more abuse of tax payers money

I am venting my anger today at the ludicrous decision of the British legal aid system who has awarded an (ex policeman)but always will be dangerous rapist the sum of one hundred thousand pounds to appeal against his pension being reduced by one third. This is another example of lowlife being taken by the hand and the tax payers money being used for a cause that should not be considered in the first place and for scum taking advantage of a system that they have no right to. This arrogant rapist committed these crimes while in the guise of a police officer when all the time he was abusing his position to violate the chastity of innocent timid women who are supposed to rely on the law to protect them. In this case the law has abused them in more ways than one, firstly by the scum that raped them then, by the legal aid system who awarded the money, and thirdly by the legal system that allows vermin like that to appeal against anything. The tax payers money that is wasted on these criminals who are convicted (without a doubt) is a disgrace to the British legal system as not only are the legal aid funds being abused, the courts are getting tied up with cases that do not warrant a hearing and, adding all the expense this entails proves our money is being frittered away on scum, outraging the people who contribute the money for people who really warrant it.
All too often, immediately a criminal is convicted an appeal is lodged by his lawyer pleading his innocence and with little new evidence another court and another load of tax payers money is used needlessly only to put the scum back where they belong BEHIND BARS WITH NO LUXURIES, (but sadly they do get luxuries). The scum who is trying to reinstate his full pension should be refused point blank, castrated to take the arrogance out of him and give the women he raped a sense of justice. Another point that should be looked at is the jobs of the idiots who awarded this sum, if they are dishing out our money as easily as this they should be sacked. There is NO way that these scum deserved our money and in any other occupation I know of, that particular person would not even have received a pension from the conributions HE made never mind a full pension.
It is time the victims in this country were considered and the abusers given the punishments they deserve.

chef's influence on menus

Why do chefs or restaurateurs feel they have to describe their food in a way that most people have to ask the waiter what they are trying to portray.
You expect if you go to France that the menus will be written in French and if you go to Italy that they would be written in Italian and so on but when we go for a meal in Britain, to a British restaurant, there is no telling what language the menu will be written in. The chefs over here seem to think that if they write their menus in a foreign language that we will be fooled into thinking we are getting a more exciting variation of food or a different style of cooking to the normal run of the mill.
Changing the menus to a more romantic interpretation or changing the name of the ingredients to sound more appetizing does not give me any more confidence in thinking I am going to get a great feed in there, as we know in the end it is all down to taste, service and value for money.
It all began with one chef who decided to fancy up his menu to make it different from the other eateries around him to see if it would attract more custom, which at the time DID (as we have the curiosity factor) but others soon followed so they had to try other methods to fool us into thinking their restaurant was THE in place. This led to certain items on the menu changing names, things like prawns became scampi until it became common pub grub, so they changed it to the french word langoustines to bring some poshness back to what they class as real eateries. That is just one example of how menus became so complicated to translate, and how we should never be afraid to ask the waiter what the items really are. Scampi is the most abused item I can think of and as an ex-fisherman I remember when prawns became commonly known as scampi. The proper and original interpretation of "scampi" is prawns dipped in batter and fried in deep fat or oil, it was only when the frozen food companies discovered that if they cut up monk fish (which was far cheaper than prawns at the time, and only became more expensive after its potential was realised) and covered it in breadcrumbs or batter and sold it as scampi, and thought they could fool folk into thinking it was the real thing,while making a killing profit wise that's when the prawn became permanently known as scampi. This also changed the way we referred to prawns and shrimps with shrimps (which are flatter than prawns and have no large claws) becoming prawns and prawns becoming, firstly scampi ,then langoustines,or in some cases, Norwegian lobsters, which IS another correct name for them. This is just one example of the influence certain situations can distort and alter our language and way of life so, the next time you go out for a meal, do not be afraid to question the menu or the waiter who might have more problems understanding it than you!

