generation of privately educated politicians, who suffer severe arrested development, and whose contempt for people not of their ilk, borders on psychopathic and whose primary aim is to corral the wealth they have already inherited, and to implement policies that will increase that wealth to the detriment of the general population.” We ain't all in it together, believe me.”

The political landscape shapes the social landscape. A society is a mirror image of the ruling establishment that controls it. If you vote for a selfish, prejudiced, bigoted and self interested government, that government, aided by the media, and other interested parties, will create a selfish, prejudiced, bigoted and self interested society. The politicians of the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s were all products of a world war; they all saw or experienced suffering and hardship, first hand, so they wanted to create a society free from hate, and full of opportunity, that benefited all, universally. Whereas today’s breed of politician have never experience suffering or hardship, most of them have never even had a proper job. They have been brought up, believing the maxim, ‘greed is good’. You keep what you've got and you don’t share. Selfish children grow up to be selfish adults, who in turn create a selfish society.

I feel lucky that I lived through the golden age. I experienced, first hand, a time that will never be repeated. Memories of long warm summer days spent climbing trees, riding my bike, playing cricket or football and lying in the long grass for hours, watching clouds drift across an azure blue sky, while chewing on a grass stem.( Yes I know, rose tinted….blah, blah,blah),but Gove wants to snatch those simple pleasures away from children, because he isn't interested in using the education system to produce well rounded adults; He, like many politicians, know the value of nothing and the price of everything. He wants to use children as a resource, as drones, trained to accumulate more wealth for the wealthy, while being paid subsistence wages that have to be topped up with state benefits, while being demonised and stigmatised, by theTory's for having to claim welfare because of Tory policy.

If you vote in a Tory government, you get a Tory world. You've only got yourselves to blame. You get the politicians you deserve. Politicians who are bereft of humanity and contaminated by greed.

The golden age is definitely over, that’s it folks, brief and short-lived. The meritocracy that began to bloom after the end of WWII has been crushed and tossed into the gutter, where it has been trampled by corporations, multi-nationals, and the self interested, privately educated, political elite.The 7% has regained control and is now busy cowing and subjugating the 93%, for their own personal gain and profit.

The next forty years won’t be remembered as the golden age, they’ll be remembered as the greedy age. The age when BigAgriculture, BigPharma, BigOil and big government, bankrolled by Wall Street and The City, completed their colonisation of the planet and harvested its wealth for the benefit of the few and to the detriment of the many.

The future will belong to your children and your grandchildren. Will it??. 

 Mixing Metaphors.

The Prime Minister said he was “ambushed on Europe and that next time he would make sure he had locked and loaded and that he had one ready up the spout”. So does he mean that next time he attends an EU commission, he might shoot someone, and that he would be accompanied by a woman he had made pregnant, earlier. I’m confused. I don’t know whether I’m on my a$se or my elephant that’s in the room.

“If we live several parallel lives, how come I got the crappy one?” (anon).

The Millionaires Slush Fund

Last week, as Osborne was standing up in parliament, crowing about how he would gleefully again, punish the poor, and make them pay even more for the profligacy of the rich and wealthy, a representative of the British government was standing up in the European parliament, for the right of the British taxpayer to shovel even more millions into the fur lined pockets of oligarchs, aristocrats and the Monarchy.
Yet again the British government stood against the capping of the Single Farm Payment, which would reduce the amount of  tax payer funded benefits  paid to wealthy landowners such as the Queen and Prince Charles, aristocrats such as The Duke of Westminster, as well as benefiting politicians, such as Duncan Smith and wildlife minister benyon.
 Duncan Smith,the minister responsible for cutting benefits for the poor and disabled, lives on a country estate that, over the past 10 years,has received over a million pounds in benefits, farm subsidies, while wildlife minister benyon, who wants to implement a policy of destroying buzzards nests containing chicks, with shotguns, because they prey on game birds, lives on an estate that has received, over the last 10 years, over £2 million pounds in benefits  farm subsidies. These two are members of a political party that champions the free market, while demonising people in receipt of benefits, yet they to are beneficiary's of  free handouts in the form of state funds, paid to them by hard pressed taxpayers.
Where is the anger at the hypocrisy and double standards. Farmers in general, never fail to miss an opportunity to criticise 'townies' for not understanding the countryside, yet they are strangely silent, when it comes to accepting the 'townies' money in the form of benefits subsidies.

" Children are like farts. You like your own, but find other peoples disgusting" (anon)