Not A Labour Thing To Do

 
Only the most rose tinted wearing Labour Supporter would say that the first seven months of the Labour Party have been successful.
I initially gave them a bit of leeway due to the economic £22 billion mess the previous Conservatives left them with but i winced when they cut the Heating Allowance for most pensioners, then got angry when they cut the Aid Budget but have to shout at them now that they are targeting cuts to disability benefit.
Thankfully, enough Labour backbenchers have also shouted that they are backing away from it including Former Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls who said that cutting disability benefits is: 'Not a Labour thing to do' but it is bad enough that they were even considering it, especially as Foreign Aid and disability benefits was always the first thing the right wing Conservatives went after.  
Health Minister, Wes Streeting, was on the media round this morning denying that Labour are 'changing into the Tories' and then undermined it by repeating that much used Tory defence that they were merely 'helping disabled people back into work' which is just a nice way of saying taking away their money giving them no choice regardless of their disability.
The Heating Allowance withdrawal was estimated to save £1.4bn, the reduction to the Aid Budget approximately £6 billion and the same for the plans for disability payments so those three actions alone will save the Government £13.4 billion but that is from taking away from the most vulnerable.
Why they haven't considered increasing tax rates on the highest earners by 1% which would raise £24 billion according to their own figures I do not know but with a massive majority they could do anything, but have decided to hit the pensioners, poorest and the disabled which is beyond disappointing when rejoining the EU, which most of the country now support, would give a boost of an additional £140 billion to the UK Economy and no old person will go cold, no disabled person forced into inappropriate work and the World's downtrodden will not go hungry or thirsty.
The most disappointing thing is that the Conservatives were beyond awful and if Labour are going to do the same things, then where can us Lefties turn? 

Forget Friday 13th, Hide On Monday 27th

To many people Friday 13th is the unluckiest day of the year, a fear that has been with us for centuries as Fridays were the day of crucifixion and 13 people who were at the Last Supper but analysis of a million insurance claims by the British Automobile Association has revealed that accidents are more likely to happen on Monday the 27th than on any other day.
The Insurers put down Monday 27th to be the unluckiest date to a combination of post-weekend and end-of-the-month tiredness and also as most people get paid on the last Friday of the month, are more likely to be still feeling the effects of drink heavily over the following weekend.
Luckily 2025 only has two Monday the 27th's in it and one was in January so well done if you survived that but you still have to navigate the one in October but if you want to go traditional then we only have one Friday 13th this year and this is in June but we have three next year to make up for it.

 

 

Asking To Use The Facilities

 
English people can be socially awkward at the best of times but even worse when we are in a strange place and all those glasses of water are having an effect and there is no obvious doors with the tell-tale pictures on them.
It is bad enough that you now have to announce where you need to go to a complete stranger by asking but what is the correct way to ask?
I always discreetly ask for directions to the ladies but you could ask the way to the Bathroom, the WC, Lavatory, Bog, Crapper, Loo, the John, Privy, Khazi, Latrine, Dunny or the most politest way, to powder your nose so what is the proper way to announce that you are looking for somewhere to pee because I know at some point someone is going to answer with: 'A Ladies What?' and its back to square One.
Apparently the most proper and politest way in British English to let people know you’re looking for a toilet is to ask 'Where’s The Bathroom?' because that is not specifically saying what you are going to do once you get there as you may be wanting to check your hair or wash your hands for all they know.
According to Lexicographers, there isn’t a proper name for the smallest room in the house but a Lavatory is the French word for somewhere where you wash, a toilet is a lady's dressing table and Loo is from the French word for water but we have never had a single, universally accepted term to describe the place where we go to answer the call of nature.
This is quite strange given that every single one of us goes there on average 2,500 times a year according to someone who been paid to has count these things but not sure what some people do when they get there because last year 476 people were somehow injured while using the facilities.

