I have a problem – why have they been persecuted through history? Why did not the rich Jews arrange for mercy missions to rescue jews from Nazi Germany? Why is the media so Israel friendly when they are a state which is below North Korea as a pariah state? Is there a Jewish monopoly controlling the worlds finances?
I REFUSE TO BE COMPLICIT
But how can I do it?
A FLEDGLING ROBIN
made me realise that although I live in the countryside, people have no idea about the wonders of the world outside their screens and cars. How many people can name 15 native trees (there are 42), 30 bird species (600 +), 30 flowers? Maybe Big Yellow Taxi, Joni Mitchell, should become an anthem for schools? Every school should have a garden – wildlife is suffering from ingeneous chemicals and sterile land. Sorry neighbours – a few pretty plants do not compensate for the land obliterated for you house to be built (and the fucking road outside. When did we stop caring? Seeing a kingfisher is one of the highlights of my life, alongside seeing terns on the beach at Seaford whilst everyone else just ignored them. An adonis butterfly is definitely a thing of beauty. I am no David Attenborough, but I can appreciate and name most of the wonders around me, and I feel sorry for those who do not!
There was a quote I saw once which compared a person who could walk 5 miles to a market and could name every plant, flower animal and insect; and one who visited world prestigeous galleys and museums. Who was the more enriched or wiser. A no brainer!
HMMM!
Londons biggest ever political demonstration was 2003 against Tony Blair’s Iraq war, at between 1 and 2 million. It was a surprise to see estimates of Arsenal’s Premier League Champions Parade attracted over a million people who 2-1 were wearing replica shirts at a starting price of £80 a pop! I think this is interesting. The majority of those attending the parade yesterday would not have been fans who attended the emirates or perhaps have ever seen arsenal play live, but they feel a need to have a badge to identify with. I guess many will not identify with politics, or its leaders, they are happy to cast votes for numb skulls as long as they say the right things (they do not expect these views to be enacted anyway). Wearing a scarf or shirt gives a sense of belonging, in a world that has monetised belonging to any club or most activities. No, there is not a contradiction regarding the shirts – £80 for a membership where you are welcome and can identify with the chants and swearing, slag off the referee and opponents, especially Spurs, and glorify a common shared experience.
So is football more important the politics? Membership of all political parties is less than those attending or playing football at any weekend. I doubt any political turnout at a rally to match the turnout for Premiership clubs at a weekend. So my hypothesis is that many people are more interested in their football clubs than in politicans , who always let them down.
NEETS
Apparently about 1 in 6 of the under 24’s are NEETS. Tinkering with the system will change nothing. As Milburn says, we have lots to learn from the Dutch model where the stat is <5%. We could start by making every apprenticeship have a compulsory one day at college gaining work related certificates; conversely all academic courses at post 16 should have a one day a week relevant work experience. Yes there would be a cost, but far less than the present cost of unemployment and social damage. Would subject like my love, Geography, disappear – possibly, it would be far better to have a humanities qualification in combination with a welfare charity? Early GCSE syllabi were progressive and issue based, but lost out to the public school/university brigade of cape wearing bores. Why not allow students post 14 to spend their time developing artistic skills for one day a week, they might be more in other areas. And get rid of business studies and economic as pseudo academic bollox! Teach kids what an APR is and practical things – but do not also call it social studies or some other woke nonsense. Let us create a curiculum that engages students and leads to a thirst for knowledge – it ia all sitting on the web waiting for enquiring minds. It is there, waiting to be turned on, before being swamped by the boredom. When I first obtained a iPad I asked kids to give me a question and if it was worthy I would throw the iPad to them – yes throw! 2 memorable questions were ‘what shape is a raindrop”. and “How do they tell the time on the International Space Station”. We should be extolling the thirst for knowledge, not the achievement (generally by memory test or set criteria).
Meanwhile – it appears that teenagers are regularly avoiding stiff sentence for rape – the Guardian revealed new cases on Teeside where the attackers had basically gone unpunished. Where is the fury and concern from knuckle dragging flag shaggers? What should the punishment be – the assailents were 14/15 – beyond the age of criminal liability. OK they are 14/15 but the punishment should also be a deterent to others, enough for them to think that they do not want to go down that path.
Another Saturday with no football.