pensions

The whole idea of work pensions is to give you a little bit extra to survive on during your retirement years but unless you have a substantial pension like a government minister or some other job with an over inflated rate the benefits are nullified by the crippling taxes of this country added to by the absence of other advantages that are disallowed because our meagre pension takes us just over the qualifying level to warrant these benefits we contributed to all our working life.The works pension that was supposed to benefit us in our old age becomes more of a hindrance at times rather than serve the purpose it was meant to.
Britain has the poorest old age pensions in the developed world and most of our pensioners struggle to survive each week but their plight is only mentioned by politicians when an election is drawing near then, the promises made are put on the back burner again. We paid tax on the money before it went into the pension fund, we pay tax on the money we get out of the pension fund and to top it all Gordon Brown robbed the pension funds by taxing them on interest gathered putting them all in jeopardy of going broke. If the pension funds had been left the way they were before Gordon Brown plundered them the credit crunch and fall in the index would not have had such a devastating effect on them and the restructuring of them would not have been needed. People seem to have forgotten that the pension funds were going along quite nicely until Brown decimated them and its only since then that they are all in dire straights. By the time they retire THEY have already feathered their nests by one devious scheme after the other (with our contributions) and on top of that they still receive a ridiculous pension so they have no need to worry, and do not really care about the poverty of our struggling pensioners, THAT is plain to see when we come out the poorest pensioners in the developed world.

racism and political correctness.

Racism and political correctness are very delicate subjects and although I have never classed myself as a racist I do think that the interpretation of these matters has now gone to the extreme.
I do sympathise with the people who are maliciously abused by the mindless idiots who do not know how to live and let live, however not everyone uses nicknames to be offensive. Years ago, during the wars for instance, Scotsmen were fondly referred to as Jocks, the Welsh as Taffs and the Irish as paddies, While the English had a few nicknames (limey, Brit,sassenach,to mention some) depending on the nationality of the person addressing them but no offence was taken because during the wars they were fighting together NOT against each other and even the mindless yobs of these days realised they had to depend on each other for survival.
Shortened names like Paki, Yank and Chinks were originally used in a friendly way and also a lazy way to address people of these nations they did not know by name but once they became more familiar they would have used their real names which also through laziness could have been shortened. It was only when the mindless yobs who put every nation to shame started putting bastard in front of them that they became offensive.
As for some of the stupid things that happen through the year like, schools not having nativity plays at Christmas as not to offend other religions is ludicrous.
THIS IS A CHRISTIAN COUNTRY and people of these other religions new that when they came here as do their offspring who now being citizens of this country understand this. It is the media who blow everything out of proportion to try and sell newspapers who stir up the troubles as most of people in question also think it is a load of rubbish and want to live and let live. When the media stirs things up there is always the minority who jump on the bandwagon and enjoy the trouble they can cause, giving them an excuse to vent their anger at something which escalates into needless violence aimed at anything and anyone. They are just trouble makers and every country and religion has them.
When we go to other countries we are expected to abide by their rules and regulations and they do not alter their customs to suit us so why does the E.U. think that we have to adjust our customs to suit other nationalities.
These are just a few of the examples of the nonsense in the world today, there are many more as you all know and the majority do not want trouble but, as always the minority are catered for and the decent people of this world suffer.

bank bonuses

I was disgusted at the recent revelations that the staff at Northern Rock are to receive bonuses ranging from ten percent to twenty percent upwards depending on how high up the rankings they are. As far as I am led to believe the bonuses are for restoring the banks finances to a solvent working level or in other words, PULL THEM OUT OF THE MIRE THEY LANDED US ALL IN by retrieving monies from the most vulnerable of the people they gave to so readily in the first place. Their bonus as far as I am concerned is the fact that they KEPT their jobs in the first place and should think themselves lucky that they are getting the chance to make amends. It was throwing money away willy-nilly that got us in this mess to begin with and as bonuses are for successful results the bankers (I think that's the spelling I mean)are the last people who should be receiving bonuses. If anything some of the money the fat cats have bled out of the system by over inflated bonuses of the past should be returned into the system to help recovery and any thought of new bonuses should be forgotten about until they can prove they are worthy of such a thing, also the disgusting amounts should be adjusted to realistic sums and if they do not like it let them seek a new position elsewhere. NO ONE IS INDISPENSABLE! and more so in these times of rising unemployment.
It is our money they are giving away and the government had no right to agree to this ridiculous settlement in the first place. Another shambolic decision by them.

improper use of fog lights.

