Clearing Up Any Iran War Misunderstandings

Day 54th of the Iran War which we were told would last a few weeks so just in case you missed it, here's what's been happening so far.   

America and Israel bombed Ian while in the midst of negotiations to prevent a war and to distract attention from the Epstein files which were a hoax and did not exist but were on the desk of the District Attorney who was slowly releasing them.
The First act of the war which isn't a war was to change the regime by replacing the old regime with a younger more hardline version of the same regime and then take out the Iranian navy which has now been destroyed eight times and who have closed the Strait of Hormuz which was open before the outbreak of the not war and while Trump was declaring that they had won the war which isnt a war seven times.
Trump moaned about Keir Starmer and told Britain to not send their ships which Britain never offered anyway because they could easily get the uranium that was completely obliterated previously during negotiations so that the Iranians can't build the nuclear weapon that they weren't building before the not war that the US and Israel started so Iran could not have a nuclear missile, which they never.
Then as the price of oil went up as the Iranian military which was beaten and had lost the war were launching missiles which America had already been wiped out at several other Middle Eastern nations so the US, which has nuclear weapons, threatened to end Iranian Civilisation by using nuclear weapons to prevent Iran from having nuclear weapons because having nuclear weapons is dangerous which made the Pope question the war and led the US to question just how religious the Pope actually was that he didn't support the mass murder of millions of people .
Now a second round of negotiations are being prepared which Iran did not turn up to to end the not a war and America have blockaded the Strait to show Iran that blocking a Strait is wrong and breaking International Law.
So that's where we are today, I hope this has cleared up a few things

Special Guest Blogger: Ian Dury

Right, pull up a chair, clutch your cuppa, and let’s have a proper chin-wag about the bits of my life that actually mattered. I’m not gonna stand on a soapbox and wax lyrical like some pretentious pop-poet, nah, I’ll give it to you straight, with the kind of language a true Londoner would use when he’s had a few pints and a proper rant. So, strap in you lot, and let’s go.
I was born in the East End of London right in the middle of a blitz, where the only thing falling faster than the bombs were the chances of any decent music on the radio.
School was a hard grind  but the real lesson I learned was how to survive on a diet of battered fish and chips, and the occasional jam sandwich when the canteen ran out of anything decent. That’s the sort of culinary inspiration that later fed into the lyric about a dog-eating-a-dog in Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3.
At 17 I signed up for the Royal Air Force. Not because I wanted to fly a Spitfire, nah, I was looking for a free meal and a roof over me head. And, let’s be honest, the uniforms made you look proper sharp even though i came with a you can sod-off attitude, the RAF also nicknamed me Sparky. Not because I was bright, but because I kept sparking off arguments with the Sergeants, but I did learn to play the clarinet in the band.
When I finally got my discharge papers, I walked back to London, after a stint as a handyman and a teacher, I found myself in Kilburn, hanging out with a bunch of blokes and we formed Kilburn & the High-Roads, a band that was part punk, part rock-'n-roll and all-out chaos.
Our first gig was at the Rock Garden where I  stepped up to the mic, looked at the crowd, and thought Right, let’s give ‘em something they’ll never forget and came up with a tune that I’d later call 'Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick'.
Sadly, the band split up after a few years and i went solo and my first solo record, New Boots and Panties!!, was me saying I’ve got a voice that can sound like a thunderstorm mixed with a tinny radio, and I’ll use it to say whatever the hell I want.
The track that got the world and the tabloids to notice was when i was with Ian Dury and the Blockheads called Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and i followed that with Spasticus Autisticus about my disability after contracting Polio when I was seven, and The BBC banned them both, which only made them more appealing.
I didn’t set out to be some iconic figure. I just wanted a good gig, a decent pint, and the chance to say whatever I felt like when the moment struck. Yet, somewhere between those blokes and lasses in the clubs and the radio stations that finally caught my drift, something happened where people started to listen but I was just  being myself, a bit of a nut.
I tossed rock, funk, reggae, and a dash of cabaret into the same pot and served it with a side of sarcasm, the Pop World needs a bit of chaos now and then just to keep the boring bits at bay such as the diagnoses of bowel cancer which forced me to write one more album and do a farewell tour but i was always proud that i was a man who walked to the beat of his own drum and it appear that this particular drummer learnt his drumming skills on a trumpet.

A New Me?