Royal Referendum

There was once a discussion over whether the British Royalty should be made defunct after the Queen who went by the name Elizabeth 2nd stopped reigning but she went, Charles plonked his derriere on the Throne and the Family the Late Queen called The Firm carried on with a new face on our stamps and bank notes.
Whether we have a Royal Family doesn't matter much to me, the whole idea of putting anyone above anyone else grates with me and especially a family who over the last thousand years have been some of the worst people the nation has ever produced.
We have had cruel kings and mean queens as well as the mad ones, bad ones, greedy ones and murderous ones and some have been all these things at the same time so do we want to raise such a bloodline onto a pedestal and pay for the privilege?
The amazing answer is: 'Probably' as figures from the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) shows that just over half (54%) think that it is important for Britain to have a monarchy.
Britain did get rid of the monarchy once before when Charles I got the chop but as he was replaced by a religious nutter who banned everything, the 17th Century Brits decided it was too boring without a King and Queen and brought back Charlie’s son to rule again.
Obviously removing the monarchy would throw up some interesting questions such as what would the media report on if there weren’t royal scandals (looking at you Harry and Andrew) and whose face could we stick on the stamps?
The Royals are as useless as they ever were but a (slight) majority of the Brits seem to like them...for now anyway because 54% is the lowest figure of support since the NatCen poll started in 1983 when 86% of Brits said having a Royal was important.
In the Final year of Lizzie 2, 62% felt that having a monarchy was important and since the third Charlie took over support has only dwindled further so maybe we should seek a referendum on whether we should continue to give then £100m a year or spend it on something more worthwhile.

How You Like Your Eggs? Expensive!

Not sure what it is about eggs but it does seem whenever the US economy is mentioned someone there seems to bring up the price of eggs.
The price of eggs was mentioned during the Presidential race and only yesterday Donald Trump was banging on about how the price of eggs have come down 30% since he has been in office which would be bemusing enough if the Irish Taoiseach, Micheal Martin, wasn't sat beside him wondering how the hell we got onto the subject of the price of eggs.
Obviously as it came of of Trump's weird shaped mouth it was a lie as everyone shouted that the cost of eggs had actually gone up 28% since Trump took office so another thing he said he would do on day 1 failed along with ending the Ukraine War.
Weirdly there is a website that compares the cost of 12 eggs around the World and if Americans don't like paying £3.16 for eggs they had better steer clear of Switzerland which is the most expensive at £5.26, then New Zealand at £4.74 and Iceland where your brekkie eggs will cost £4.62.
The United Kingdom comes 14th in the league table of egg costs at £2.96 for  a dozen but the cheapest countries are Pakistan at £0.92, Iran at £0.88 and India where 12 eggs will cost you £0.74.
Hard up Americans could always go North of the border into Canada to buy their eggs as they only cost £2.59 there or head South into Mexico where they are even cheaper at £1.75 but with a Trumpian recession heading your way, bring a big bag because you may well be stocking up on other things as you are there.

I'll Take Mine Black Thanks

We have been milking Cows and Goats for centuries and even some people even put the milk of Coconuts and Almonds in their teas but I don't know if I could be tempted by the latest milk trend, Cockroaches.
Scientists in the International Union of Crystallography say cockroach milk is an up-and-coming super-food and they have a study that finds it's three times more nutritious than cow’s milk and may even be one of the most nutrient-dense substances on our planet and contains a tonne of proteins, amino acids and healthy sugars to help will cell growth and repair.
Before I can say 'You first chum' they do say that Cockroach milk is not yet available for human consumption because the Cockroaches make only a tiny amount of the fluid and the insect is not milked in the way that cows and goats are and anyway, they are not yet 100% certain that it's safe for human consumption.
Despite all that, they think that Cockroaches milk could be  part of a next generation of super foods which seems a bit optimistic because good luck with that because it would need to be one hell of an advertising campaign before many people let a bottle of that anywhere near their fridge. 

Americanos (LucyP Mix)

 
It seems that the World and it's dog is boycotting American made goods as the path to the Economic sunlit uplands promised by Donald Trump takes them straight through a certain brown creek without a paddle but it isn't always easy to know which brands to boycott but why just print a boring list when we can put it to music and what's better than the 1989 Holly Johnson classic, Americanos.

So with the sincerest apologies to Holly, it goes a little something like this:

There's a place, where a kid without no sense
Grew up, to be president (to be president)
A fascist kingdom now filled with guns and loons
If you're annoyed, here's what to avoid
Ah yeah.

Americanos shove your Lee Jeans and Chinos
Coke, Pepsi and Oreos - and Cheerios
Facebook and Levi's in the land not that free
Be as racist as you wanna be.

No more Starbucks or French Fries
Netflix at any time
Need them or not, that's what you got, yeah.
Take no KFC from anyone
Don't look to Burger King for any fun
The countries lost it's soul
Don't put Kellogg's in your bowl
(In your bowl)
Ah yeah!