It seems to be a trend nowadays to use front fog lights for decoration and not for the one and only purpose they were installed for, FOG!!!! Women who, I usually have great respect for their driving seem to be the worst offenders with the young boy racers a close second.
Obviously having seen how these cars look on approach the young boy racers must have found this attractive and copied the woman. More and more people seem to be taking up the practice as, after all we are a breed of copycats. With some new makes of cars the fog lamps are almost as bright as full headlights and dazzle oncoming drivers, hence the reason that it is ILLEGAL to use them other than in thick fog when other drivers are not affected by them. The police force could fill up their coffers if they were to clamp down on these offenders as all they would need to do would be to stand at the end of any stretch of road and stop the numerous cars that break this law. As for the offenders, do not expect oncoming traffic to dip their lights for you when you have no consideration for them. With the police making less money from speeding the fog light offenders had better beware!

politicians perks

While on the subject of politics we might as we mention the M.Ps. expenses and other ways they con money out of the public that they are supposed to be representing.
When they buy a house in London with money taken from the tax payer they should furnish it with their own money and not be allowed to fleece us for goods THEY class as unnecessary when it comes to handing out cash. Things like new kitchens and T.Vs.
even wallpaper and the like are for their, benefit for a house they are supposed to only need for the spells that they are in London. If they are doing their job properly by the time they get home they should be ready for bed and have no need for lavish surroundings and just make do with the bare essentials, after all it is only supposed to be temporary accommodation. Once they have no need for the house and it is sold, any money borrowed from the tax payer and any profit made from the sale should be returned to the fund it was taken from. There is absolutely no way these scheming tricksters should profit in any way by using our money to fund these ventures. Just what do they spend their wages on if we pay for their meals and every other scam they can think of. They get an undeserved LARGE pension as it is so there is no need for them to be feathering their nests any further at our expense.
It is our money they are working with so we are entitled to know every detail of its use and they have NO right to deny us OUR rights!
SO BE WARNED POLITICIANS WE ARE ON YOUR CASE!

I.D. cards

It is my opinion that the government should scrap their plans to force I.D. cards on to a British public that do not want them.
While watching "question time", every time (which is often) the subject of these cards come up, the majority of the audience (by a large percentage) want nothing to do with them for various reasons and all of them logical. Firstly the lower paid workers and pensioners who find it hard enough to survive at the best of times will be forced into more poverty by the cost of these things, also we all know it will never stop or even reduce terrorism, in fact the only definite thing they will serve is more financial problems for the poorer of this country as I have mentioned.
All to often the government are forcing us to take steps we don't want to, they seem to forget that we voted them in to look after our, interests and not to do whatever suits them. When a government fails to take into consideration the wishes of the public majority, and go ahead with ideas like this, it becomes a DICTATORSHIP not a democracy and this country is fast becoming a dictatorship. Even other political parties are against the idea of these cards and with an election due the government could well do to listen to and, act on public opinion instead of antagonizing them. The vast amount of follies this government has burdened us with combined with the reduction of our incomes by one devious way after another only leads to unrest among the workers which in turn leads to strikes and then with a puzzled look on their faces they wonder why.

Mugabe

Mr Mugabe must be very proud of himself now he has rid his country of the people that helped it to prosper in the first place and without whose help would never have become the country is was. He has been very successful in taking his country back to the days of deprivation and poverty that it was before the Europeans taught them how to cultivate the meagre assets they had. Now if anything it is worse than it has ever been with disease and famine ravaging the land with no end in sight as long as that insane tyrant is allowed to administer this suffering on a once proud nation. He has got all the notoriety he has wished for but sadly the tribute he is expecting after his death or downfall will not be forthcoming, he will now always be known as the fool who ruined Zimbabwe, he also has succeeded by his idiotic deeds in magnifying, the benefit the white settlers (or the people of Great Britain, he readily decries) made to Zimbabwe. All he is interested in now is enough wealth to live out his life and the only way he can do that is by stubbornly refusing to leave office. Surely the thugs that support him should see by now that they have nothing to protect only a barren ravaged country with nobody at the helm to guide it back to the stability it once knew. It is time that the other African leaders booted him out as by doing nothing they are as guilty as Mugabe for the deaths and destruction that are occurring there. THIS IS NO TIME FOR REASONING WITH THIS LUNATIC and there is no earthly reason not to boot him out especially making the rants of this fool an excuse to leave him in power. Wake up world leaders it should be on all of your consciences when you know you CAN do something about this and DO NOT! Are you going to stand by and watch these people suffer more? Would you stand by an watch these atrocities in other countries?
You were quick enough to jump in when Gaza was attacked to prevent the killing of innocent people so why after all these years is this STILL being allowed to happen in Zimbabwe.
Yes we have other world problems but this has been going on long before our economy collapsed and when you think of steps we have taken to try and secure our future, I ask again WHY are you ignoring the plight of the people of Zimbabwe?
If you cannot get to Mugabe by the feeble excuses given, you could use physiological tactics to rid this fool by letting him see what he has achieved and just what will be written about him in the history books. (The madman who ruined Zimbabwe, that will be his legacy).