Apparently, all the cells in our body are replaced every seven years which means we are completely new people then we were seven years ago which made me wonder if i have changed since 2019 and i had a look through my blog posts from that year to see what i was banging on about back then and if I felt any differently now .
In 2019 we had plenty of posts about climate change but I have been on about that for decades so no surprise there as well as the awfulness of Capitalism and the even more awfulness of the diabolical actions from nation of Israel so they would always be getting a mention so no surprises there either.
Very much a 2019 thing was Boris Johnson who took it from both barrels all the way through the year as did Prince Andrew and Donald Trump who was just known as a moronic sex pest back then and not a probable pedophile also.  
Raging against War's and Inequality as well as Religion, America's gun laws after yet another mass shooting, the Royals and Brexit all got a mention as did Greta Thunberg who is thankfully still around so pretty much all the same things i go on about now so no real change from the 2019 version to today's so maybe if we go back 14 years, and two previous me's, we may find something.
Very much a 2012 thing mentioned a lot was the US Election and President Obama and the arrival of China's Xi Jinping, the death of Whitney Houston, David Cameron and his Government got a regular kicking as did Piers Morgan but running through 2012 were posts raging against Climate Change, American gun laws, Starbuck's tax avoidance, floods, the awfulness of Israel, Capitalism and the Afghan war so pretty much the names may have changed but what vexes me in 2026 was vexing me back then also.
So in conclusion, my body may have 30 to 37 trillion new cells since 2019 but each one picked up from the ones they replaced so nope, no changes to me but unfortunately, not many changes for the better in our World either, its just as bad and run by just as awful people as it was back then.  

Trump Effect On World Cup

When FIFA voted to give the 2026 World Cup to USA, Mexico and Canada, i imagine they thought that Donald Trump would be either be in Prison or in a mental Institution by this year so i imagine they were quite shocked when the Calendar rolled around and the man in charge was, Donald Trump.  
America's reputation has been shot through for years but no more so than at the moment with a (probable) pedophile running the show and starting wars which could explain why the 2026 World Cup Organisers are concerned by how their Tournament is going in the time of Trump.
Rather than being a global showcase for America, it has falling hotel prices, canceled room blocks and weak international demand are exposing that the world’s biggest tournament is arriving at the exact moment America has become harder to visit, harder to trust, and harder to welcome.
Hotel rates in Dallas, Miami, Atlanta, and other host cities are falling instead of surging ahead of the World Cup and extreme ticket prices and inflated transit costs are putting off travellers.
A study by FIFA and the World Trade Organization published last year predicted the 39-day event would bring in 6.5 million fans and yield an overall $30.5 billion economic impact in the U.S. with an influx of visitors will likely generate billions of dollars in economic activity, benefiting the hospitality, transportation, and retail sectors in host cities but with the tournament just over two months away, things are not looking quite so rosy.
Analysis by Deutsche Bank has reported that the price of plane tickets have gone up by 140% for internal flights and there is even a ban on the fans of three teams Iran, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo who all have games in the US.
Even getting into the country has gone from $21 to $40 for Europeans visitors who will need to apply for a non-immigrant visa and visitors from other qualifying nations with games in the U.S., including Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, and Senegal, must also pay a bond of either $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000, that will be decided at their visa interview.
On top of the added costs, worries about Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which has previously arrested tourists with valid visas, may make football fans not want to attend anyway and many fans from nations such as England, Germany and The Netherland called for their nation to boycott the Finals altogether.
The American Hotels & Lodging Association reported late last month that hotel bookings in New York City for the dates of the World Cup were 2% below the same time last year when no major event was scheduled and the New York City comptroller also estimated in a report that the city may lose money because of costs like policing.
Hotel Association in Philadelphia and San Francisco, all of which are hosting World Cup matches, said that that the economic boom FIFA promised isn’t materializing despite hotels slashing their rates ahead of the World Cup. They also report thousands of room cancellations FIFA made in host cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Less than two months out from the FIFA World Cup, it has become clear that Donald Trump’s detrimental influence is casting a pall over things.

