Political Mainly

  Around 25 years ago, I made a new years resolution, one that I have stuck to ever since, During one of my many periods of self assessment and efforts to change, I decided that I would not be making new years resolutions ever again, and that if I wanted to change, I should just do so, and not wait for numbers to change on a calendar to do so, and for 25 years I have stuck to it, sort of, I haven't made any new years resolutions in all that time, but then again, my life has been pretty stagnant in all that time. Change for people who have normal brains, is just a matter of making up their mind to do so, and having the fortitude to keep on keeping on, but when you're like me, with ADHD (diagnosis pending) and the constant distractions of modern life are just too much to resist, sticking to a plan is harder than it should be, especially because I forget dates very easily, unless it has something to do with something I am hyper fixated on, so forgetting when I started a new pla...

  On Monday the 19 th of september 2022, Her Majesty Queen Elizibeth II, was laid to rest her years of service, sacrifice, and duty at an end and reunited in peace with her husband Prince Philip. The world watched as the pomp and ceremony, and the Great British public saying goodbye to our longest reighning monarch, and a constant in our lives since 1952. In the weeks after her death, King Charles III took the throne, visibly irritable, and at times lashing out, I get it, I lost my mother in march of 2020, and my father just over a year later in 2021, and there may have been times that I was less than kind and patient, and that was without the glare of the worlds spotlight on me. But while King Charles III took the throne, and William became Prince of Wales, Heir-apparent to the throne, the british tabloids started to obsessively critque everything that Meghan did and didn't do during the funeral. Even the common act of wiping away a single tear bought out a barage of gam...

  Under the Dickensian Tories, that see food banks as a solution to poverty, and believe that if you can't afford to heat your home or stock the fridge, that you should work more hours or get a better job, its no surprise that their big idea to bring about an end to trade union action, is to outlaw industrial action. With strikes set to happen over the Christmas period, by the RMT, NHS, Civil servants, and postal workers (so far), Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces increasing pressure to bring in anti strike action laws, and basically remove the teeth of this particular tiger. Some senior ministers are busying themselves trying to find ways to tighten anti strike legislation, one minister said to the financial times “if the Christmas eve strike goes ahead, we need to crack on with the anti-strike laws early in the mew year”. We already have some of the most restrictive trade union laws in Europe, but the Tories will Tory, they have never been on the side of working people, their s...

Yeah I know, I'm as surprised as anyone to hear that journalists have a code of ethics, I thought it would be 1, don't tell the editor when you do something illegal. 2, Don't shit where you eat. The British press hasn't had the best reputation over the last few years, journalists for a lot of people shape the views of people, because the newspaper and TV news watching public generally feel that you can't print something in a news paper for example, that is untrue, the public believe that despite numerous high profile court cases, that journalists are held to account by rules, laws, and a code of conduct. In reality, the code of conduct serves only as a yard stick, a set of guides to show what they can and can't get away with, and of course there are those journalists who believe that they can print whatever they want, and whatever their employers want, true or not, because there is always the option to retract the story that arrived to massive fanfare, in a...

  A fair and equal society, is a concept we hear people talk about all the time, there are thousands of blog posts, podcasts, and YouTube videos on the subject, but what does it actually mean? According to the Oxford English Dictionary, fairness means “Impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination” and equal or rather in this case equality is “The state of being equal, especially in status, rights or opportunities”. Now with those two definitions in mind, does the society we live in look anything like a fair and equal one? It depends on who you ask, if you ask someone who has a privileged life, for example, someone who doesn't have to deal with adversity in their life, no racism, no sexism, no homophobia, trans-phobia, poverty, disability or class-ism, there will be the odd one or two that say that life inst fair to them, but for the majority, they would say that their life is pretty sweet. In fact if you are a straight white middle age middle...

  TW: SA and DV I haven't always been the man I am today, there have been times where I have looked more like a bigoted thug than he hefty lefty woke bloke I strive to be today, I have said and done things in my past that I'm not proud of, I've been racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and trans phobic, again I'm not proud of this period of time in my life, but I never want to forget it, because I can look back and see how far I have come, I can see that although I'm far from perfect, I am working to be a better man. Back in the day, I was a bit of a lad, you know the sort, total edge lord, saying and doing things that would get a laugh out of the friends that were just as messed up as I was, thinking back, even then I didn't believe half of the things I said, but I was addicted to getting laughs, and some messed up version of respect from people that probably didn't respect themselves let alone me. Fitting in was important to me when I was young, I didn...

  There are certain types of people who get a twisted sense of satisfaction from screaming about the unemployed, its almost as if being unemployed is a character flaw, are there people who are professional government artists? (draw the dole) yes there are, but for the most part, people on benefits are there for a short time, a stop gap between one job and another, but so many myths are spread about people on benefits, I felt it would be a good idea to have a look at the benefits system, and what it is, and more importantly, what it isn't. First of all, unemployment is not the easy option, it looks that way from the outside, not having to get up and go to work each day, it does sound like a slice of heaven to those who hate their job, but time on your hands and no money to do anything is a sad state to be in, having to plan months in advance to do the simplest things like buy a birthday gift for your kids, or Christmas presents, kills any spontaneity in your life, but there isn...