the E.U.fishing policy

Recently on the news we were told that the west coast of Scotland was in line to be closed for fishing for most if not all species. (this has now been amended FOR NOW anyway) The west coast has a plentiful stock of prawns which are being managed and looked after carefully by the responsible skippers and crew whose livelihoods depend on these stocks multiplying. The fleet has diminished drastically in all the ports around Scotland not just the west coast, giving the stocks of white fish, prawns and herrings etc. a chance to recuperate from the admitted over fishing that took place years ago. The Scottish fishermen are among the most ecological minded people in the world and also have one of the most efficient fleets in the world coming up with new ways to catch fish while making sure the stocks are still able to breed and multiply as they know their future depends on how they farm the seas.
Knowing all this I wondered why the Scottish fleet were being targeted again (I say again as they are targeted every year) when places like the Mediterranean sea have been emptyed of any reasonable shoals of fish years ago by over fishing by the thousands of boats that still fill the harbours around the coasts and islands there. The E.U. countries that want Scotlands fishermen to go to the wall have already allowed their own countries fish stocks to be decimated and did nothing about it then and are still allowing an unlimited amount of boats to fish and catch whatever they wish. Why are these countries being allowed to interfere in the Scottish fishing industry when they could not take care of their own stocks. They try to pass European laws that will allow their larger boats into our still fertile waters and some of their boats fish illegally anyway so do they think that by ruining the fishing industry in Scotland that their fleets will take over the fishing here and decimate it the way they decimated their own grounds by landing everything they catch no matter how small. Leave the Scottish fishermen to their own waters and confine foreign boats to their own shores and tell these guilty countries to look in before they look out.

Human rights?

I have already mentioned this subject before but after reading my newspaper this morning I feel it is worth another mention. When people commit INHUMAN deeds why should they have the cheek to fall back on a law that they have no right to, after all it is called human rights and people who commit brutal needless cold blooded murders more than once and are classed as a psychopath with probably no hope of being cured are anything but human.
It only goes to show how STUPID the E.U. laws are becoming when people like this are freed to kill again, AND kill again they will. How many times has this happened before when a killer or rapist has been set free by some do-good moron only to strike again after having succeeded in conning the gullible IDIOTS who are put in the responsible position of protecting British subjects through SUPPOSED justice only to return crime to our streets. When these scum are released and kill or rape again the IDIOTS that are responsible for their release should be locked up along with the criminals they let loose among us and given the same sentence, because the agony the victims families are going through is their fault and they might as well have killed or raped the victims their selves. I would not like it on my conscience To hear that someone had been murdered or raped because I let the scum out to re offend, but these IDIOTS have no conscience or brains and should not be in the position to let this happen in the first place.If they had to face the consequences they would not be STUPID enough to let this happen but sadly until we rid our officialdom of these morons this will continue and the deaths of innocent people will occur not only at the hands of murderers but at the hands of the totally useless fools in office who aid and abet them.

