Is this just me being bah humbug?
I was in a restaurant on Saturday, which had pissed me off already by changing the menu between my choosing what I wanted and my order being taken, and I had to go without lobster, so maybe I over reacted.
But on the table there was a small card, which I took, and which I have since lost, saying how a quid would be added to my bill unless I took it off, which meant that I'd have to notice this card.
The card is for StreetSmart - Helping the Homeless. It is "sponsored" by DeutscheBank, which means their advertising is all over the stuff, which means that restaurants everywhere are advertising whoever the fuck DeutscheBank are, for nothing.
Stephen Fry is on the inside cover.
Let me tell you, DeutscheBank could contribute MORE than StreetSmart make, out of petty cash, and set it against tax. In a heartbeat.
So I crossed off the quid from the bill. Then went outside and gave the Big Issue seller a twenty quid note and told him to get a B&B for the night. He probably bought drugs.
Fucks' sake. Deutsche anything can fuck off. So can Santander.
http://www.streetsmart.org.uk/
Monday, 7 November 2011
M5
The M5 crash on Friday midnight was tragic. Seven dead, many injured.
Our esteemed Plod are now treating it as criminal because some smoke from a bonfire may have drifted across the road. Or something.
Let me explain.
The M5 is a three-lane motorway. It's designed to have a thing called traffic on it. That's cars and vans and lorries. They go from A to B.
Sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes one of the traffic is tired, bent out of shape after an argument, distracted, even drunk. Sometimes one of the traffic has an MOT from a country in the EU that will give you an MOT for a Euro even if the wheels are in the boot. When one of the traffic misbehaves, it can cause a crash. Usually all the other traffic stops and everybody gets cross until Plod have cleared up the mess.
Sometimes it's worse. Sometimes a lot of the traffic is tired. This tends to happen at midnight.
It's a bastard for those involved, the families, everyone.
Learn. Keep your distance. Assume everyone else on the road is tired, cross, distracted, drunk, stupid, incompetent, homicidal, and that their wheels are just about to fall off. And assume you're the biggest twat of the lot. I know I am.
It's not worth trying to get there two minutes earlier. It really isn't.
Stay safe. Please.
Our esteemed Plod are now treating it as criminal because some smoke from a bonfire may have drifted across the road. Or something.
Let me explain.
The M5 is a three-lane motorway. It's designed to have a thing called traffic on it. That's cars and vans and lorries. They go from A to B.
Sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes one of the traffic is tired, bent out of shape after an argument, distracted, even drunk. Sometimes one of the traffic has an MOT from a country in the EU that will give you an MOT for a Euro even if the wheels are in the boot. When one of the traffic misbehaves, it can cause a crash. Usually all the other traffic stops and everybody gets cross until Plod have cleared up the mess.
Sometimes it's worse. Sometimes a lot of the traffic is tired. This tends to happen at midnight.
It's a bastard for those involved, the families, everyone.
Learn. Keep your distance. Assume everyone else on the road is tired, cross, distracted, drunk, stupid, incompetent, homicidal, and that their wheels are just about to fall off. And assume you're the biggest twat of the lot. I know I am.
It's not worth trying to get there two minutes earlier. It really isn't.
Stay safe. Please.
Mum
My mum has gone to a nursing home.
She has this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson_plus_syndrome
You don't want this. There are a load of big words in there which are chiefly euphemisms for shit, more shit, and even more shit.
I haven't got a mum any more.
Where is Harold Shipman when you need him?
If I had one of "those" pills I'd give it to her.
She has this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson_plus_syndrome
You don't want this. There are a load of big words in there which are chiefly euphemisms for shit, more shit, and even more shit.
I haven't got a mum any more.
Where is Harold Shipman when you need him?
If I had one of "those" pills I'd give it to her.