Americanos shove your Lee Jeans and Chinos
Coke, Pepsi and Oreos - and Cheerios
Apple, Gap and HP's, in the land not that free
You can be as poor as you wanna be

Satellite stations across the nation
That's Starlink to you and me
Under Armour, Google, Disney too
Everything's boycotted from Nike to Twitter time.
Mastercard and Stanley Tools, don't buy a Tesla from Nazi fools.

Americanos shove your Lee Jeans and Chinos
Coke, Pepsi and Oreos - and Cheerios
Skip Subway and please, boycott the land not that free
Until they get someone not so crappy

Americanos shove your Lee Jeans and Chinos
Coke, Pepsi and Oreos - and Cheerios
A fascist kingdom now filled with guns and loons
If you're annoyed, you know what to avoid
Ah yeah.

Unfathomable Negligence

I'm sure all will come out during the inquiry into the North Sea collision between  two tankers, the Solong and the Stena Immaculate which was laden with jet fuel and was entirely stationary ten miles off the coast of Hull when it was hit.
Over 24 hours later, the Solong is still ablaze and drifting out of control in the North Sea and experts are saying that it's initial assessment reports suggest it is unlikely to stay afloat and the East Coast has the potential to seee an environmental disaster.
A Downing Street spokesman has said that there is no suggestions of foul play and data from MarineTraffic appears to show the Solong was travelling at 16 knots (18 mph) in clear visibility but there was no suggestion yet of exactly what happened.
It is hard to work out how with all the technical equipment on board and with clear visibility, a tanker can plough straight into another one, at 183 meters and 49,729 tonnes it should be easy to see especially as it was anchored.  
One sailor remains missing from the Solong but it can only be an unfathomable amount of negligence from the Solong crew that led to the disaster. 

Eating Halal Meat Is Just Wrong

Since I was a teenage I have left meat on the supermarket shelves and if other people choose to eat it then that's their affair, i'm not their conscience but killing animals for food is bad enough, but Halal meat is even worse.
Halal meat, for anyone unfamiliar with it, refers to the requirement in Islamic and Jewish law for an animal to be killed with a single cut to the throat, severing the windpipe and blood vessels, while the creature remains conscious. No stunning beforehand, no bolt to the skull or electric jolt to render it senseless.
Any animal which dies before the blood has drained out is considered not permissible to be consumed.
In the UK, laws require that animals must be stunned before slaughter but an exception is made for religious slaughter but studies have shown that  animals are conscious for a period of time after their throats are cut during the religious slaughter.
A report by the Farm Animal Welfare Council, published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, highlights that sheep are conscious for 7 seconds after the cut, 5 seconds for goats, 40 seconds for adult cattle, and 120 seconds for calves compared with  stunning beforehand which have shown that there is no brain response activity afterwards.
The UK’s Halal Monitoring Committee which certifies much of Britain’s halal meat, insists that such slaughter is 'swift and humane' but secret camera footgae has shown the animals’ throats were inadequately cut, allowing them to run around for several minutes while they bled out an d some sheep still visibly conscious as workers began to cut their legs off.
Now it is up to you if you choose to eat meat, but if we have to kill animals then let's do it humanely as possible.

What Ceasfire In Palestine?

Apparently there has been a ceasefire going on in Gaza for the past 6 weeks but someone seems to have not told the Israeli's as over 100 people have been killed since the 19th January.
As well as Israel halting humanitarian aid into Gaza, they are also turning their attention to the West Bank and in the past year alone, more than 224 children have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers, including a two year old shot in his own home, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The justifications are similar to those used in Gaza,  and include destroying infrastructure, driving people out of their homes with no right of return (40,000 so far, in less than two months, according to Unrwa), targeting medical facilities and personnel and flattening entire neighbourhoods.
According to Unrwa: 'The use of airstrikes, armoured bulldozers, controlled detonations, and advanced weaponry by the Israeli forces has become commonplace in the West Bank, and is a spillover of the war in Gaza'.
Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said troops would remain in the West Bank for the coming year and  the 40,000 displaced residents would not be allowed back in that time so the the aim seems to be the expansion of settlements and the collapse of the ceasefire and a return to the bombardment in Gaza
Donald Trump, Arab leaders and the Israeli government can go back and forth as much as they like on what is the best plan for Gaza but the reality is that Israel never saw the war ending and won't until they have driven out, or killed, the Palestinians from their land, or as they state in their Government manifesto: 'The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river'.