CLIMATE
Basically there are 2 options – try to stop the worst impacts of climate change by changing our use of fossil fuels; or we try to mitigate against the worst impacts of climate change; nn there is no ostrich option. The first option means investing in alternative energy resources – those of you bang on about China’s coal power stations can shut the fuck up – only the USA has a policy of dig/drill and burn! Yes there will be a cost to changing over 200 years of fossil fuel dependency, but the alternatives are more extreme temperatures, more and bigger floods and droughts, rising sea levels and storms, glaciers melting causing mass hunger in Asia, mass extictions of wildlife. How can I know these things – of course I bloody don’t – but then I also do not cross roads blindfolded! I do not eat food that is way past its sell by date and going mouldy! Oh the second option; to me a no starter – is there a tipping point would be my first question. Then we have to ask if the population of earth could adapt to the change? A report out last week which I mentioned before stated the need for aircon in schools, hospitals and care homes. We know that is not going to happen – the rich will get aircon whilst the poor can suffer! Was ever the case. Farage and co want to cut back on employment laws – he would probably advocate sex with employees (yes your wives and daughters, and maybe sons!) if he could retain his wealth.
Back to adaptation. I am reasonably sure that wealthy countries in the mid-latitudes could adapt – Cornwall would be the Costa Brava, even the Scottish Islands could become the archipelago of the future – but again there is no certainty – if the North Atlantic Drift current ceases the waters would be cold, and the winters brutal. Grapes are growing in the south of England with huge international acclaim, but what about wheat and potatoes? How will London and other cities cope with rising sea levels. I totally find climate deniers to be mind bogglingly stupid or avaracious money grabbing arseholes.
Oh well back to the real world – Labour are being blamed for the youth job crisis – I doubt they have helped much but this is a result of Tory austerity, with maybe a little Ukraine and Iran chucked in for flavouring, oh and an overdose of Trump (salt).
Where are the jobs that we want our youths to have? Where are the jobs that are not being done?
BIRTHDAY DEMOGRAPHY
1stly it is my birthday toady – 73. But more importantly I want to talk about demography, a topic it seems that our politicans ignore – do they even teach Geography in Public Schools? So some stats to start with; number of babies born last year UK= 585000 (the lowest for ages; number of deaths UK = 568000; Net migration = 171000, the lowest for ages; unemployed under 25’s predicted to be 1.25 million by 2030; healthy life expectancy falling, apart from London 18.5% population is retired; average age of mothers is 31.1; % mothers born outside UK is 40.2%; fertility rate is 1.39.
So what to make of this? Fewer babies means fewer workers in the future, but a good thing if youth unemployment is rising. Or is it rising due to crap education – we really need to move away from the Victorian model of education and archaic exams. With births and deaths about equal do we need the 171000 migrants – the answer is probably as it seems the British population are not prepared to work in the fields and for zero hours contracts. We also seem to have a shortage of doctors, nurses and teachers? The last I have some experience of – is the growing prevalence of single children leading to a ‘little emperor syndrome”, parents questiioning and not supporting teachers who have a very enjoyable and rewarding, but difficult job. Schools in areas with generally young people will be forced to close, but local governments should use the opportunity to provide facilities that benefit the local community.
My friend Aaron states that he believes it is the cost of living that has caused the fall in numbers of births. I think he is wrong and heres why! 1. Couples have babies when they are settled in a relationship (generally) and have the ability to avoid pregnancy until ready. 2. We live in a world that has changed over generations. Women have to work to support the rent/mortgage. (yes this is a cost of living aspect, but I believe it to be a seperate issue). 3. Life is increasingly materialistic and socially shared. People put off parenthood until they have had their holidays, got cars, watched netflix, etc. These are cost of living aspects, but not essential – most couples wait until their late 20’s and early 30’s to have children (this will have a major impact on the statistics of children born. 4. Later births and the ability to chose, results in smaller families., not due to economics, just the desire for a smaller family 5. A higher divorce rate/ lower marriage rate also has the tendancy to delay pregnancy. And finally the birth rate declined with Covid, being at home did NOT lead to more pregnancies.
Oh and Aaron, there is no way that we are not better off than our parents – yes I have the stats to prove it! There is no way the majority of people delay childbirth for more than a few years due to financial matters (and if they do they are basically not fit to be parents). I think both Kate and I would agree that economics has very little to do with it!
BLAIR
The liar who led us into a war with Iraq at the behest of a right wing US President has called for a shift to the right; abandonment of Net Zero, cutting welfare payments and backing Trump. What a pathetic numpty. I bet he still takes his office allowance of over £100.000. And the MSP love it to bits, they forget the visual hurled at him when PM and intrducing SureStart amongst others. He was not all bad, although the Iraq lies were enough for me to relegate him to the charlatans (Johnson), deviants (Cameron), and plain useless (Truss). He is and was a good talker – I would buy a used car from him happily; but also would not be surprised that it had a known fault and the insurance was invalid!