Friday, 4 November 2011
Why
Why the government are targetting UNISON - and why UNISON need to take responsibility
The government promised to sort out the economy. There are many ways in which they could do that; unfortunately most of them rely on a stream of money coming in from people who don't have the confidence to provide it. Those people are too busy licking their wound from the Euro fiasco and they're very probably looking to get a mighty return on their investment to compensate.
One other way is for British Industry to get off its backside and start making things that other people want, but so many obstacles, both financial and administrative, are in the way. Perhaps removing these would be a start?
The cheap and easy way is to spend less. Again, one way to do that is to stop propping up dodgy economies like Greece’s, but for reasons I cannot fathom that is not an option. I suspect that Merkel and Sarkozy have kidnapped Cameron’s children, or something.
So, that leaves cuts.
Cutting spend means cutting jobs.
UNISON members are public sector workers paid for by the private sector. The private sector are people who do things that other people want to pay for, such as manufacturing, banking, finance, services, etc. The public sector do things that people have to have, like emptying bins, teaching children, nursing, doctoring, etc.
In the private sector, if a company doesn’t keep to its budgets, it goes bankrupt and everybody is out of a job.
In the public sector, if a company doesn’t keep to its budgets, tax goes up and their budgets are increased.
When the tax paid by the private sector drops below the cost of the public sector, then either more tax needs to be paid, or borrowing needs to increase, or cuts have to be made.
Cuts have to be made. UNISON is the biggest union, and to achieve financial stability, the government have to either pay everyone in it less, or lay some off.
Union leaders are being paid more than the Prime Minister, so they have an interest in appearing to support their members. The government won’t negotiate, because there is nothing to negotiate over, therefore the unions strike because that is their only recourse.
But this is madness. When the union workers are on strike, they are not being paid. This only exacerbates their agony and anger, and attracts the ire of the public whose service are being cut and who being inconvenienced. The union bosses, however, are still being paid, and the union dues are still payable. Genius, isn’t it?
UNISON need to take responsibility. They need to start by assessing any possibilities of their members taking early retirement, changes of job, retraining, etc. They need to work WITH the government. That won’t happen. They wouldn’t even work with a faux-Labour government under Blair and Brown, so there is no chance of it happening with well-heeled self-sufficient, nay rich, sons of bankers and Eton.
The government promised to sort out the economy. There are many ways in which they could do that; unfortunately most of them rely on a stream of money coming in from people who don't have the confidence to provide it. Those people are too busy licking their wound from the Euro fiasco and they're very probably looking to get a mighty return on their investment to compensate.
One other way is for British Industry to get off its backside and start making things that other people want, but so many obstacles, both financial and administrative, are in the way. Perhaps removing these would be a start?
The cheap and easy way is to spend less. Again, one way to do that is to stop propping up dodgy economies like Greece’s, but for reasons I cannot fathom that is not an option. I suspect that Merkel and Sarkozy have kidnapped Cameron’s children, or something.
So, that leaves cuts.
Cutting spend means cutting jobs.
UNISON members are public sector workers paid for by the private sector. The private sector are people who do things that other people want to pay for, such as manufacturing, banking, finance, services, etc. The public sector do things that people have to have, like emptying bins, teaching children, nursing, doctoring, etc.
In the private sector, if a company doesn’t keep to its budgets, it goes bankrupt and everybody is out of a job.
In the public sector, if a company doesn’t keep to its budgets, tax goes up and their budgets are increased.
When the tax paid by the private sector drops below the cost of the public sector, then either more tax needs to be paid, or borrowing needs to increase, or cuts have to be made.
Cuts have to be made. UNISON is the biggest union, and to achieve financial stability, the government have to either pay everyone in it less, or lay some off.
Union leaders are being paid more than the Prime Minister, so they have an interest in appearing to support their members. The government won’t negotiate, because there is nothing to negotiate over, therefore the unions strike because that is their only recourse.