Starmer Out But Not Quite Yet

Inadvertently misleading Parliament sure is a weaselly way of saying that you accidentally lied but whatever he wants to call it, Prime Minister  Keir Starmer is looking as shaky as a jelly on a trampoline.
Just in case you missed it, in December 2024, Starmer announced that he was appointing Peter Mandelson as the ambassador to the US.
In July 2025, journalists reveal documents from the Trumpstein files which show a very close relationship with Mandleson and the pedophile and two months later Mandelson is sacked, the third time he has been sacked from Government in his career.
In February 20206, Mandelson is arrested by Police for passing on UK Government secret information to Epstein, misconduct in public office,  and politicians began asking Starmer some awkward questions about the vetting process, of which the Prime Minister stated was carried out fully and completely.
In the last week it has been revealed that Mandelson failed the security vetting process but it was over-ruled by the Foreign Office without Downing Street’s knowledge and today Starmer said that he had not known Mandelson had failed the vetting process until two days ago but may had 'Inadvertently misled Parliament over the vetting'.
Firstly, that appointing someone who had already been sacked twice previously is hard to defend but then not being told that the person you are putting forward as the Ambassador failed the Security Checks is stretching credibility unless it was one of those situations where you make it clear that you don't want to know so you can later say nobody told me if it all blows up in your face, like this has. 
As expected the opposition are calling for Starmer's head and despite being a Labour supporter, i agree that his position is untenable now but the only thing that is saving him at the moment is that they want to scapegoat and boot him out in May after the Local Elections which are expected to be a royal shallacking for the Party.
Seems we could be heading for our 7th different Prime Minister in 11 years and we can only hope the next one is a bit more proper Labour Party than Starmer has been. 

They Did What To A Statue?

Wanted War Criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, has condemned 'in the strongest possible terms' the Israeli soldier seen vandalising Jesus statue with a sledgehammer in Lebanon.
Analysts have said the image was taken in Debel, one of the villages in ​Lebanon where Israel's military has been operating and Netanyahu said that he was: 'Stunned and saddened to learn that an IDF soldier damaged a Catholic religious icon in southern Lebanon' and will launch a probe of the matter and will take appropriately harsh disciplinary action against the offender before expressing 'Regret for the incident and for any hurt this has caused to believers in Lebanon and around the world'.
Fresh from the uproar over the Trump depicting himself as God, it made the American's nervous that their close ally was anything bhut the wholesome genocidal murderers they believed they were and the US ambassador to Israel has called for 'Swift, severe, & public consequences for this desecration of our holy symbols'.
If only they had shown such concern for the bombed out schools, hospitals, homes and offices as well as the minimum 75,000 people of Gaza murdered by Israel and their backers in Washington but nope, Israel and America draw the line at smashing up a statue.
One day the years of Trump and Netanyahu will be gone and only relived through History programmes with ominous music playing as the voice-over tries to make explain of just how awful these years are.

Special Guest Blogger: Roald Amundsen

My life and that rather ignominious final chapter where I managed to lose myself. The irony, I tell you, is thicker than a week-old blizzard.
They say you should follow your passion and my passion, as it turned out, was for being profoundly cold. While other lads in Oslo were dreaming of warm bakeries or perhaps not dying of scurvy, I was reading books about men whose primary achievement was turning various shades of blue before succumbing to a polar bear.
My dear mother had other plans. Doctor, she wanted. A respectable profession. indoors by a warm fire. She pictured me with a stethoscope, listening to men cough. Instead, I took a dogsled and listened to the howl of the Arctic wind from the bow of a ship heading for the Northwest Passage.
I had to. The Northwest Passage was the Everest of my day, only flatter, wetter, and considerably more likely to crush your ship into splinters. People had been trying it for centuries, mostly adding to the growing collection of ghost ships.
My plan, in a nutshell, was not to be tragic. It was revolutionary. I learned from the chaps who actually knew what they were doing, the local Inuit. We wore their clothes, ate their food, and more importantly, let their dogs do all the actual work. The real heroes of that expedition weren't the men but the furry, four-legged chaps who seemed to view the entire adventure as a rather demanding walkies.
The South Pole was the main event. The one that gets all the press. This is where things get a bit competitive.
You see, there was this other fellow, Captain Robert Falcon Scott. A splendid chap, I’m sure. Very British, very heroic. Great moustache. But his approach to exploration was, shall we say, a touch more romantic than practical. It was all about noble suffering for the glory of the Empire. Splendid stuff for a poem, awful stuff for staying alive.
My plan was, in essence, don’t be a tit. It involved Ski's for moving efficiently, dogs for pulling the sledge (or in a pinch for emergency rations) and warm fur clothing for not freezing your nuts off.
Scott’s plan involved Ponies which sank into the snow and had to be shot, motorised sledges which broke from the cold immediately and good old British spirit which is fine until you got no ponies or sledges left.
Unsurprisingly we got there first, planted the Norwegian flag, had a quick nip of something medicinal to ward off the frost, and thought, Right, that’s done. Pole conquered. Now, where’s my lunch?
And so, we come to it. The curtain call. The bit where the great explorer gets… well, lost.
All my life, dedicated to navigation, to finding my way across the most featureless landscapes on Earth, only to go missing on what was supposed to be a simple rescue mission.
An airship crashed in the Arctic so I hopped in a French seaplane to go and find him. A routine jaunt,  when we took off from Tromsø, and then we simply ran out of map and, it seems, sky.