A headline ‘ One in five arrested over 2024 riots have since been reported/arrested for domestic abuse”. The 5 is 54% with Cumbria police. And these figures are for the period since August 2024! The knuckle draggers and flag shaggers protesting to protect women and children from migrants should look in a mirror occasionally – and think “this is what a vicious, ignorant, stupid, misogynistic arsehole” looks like! As stated – the danger to women does not come from strangers on the street but from within the confines of their own homes. And please note that these figures are for the time since the riots – not all time history.
As we have seen recently even convicted rapists who posted the fact online, and led in court are treated with sympathy and care, protest against genocide and climate change and it is long jail sentences for you. What a fucked up society we still live in! Blair does not reveal the tax he pays on £millions of earnings, Farage lies incessantly to get of tax payments.
Suggestion – those convicted of shoplifting should be sentenced to community projects where the value of what they stole is reimbursed to the shopkeeper. I am sure there are many jobs with shortages that could be filled.
WEATHER
A couple more days of very warm and then back to low twenties/ high teens here. I am sure my tomato plants have grown an inch overnight!. So everything is watered – just the bedroom plants to go!
Water company woes continue with South East Water customers being denied supply in several areas. I accept their argument that if everyone in an area uses a hosepipe at the same time, pressure will drop. So what do they do about it – absolutely nothing but whinge. Perhaps supplying water butts and asking people to stagger use would be an idea? Time to nationalise the lot!
Elsewhere – Trump is desperate for a peace with Iran, Israel wants to continue fighting as its supporters in the USA want. Ebola is spreading due to local agencies being overwhelmed – Common Donald do something useful for just once in your life!, Fot that measure also add in the tecbros! they all have a few $billion to spare. Farage is digging himself into a hole of his own making as he claims to have been hacked. My immediate answer is – did the hacking reveal that you have been lying? and secondly – show the evidence! If Reform were a true party he would be vulnerable; but it is solely owned by Farage, so they cannot get rid of him until he finally destroys himself with his pedalling of hatred. With Farage gone his lieutenants will also flee to Dubai or wherever. The thousand or more councillors will be faced with the insurmountable problems their forebears faced, but without a philosophy or any idea about how to cope! This is based on evidence from numerous councils. Elected on basic racism, they have no clue.
So labour should not panic MrNiceguy, but oh so boring, will go. Andy Burnham is the only one with a hope of creating the hope the public want/demand. If he does not win the byelection I really believe Zak Polanski is our only hope of a better future.
IT AIN’T HALF HOT!
I am not going to blame climate change for the hot weather – it is just a normal high pressure system. However it may be a precursor of temperatures to come. Temperatures above 30C are not uncommon but we may get more of them and for longer, a report last week, which I criticised for being sensationalist, may have pointed out some realities for the future. Hospitals, schools and care homes should be fitted with aircon – powered by solar (which happily and fortuistically coincide). Architects may have to rethink their normal expanse of glass buildings. When at school a couple of classrooms were unbearable. On one occasion it was so hot that I registered under a tree – kids had had a water fight in the toilets and SMT was looking for the culprits. One of my tutees (Katie Pearce I think?) poured a jug of cool water of my head, and I was dripping – a deputy head took one look at me – dripping- and went to the head teacher to complain – the kids and me just laughed!
I have bought a couple of fans – the desk one was so effective yesterday that when I got up and away from the desk I had to check that the heating had not come on – the difference was so marked. A neighbour commented that my abundance of vegetation in the garden must keep my house coolle – the same neghbour who sprays even wall flowers growing in the wrong place with herbicides – no wonder my garden is not buzzing with insects. And it is salad weather – not bbq’s! I basically do not like burgers and prefer eating at a table!
Up and out at 05.30 this morning to water greenhouse and hanging baskets, tomatoes and chillies looking good. Hanging baskets also doing well, And herbs and mints are fine, I am waiting to see if evening primrose and chicory reappear (I think EP are there?), Wild strawberries are also looking good as are the raspberries, I wonder if the mulberries will be ok this year?
NHS services. Haiving been a smoker for 50+ years I was keen to take advantage of a MRI scan , and relieved that I was clear – phew! And I relaxed, but then started getting emails calling me for a follow up – they became slightly threatening and telling me they would make the appointment on my behalf! I basically avoid doctors and hospitals – and wonder why, if not for profit I should be recalled? I was told it would only take a couple of minutes – what to bill the NHS for an unneeded check?