repeats within repeats

I am going back to T.V. for today's moan and it is about the repeats within repeats on the box.
Programs like COME DINE WITH ME, NAUGHTY OUT-TAKES, YOU'VE BEEN FRAMED
spring to mind (There are more but these three are enough to be going on with). At the beginning of some programs they show you what is to come during the broadcast, and the type of shows and content that they consist of means that it really spoils the rest of the show. In the COME DINE WITH ME program you have a preview at the beginning then as the adverts approach we get a preview of the second half THEN after the dreaded adverts we get told what happened in the first half and by the time the program has finished we have had about ten minutes of unpreviewed viewing. Worse still is if you happen to watch a repeat of the program that consists of five episodes one after the other. Then you get a preview of the content of the first program continuing with whats to come in the second half then it ends with what is to happen in the next program and when that comes on five minuets after the adverts we firstly get told what happened last time then what is going to happen this time till finally with a short clip of new footage we get the whats to come in part two. This repertoire is continued throughout the five programs and leaves the viewer bored to tears. The whole five half hour episodes could be broadcast in a one hour program and be far more interesting for the viewer. This is cheap broadcasting with no thought for the viewer, but continual occurrences will only lead to less viewers or them recording and fast forwarding the parts that are constantly repeated. More often than not it distracts us so we turn over or scan the channels and come up with something that will hold our attention. We pay our license fee and put up with the ever expanding advert time so we deserve better than this.

The law is an ass

I was going to have another gripe at the T.V. companies today but after listening to the ridiculous statement of the judge who let a blatant criminal free because the victim was too honest and believable to address the jury in case it swayed their judgment, I have decided to address that subject. I am now going to give my views on that and other idiotic things connected to the ludicrous laws and judgments of this country and the E.U. Firstly the judge in question should be disbarred (or whatever term is used when a judge is SACKED) with immediate effect as there is nothing in the law books that remotely gives rise to such a decision. Secondly when someone in his position is obviously on the side of the offender he is no longer doing the job he is getting paid for by the crown, or in other words us, the tax payer and when someone is so useless at their job sacking is the best policy. There is no saying what damage a fool like this could do if he was allowed to continue making idiotic decisions like this. Criminals of all descriptions would be walking the streets because it was too easy to find them guilty. (Is that not why they appear in court in the first place)?
It is bad enough in this country when law breakers are thought more of than the victims and are given more consideration than poor pensioner who was mugged or the women who get raped, or the families who have lost a loved one by some murderous scum. The police go to all the trouble catching these criminals,spend hours putting a case together so they have a solid case for conviction and most of the so called judges give the most lenient sentence available letting the criminals laugh at the idiotic do-gooders who are in the minority but are paid more attention to than the majority.
When you commit a crime you should be prepared to accept the punishment and know full well that it is punishment you are going to get ,NOT being put up in a tax payers hotel and allowed to dictate your future. Criminals should forfeit their human rights when they commit crimes against the human race that are minding their own business and trying to lead a peaceful and unhassled life. What kind of signal does it put out to the criminal minded when they can sue the prison service for having to slop out. They knew before they committed their crime that, that was part of their punishment,and STILL should be along with less comforts and serving a full sentence instead of being put away for a short holiday with more comforts than some of them have in their own homes. Idiotic judges should be brought to boot when they make a mess of their work and the do-gooders who think evil criminals should be treated with kid gloves would think differently if THEY, their mother or a close member of their family was raped, murdered defiled or experienced at close quarters some of these horrific crimes. The softly softly approach does NOT work so it is time these people were taken out of society and make our streets a safe place to walk again.

T.V. adverts

We know that commercial channels have to generate money and the best way to do this is through adverts and recently their phone-in competitions.
The adverts during, programs used to last about two or two and a half minutes but now they last four to five minutes which by the time the program restarts I have almost forgotten what I was watching. O.K. so I am getting older but my mind is still sound; it is not just that, the atmosphere and tension build up of some programs lose all the flow when suddenly the break interrupts.
Another example of this distraction is when watching formula one racing and although it is not as exciting as it used to be it still has it's moments and as each break comes along you lose two laps per break which can amount to ten to twelve laps missed. Between that and the loss of
momentum that had build up within the avid viewers leads to very annoying interruptions.
Surely the companies could have more consideration for the viewing public and arrange their adverts to be shown at periods suitable to the viewers.
In the case of formula one I am delighted that the B.B.C. has won the contract back and we will get an uninterrupted coverage of the race. There are other programs I avoid on the commercial stations simply because of adverts and it is probable that a lot of other viewers are lost for this same reason. I am aware that nothing will be done about this but at least I have got it off my chest and that is what this blog is all about.