But this is madness. When the union workers are on strike, they are not being paid. This only exacerbates their agony and anger, and attracts the ire of the public whose service are being cut and who being inconvenienced. The union bosses, however, are still being paid, and the union dues are still payable. Genius, isn’t it?
UNISON need to take responsibility. They need to start by assessing any possibilities of their members taking early retirement, changes of job, retraining, etc. They need to work WITH the government. That won’t happen. They wouldn’t even work with a faux-Labour government under Blair and Brown, so there is no chance of it happening with well-heeled self-sufficient, nay rich, sons of bankers and Eton.
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
Greece
This is what has happened in Greece.
It is probably utter cock, which is why I'm writing it. Please let me know what is wrong here?
I am not an economist.
Greece is in debt. It owes money to people. I think these people are mainly China. They have lent Greece money (rather a lot of it) and they thought that Greece would pay it back, plus some more money, which is called "interest".
Greece can't pay it back because they have spunked it on buying votes for the government, by telling people everything is wonderful and they can retire at 55.
There were two options. The sensible one would have been to say "whoops" and then the people who lent the money would have gone "oh bollocks" and that would be that. The value of your investment can go down as well as up.
The second option, which is a bit daft, is the one they chose. Greece (via the EU) say "look, if you voluntarily accept a 50% haircut, we'll pay you back." This means that for every Quid/Euro/Drachma/Yen/ChineseThing the people lent them, half of it goes in the bin, and Greece will, one day (snork) pay back the other half, with interest. And the interest rate is HUGE.
They key is voluntary. Without voluntary Greece is bankrupt and under the rules of bankruptcy the lender can either fuck off or take the whole of Greece and ship to to China or somewhere. Expensive. Not worth it.
Here is the bit I have trouble with. Having done this haircutting, instead of Greece being about 60% short of being able to pay, they are no only 20% short.
So they're fucked.
Hope this has been of interest to one and all.
It is probably utter cock, which is why I'm writing it. Please let me know what is wrong here?
I am not an economist.
Greece is in debt. It owes money to people. I think these people are mainly China. They have lent Greece money (rather a lot of it) and they thought that Greece would pay it back, plus some more money, which is called "interest".
Greece can't pay it back because they have spunked it on buying votes for the government, by telling people everything is wonderful and they can retire at 55.
There were two options. The sensible one would have been to say "whoops" and then the people who lent the money would have gone "oh bollocks" and that would be that. The value of your investment can go down as well as up.
The second option, which is a bit daft, is the one they chose. Greece (via the EU) say "look, if you voluntarily accept a 50% haircut, we'll pay you back." This means that for every Quid/Euro/Drachma/Yen/ChineseThing the people lent them, half of it goes in the bin, and Greece will, one day (snork) pay back the other half, with interest. And the interest rate is HUGE.
They key is voluntary. Without voluntary Greece is bankrupt and under the rules of bankruptcy the lender can either fuck off or take the whole of Greece and ship to to China or somewhere. Expensive. Not worth it.
Here is the bit I have trouble with. Having done this haircutting, instead of Greece being about 60% short of being able to pay, they are no only 20% short.
So they're fucked.
Hope this has been of interest to one and all.
Thursday, 20 October 2011
Goodbye
In the light of revelations by Cameron, Clegg and Miliband that the will of the British people is not of any interest to them, because they know better, I would like to say just one thing.
Lots of cleverer bloggers than me, and even some politicians like Nigel Farage, and many of the press, have put the arguments both lucidly and succinctly, so I won't even try to do better.
This is my message to them. Just this.
Lots of cleverer bloggers than me, and even some politicians like Nigel Farage, and many of the press, have put the arguments both lucidly and succinctly, so I won't even try to do better.
This is my message to them. Just this.
FUCK. YOU.
FUCK YOU, IN THE EAR, WITH A RUSTY POLE.
You do not represent me, nor anyone else in this fair isle. As far as I'm concerned, you can just fuck RIGHT off.
Goodbye.
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
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