Got Any Integrity Richard Tice?

When it was revealed that Labour Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Raynor, had bought a Flat which should have been registered as a second home, which meant she should have paid an added £40,000 in tax, Reform's Richard Tice said that Rayner should be sacked for her tax errors and: 'If she has any integrity, she will resign' so a bit award that he has now been revealed he owes HMRC £100,000 plus £30,000 interest for unpaid Corporation Tax.
The error stems from his property investment firm, Quidnet, which he still owns and failed to register to become a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), which meant it paid no Corporation Tax hence the big bill now.
Tax expert said it was: 'A really basic tax mistake and not some deep tax nerd point' and the Tax Policy Associates said that they would expect Richard Tice to know it and if not, his advisers certainly should which does look as if that will come under the HMRC title of 'Carelessness' which carries one of the higher rates of penalties for denying the Chancellor.
Obviously, as Tice is not one to take the blame for anything when he can try and blame someone else, said in his defence it was a all stitch up as: 'The relentless effort to tarnish my good name is the kind of behaviour that deters other successful business people from going into politics. The consequences are very real - as we can all see with the current Labour Cabinet, which is entirely devoid of business experience. The result? A flatlining economy and dire public services. All in a nation facing humiliation on the world stage' which shows that he obviously will not resign from carrying Nigel Farage's bags around and has no integrity himself for owing twice as much as Raynor, who's head he called for for owing half as much.

Undecided On No Hits Tour

The Pet Shop Boys are back on tour but this one is billed as 'No Hits' and they are just playing Album tracks and B sides.
I can't describe myself a big Pet Shop Boys fan, i didn't mind them and even had the first Album 'Actually' but then i guess this isn't aimed at people like me, which is why they are playing smaller venues and is probably just going to attract hard core fans who have the albums and the singles so they will know the songs which is fair although if I went to see a band who i liked, i would expect to hear some of the most well know songs which is why it conflicts me .
Part of me applauds them for doing it and part of me thinks it's the big hits which people want to hear when they shell out to go see a band but then this shouldn't bother me because i wont be queuing up to go see them, but it may set a precedent for other bands who i may well be standing in line for.
I'm still undecided but i'm leaning more towards good luck to them but I hope it doesn't become a thing amongst other bands.

Is the Pope Catholic?

The battle to be the absolute biggest moron in the Trump Government can feel so closely fought but in the end, it’s always Trump himself isn’t it, nobody is going to outdo him for sheer moronicness but the Vice President must have givejn the Orange (probable) Pedo a scare this week when he began questioning the Pope of all people on religion.
Now I have no time for either the Pontiff or the bunch of children in the White House but i did find myself rooting for the man in the funny hat after Trump pictured himself as God and then tried to gaslight mainly his not too bright supporters that he thought it was him dressed as a doctor.
The Pope said a few days later that he was not seeking to debate Donald Trump when he criticised 'tyrants who spend billions on wars in a speech for which the Government who have spent $80bn so far on a war they needlessly started and are despretly hoping comes to an end soon, took offence and pushed forward the man who has been a Catholic for about 10 mins, JD Vance.    
The vice-president said that: 'I think it’s very, very important for the pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology' for which the Vatican must have asked if they can't talk about matters about theology, than who could? They literally describe themselves as being God’s vicar of Christ on Earth, it's their raison d'être so to speak.
All very concerning for the low watt Catholic Trump supporters in the US who face a choice between supporting their (probable) pedophile they have been supporting or the guy who actively calls himself Gods voice on Earth although it is hard to any sy6mpathy with them having to choose, if they are supporting Trump in the first place than their moral radar is very off centre to start with.
Trumps relationship with Christianity has been long debated, but if a Hell exists then his best bet against eternal damnation is being so radioactively unpleasant that Satan would balk at spending five minutes with him, let alone an eternity.
England has a history of breaking from the Pope when our own sociopath tipped the toys out of his pram when the Pope refused to let him divorce and remarry so maybe it is all a ploy to break with the Church and create their own but with Trump running it you just know like everything he touches, it will be even more of a shitshow and will probably reduce the age of consent down to (checks his entry in the Epstein Files), 13 or something.