phone-in farce

While it is still fresh in my mind and still annoying me I will take this opportunity to vent my anger at the farce of T.V. reality program phone-ins. Last night dancing on ice hit our screens again only to prove how ridiculously easy it is to con viewers into thinking their votes count.
A contestant (Todd) who could hardly STAND on the ice let alone skate was put into the next round. His score from the judges was so low that even if all the phone votes were for him he still would not have progressed, but the gullible public still have not learned their lesson from the last farce on strictly come dancing that their votes only serve to fill the coffers of the T.V. stations and have nothing to do with who goes on to the next round. Don't get me wrong I enjoy the programs and admire the efforts and skills SOME of the contestants pick up but I like things to be fair. The programs would still be entertaining without the viewers votes, letting the judges votes decide who goes through. The farcical voting system they have adopted only gives the planners the cop out they need to run the show the way they want and to keep in the contestants they think will attract the most viewers and, of course get the benefit of all the money rolling in from the suckers who think their votes count. It's a pity so many people fall for their tricks, including,the other easy competitions they run with questions everybody knows the answer to also, to fill their coffers. There are winners YES but the questions are made easy to get the maximum amount of phone calls making the prizes the give out a very small percentage of what they rake in. If the phone companys put an end to the way money can be made this way you would soon see the phone-ins stop, but of course it suits the phone companies too as they are also cashing in. As long as there are gullible people out there the T.V.companies are laughing up their sleeves and rubbing their hands together in anticipation of easy money.

clothes departments. equality for men.

Recently while shopping around town I have noticed how much more floor space is taken up by womens clothes in comparison to mens. For example a large store in Ayr (Scotland) that sells everything from clothes to household goods and has two large main doors leading off the high street. One such door opened straight into the mens department which had plenty floor space and a great selection of goods for men.When the sales began I thought I would have a browse around to see if there was any bargains on the go (which is what women mostly do so there is no excuse for what I discovered). On entering the usual main door which I thought would take me straight into the mens department I was amazed to be confronted by an array of womens clothing. I asked an assistant where the mens department had been moved to only to be told that it was on an upper floor sooooooooooo up I went following the directions I had been given only to be confronted with more womens clothes covering almost all of the large area in front of me. I had to ask again where the mens department was only to be taken to a small corner of the floor which had been designated to display a few shirts, shoes,underwear and socks with a couple of dressing gowns hanging around. What would normally have taken a good half hour to quickly look took all of five seconds to see what was on offer. Disgusted I took off for another store (M and S to name it) where I knew they had a decent mens department but on arrival (to an upper floor again) I found their floor space for men had been drastically reduced also.
The questions I have to ask is why in these stores do men have to use stairs or a lift to reach their SMALL allocated shopping area and, are they being slowly phased out to accommodate more womens clothes? Mens tailors are few and far between these days so we have come to depend on the larger stores for our clothes but each and every one dedicates most of there floor space to women. An other example was when Asda relocated their store to bigger premises in Ayr they omitted a mens department for lack of room. HELLO! a bigger store and no mens department?
A questionnaire was handed out asking for customer opinion on the new shop where they found the biggest complaint was that there was NO MENS DEPARTMENT.
Since women have demanded equality mens status has diminished rapidly so it is about time WE were fighting back.
PUT MENS DEPARTMENTS BACK ON THE GROUND FLOOR AND GIVE US BACK OUR FLOOR SPACE!
EQUALITY FOR MEN!

news readers

Why do news readers always say AN historic when AN should only be used before a vowel.
Vowels are A. E. I. O. U. not H although most people say an hour but only because hour sounds like it begins with a vowel which does not make it right as it should be a hour. When you read the same lines in a newspaper it does not have AN in front of historic so why do it when speaking?
I have started this blog to vent my anger at the things that go unmentioned in today's society such as the above when news readers should be setting an example, they seem to copy each other as in when you hear one using an unusual word, (penultimate springs to mind) it becomes commonplace for a while among the media reports until a new word comes into fashion.
Watch out for these things and let me know your feelings.
Many more observations like this to come. STAY TUNED.